Home › Home & Construction › Tiles Calculator
Tiles Calculator
Use this free tiles calculator to work out how many tiles — and how many boxes — you need for a floor or wall. Enter the room length and width in feet or metres, pick a tile size, set a wastage allowance for cuts and breakage, and the calculator gives you the exact purchase quantity. It handles the sizes Indian and international shops actually sell, from 1×1 foot tiles to 600×600 mm slabs.
Allow 10% wastage for straight layouts and 15–20% for diagonal patterns.
| Room area | 120 sq ft |
| Area to cover (with wastage) | 132 sq ft |
| Tiles without wastage | 30 |
| Tiles to buy | 33 |
| Boxes to buy | — |
How to use this calculator
- Measure the room's length and width and enter them, in feet or metres.
- Pick your tile size from the list, or choose Custom and type the tile's own measurements.
- Set the wastage percentage — 10% is standard for a straight layout.
- If you know how many tiles come in a box, enter it to get a box count as well.
- Press Calculate tiles and order the quantity shown.
How tile quantities are worked out
Tile buying is an area problem. The room has an area (length times width), each tile covers an area, and you need enough tiles to cover the room plus a margin for the tiles that get cut or broken on the way:
The result is always rounded up because shops sell whole tiles and whole boxes. Here is what the common sizes cover, and roughly how many you need per 100 square feet before wastage:
| Tile size | Area per tile | Tiles per 100 sq ft |
|---|---|---|
| 1 × 1 ft (12 × 12 in) | 1 sq ft | 100 |
| 2 × 2 ft (24 × 24 in) | 4 sq ft | 25 |
| 18 × 18 in | 2.25 sq ft | about 45 |
| 12 × 24 in | 2 sq ft | 50 |
| 600 × 600 mm | 3.875 sq ft (0.36 m²) | about 26 |
| 300 × 600 mm | 1.94 sq ft (0.18 m²) | about 52 |
Bigger tiles mean fewer pieces and faster laying, but they also make every cutting mistake more expensive — one more reason the wastage margin matters.
Worked example
A bedroom is 12 ft long and 10 ft wide, and the chosen tile is 2 × 2 ft. The wastage allowance is the standard 10 percent.
Step 1: room area — 12 × 10 = 120 sq ft.
Step 2: add wastage — 120 × 1.10 = 132 sq ft to cover.
Step 3: divide by the tile's area — 132 ÷ 4 = 33 tiles.
Step 4: boxes — if the tiles come 5 per box, 33 ÷ 5 rounds up to 7 boxes (35 tiles, leaving 2 spares).
The calculator opens with this room and tile, so the headline answer matches. Enter 5 in the tiles-per-box box and the box row fills in with 7.
FAQ
How many tiles do I need for a 12 by 10 foot room?
The room is 120 square feet. With 2 by 2 foot tiles, each tile covers 4 square feet, so the room needs 120 divided by 4, which is 30 tiles before wastage. Adding the standard 10 percent for cuts and breakage gives 33 tiles. That is the example this calculator opens with — change the tile size or wastage and watch the count move. If your tiles come 5 to a box, you would buy 7 boxes to have those 33 tiles in hand.
Why should I add wastage when buying tiles?
No room is tiled with whole tiles alone. Edge tiles are cut to fit, some cuts go wrong, and a tile occasionally arrives chipped or breaks during fixing. Ten percent extra covers straight layouts in rectangular rooms; diagonal or patterned layouts waste more, so tilers usually allow 15 to 20 percent there. The leftover tiles are not wasted money — keep a few spares, because matching the same shade batch years later for a repair is often impossible.
How many tiles are there in one box?
It varies by size and brand, commonly 4 to 10 tiles per box for floor tiles, and the box prints the area it covers, for example 1.44 square metres. Enter the number from your box in the tiles-per-box box and this calculator rounds your purchase up to whole boxes. Buying by coverage area rather than by tile count is the safest check: total box coverage should equal or exceed your room area plus wastage.
Can I mix feet, metres and millimetres in one calculation?
Yes, within reason. The room is measured in feet or metres — pick one — and the common tile sizes are listed in the units they are sold in, feet, inches and millimetres, with the conversion done for you. If your tile is an unusual size, choose Custom and type its length and width in inches, centimetres or millimetres. Everything is converted to square metres behind the scenes before the count is worked out.
Does the grout gap between tiles change the count?
Slightly, in your favour. Tiles are laid with 2 to 5 millimetre grout joints, so each tile plus its share of grout covers a touch more than the tile alone, which can save a tile or two on a big floor. In practice the difference is smaller than the wastage allowance, so this calculator ignores grout gaps and lets the wastage percentage absorb them. For very large tiles with wide joints, your tiler may trim the order by a box — ask before buying.
Should I tile a room in one go or buy tiles in stages?
Buy the full quantity, plus wastage, in one go. Tile shades vary slightly between production batches, and a second purchase weeks later can show a visible line where the batch changes. Measure twice, order once, and store the spare tiles flat in a dry corner. This calculator's box count is designed for that single order — it always rounds up, never down, so you are not left one tile short on the last row.