How to Estimate the Number of Tiles Needed for a Project

Home improvement projects are controlled chaos that are both frustrating and rewarding at the same time. Many people have watched some form of home improvement show and thought "that looks easy" I'll do it this weekend! Before starting any project it's best to know how much material will be needed to complete your vision. There's nothing worse than being in the middle of the project and realize a quick run needs to the home improvement store is needed...it's never a quick run. Working with tile is especially true, in this article we'll discover how to accurately measure and plan for how much tile and supplies will be needed to complete the project.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• tape measure
• pencil and note pad
• calculator
• idea of the size of tile needed

1. For countertops, walls or floors determine the total square feet of the tiling area by measuring the length and width of the area to be tiled rounded to the nearest foot. Multiply these two numbers (length and width) to get total square footage. Multiply this number by 10%, and add into the total of square feet.
   
   Example:
   
   measured area is 80 square feet, 10% would be 8 square feet for a total of 88 square feet.
   The extra 10% will account for cutting and waste such as breaking tile or two. (It happens) If you are creating a pattern with the tile, an additional 5% should be calculated this would be a total of 15% in the example.
2. Know the size tile you want to work use for the project. Most tile cartons will list on the box how many square feet a box will cover.
3. If the box does not list how many square feet will be covered. using simple math can help resolve this issue.
   EXAMPLE:
   
   144 inches = 1 square foot
   If we are using 8 inch tile then we divide 144 by 8 giving us 18, this means that it will take 18 tiles to cover 1 square foot.
   
   Using the example of our area of 80 square feet, multiply total square feet by the number of tiles it takes to cover one square foot using 8 inch tiles.
   
   88 (includes 10% overage) x 18 (number of 8 inch tiles for one square foot) = 1584 number of tiles needed for 88 square feet.

Tips & Warnings

• always include 10 % overage for cuts, waste, broken pieces.
• if creating a pattern design, increase this to 15-18% to account for the different cuts