Construction Calculator - Walls and Finishes

Tile Calculator

Calculate tile quantity by floor or wall area and tile coverage.

Reviewed: August 26, 2026

Calculate Tile

For the Tile Calculator, enter project area, coverage per unit, waste allowance, and unit price. It divides project area by the entered usable coverage, applies the allowance once, and rounds up to whole packages with an optional package cost.

Construction measuring tools arranged beside a residential building project

Formula used

Units = ceil([project area ÷ coverage per unit] × [1 + waste ÷ 100])

Tile Calculator measurement plan showing Project area square feet, Coverage per unit square feet / unit, Waste allowance percent

Worked tile example

Tile Calculator example: 517 ft² × 1.1 = 568.7 ft² of order coverage. Dividing by 1 ft² per unit gives 568.7 units, so the purchase quantity is 569 whole units.

Package rounding and usable yield

Round to full cartons and retain spare matching tile when future repairs would be difficult; do not combine incompatible lot numbers blindly.

Carton coverage and layout both matter

Use the actual square-foot coverage per carton for the selected tile. Diagonal patterns, borders, niches, cuts around fixtures, dye-lot separation, breakage, and minimum usable offcut size influence allowance. Tile quantity does not include backer board, membrane, thinset, grout, trim pieces, or movement joints, which require separate takeoffs.

Why the label value may not match the floor or wall

Layout direction, pattern repeat, grout-joint width, room squareness, breakage, dye lots, and cuts around fixtures influence waste.

Questions specific to this calculation

Should tile coverage use nominal tile size or carton coverage?

Enter the tiled surface area and the face coverage of one tile or one carton, keeping field tile, trim, mosaics, and accent pieces separate.