Confused about how many tiles you need? Knowing how to calculate square footage is a vital skill for most home renovation tasks. For flooring square footage will be a significant determinant to get the accurate number of supplies for any job.
Calculating how many tiles you'll need for your project might be challenging. A sufficient quantity of tiles must be on hand before starting any tiling project, whether it's on the walls or the floors of a large or small room. The last thing you want is to learn halfway through your tiles project that you didn't order enough! Measuring correctly is by far the ideal method to avoid wasting time and money while tiling a room. It's tempting to overthink this task, but it's pretty straightforward. You can simply acquire the appropriate measurements for the tile you need with a few calculations and a little assistance-don't worry, a math degree isn't necessary!
In this tile calculation guide, we'll explain how to calculate tiles needed for a floor.
Steps to Calculate Tiles
1. GRAB YOUR MEASURING TOOLS:
Whether you're measuring to purchase ceramic floor tiles for your living room or marble kitchen backsplash ideas, your supply list is very straightforward. You'll need the following items:
- Measuring Tape
- A Notepad and a Pencil
- The Calculator
The procedures for estimating how many tiles you need are the same whether you're tiling your entryway floor or kitchen walls. Let's get started if you have gathered all this stuff!
2. TIME TO TAKE MEASUREMENTS:
Before taking your measures, make sure the area is clear & nothing is in the way of a straight line with your measuring tape. Move all furniture to the middle of the room and banish any pets that may be in your way! If you are unable to clear the whole area, check that the measuring tape can travel in a straight line without bending or folding over an object.
For Square & Rectangle Rooms: In inches, measure the length and width of the space.
For Round Room: Stretch your tape measure across the circle's centre. The tape measure should begin on one wall and travel across the middle of the room until it reaches the opposite side. The diameter is the entire length through the centre of your circle. Your floor tile calculations will require you to know the radius, which is equal to half of the space's diameter from the centre to each wall.
3. CALCULATING SQUARE FEET:
To figure out how many room tiles you'll need, calculate the entire size of the space you just measured. That will provide you with the total square footage in inches for each place you intend to tile.
We have to multiply the length by the width in feet to get the square feet of the room. Sq. Ft. = L * W.
For Rectangle Room: To calculate your total in square feet, multiply the length by the width of the room and then divide the result by 144.
Here's an example:
- Let's assume we have a rectangle room with dimensions: 101-inch x 63-inch
- First, apply the square feet formula, i.e., length x width: 101 in x 63 in = 6363 inch
- Finally, divide it by 144 to get your total square feet: 6363/144 = 44.19 sq. ft.
For Square Room: It's much easier if you have a square room because a square-shaped space has the same length and width.
Here's an example:
- Let's say we have a square room with dimensions: of 120-inch x 120-inch
- Length x Width: 14400 inch
- Now, divide it by 144: 14400/144 = 100 sq. ft.
For Round Room: Measuring round rooms can be a little challenging. To calculate the radius, divide the entire length in inches by two. Your computations will be simplified if you round up to the nearest whole number. The radius is then multiplied by pi – or 3.14. To calculate your total in square feet, round it up to the next decimal point once more.
Here's an example:- Let's assume you want to tile a circular area with a diameter of 240-inch
- To calculate the radius, divide the diameter by 2: 240-inch/2 = 120-inch
- To get your total square feet, multiply the radius by 3.14: 120-inch x 3.14 = 376.8 sq. ft.
- Let's round it up to 377 sq. ft.
4. TILE CALCULATION:
Aside from calculating the total square footage, you may also be interested in the approximate number of tiles required to cover an area. It is extremely simple to convert the coverage area to the number of tiles! To begin, calculate the tile square footage by multiplying the tile's length and width in inches. Finally, divide the calculated size of the space by the area of one tile. The result is the exact number of tiles required for the area.
- Let's assume you have tiles that are 11.8 x 11.8 and you want to tile a small bathroom with an area of 48 lengths x 24 widths.
- Now, calculate the total area of each tile: 11.8-inch by 11.8-inch = 140-inch (rounded up)
- Secondly, calculate the total area of the bathroom: 48-inch x 24-inch = 1,152-inch
- Lastly, divide the area of the bathroom by the area of the tile: 1,152/140 = 9 tiles needed (rounded up)
If you don't want to do all these calculations, you can find a floor tile calculator square foot easily online to do all the tile calculations for you.
5. INCLUDING OVERAGE:
The final and most important step is to order some additional tiles to ensure full coverage since you need to account for cuts, wastage, and probable breakage when you trim tiles to fit.
To correctly estimate your overage requirements, examine how you will lay your tiles. For more complicated designs, such as running tile at a 45-degree angle or making a pattern like a herringbone that necessitates additional cuts, we recommend increasing your overage amounts to at least 15%. The 15% overage is also suitable for tile that will be put in a room with many edges and corners. More waste is to be expected when more tiles are cut to fit tightly around corners.
Once you've determined your optimum overage %, multiply the square footage of the space by the overage percentage and add the difference to your total square feet. The general rule is that the larger the tile and the more intricate the design, the more waste there will be! Having additional tiles is usually a smart idea.
If you are looking for wall tiles or floor tiles, may we suggest checking out tiles by AGL? AGL has a wide range of both floor & wall tiles in many designs, sizes, and colours for you to choose from.
Also read ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF CERAMIC TILES
FAQs
Simply divide the entire area by the area of a tile to determine the number of tiles required to fill the space. For a 40 square foot space, we require 40 tiles that are 12" X 12".
Subtract 12 from the total number of tiles required. You should do this because you'll need to know how many boxes of tiles to purchase because 12 by 12 tiles are often offered in boxes of 12. For instance, 15.5 boxes would be needed if the total square footage was 186.
How many 2x2 tiles are in a box: Typically, a box contains 4 pieces of 2x2 square feet, or 600x600 millimetre, 60x60 centimetre, and 24x24 inch tiles. These tiles are available in multi color glossy finish with thickness ranging from 5 to 10 millimeter, and they cover an area of approximately 16 square feet, or 1.48 square meters.
Mark the drawing or photograph with the inch measurements for each side. If necessary, divide the room into sections, giving each one a capital letter from A to Z to prevent confusion. Divide each section's height and width by two. For the square footage, add up all the sections and divide the total by 144.
