Tile layout
Enter the room and the tile size, and see how the grid actually falls: full tiles across the middle, a sized cut tile at each edge, and the box count to buy.
in
in
in
in
in
= 0.188"
Layout
%
120 sq ft
158tiles
Boxes
18
Cut tile, one side
5 1/16"
Cut tile, other side
4 7/8"
Order this
- Tiles, with waste143 to fill the floor, 10% added for cuts
- 158
- Boxes9 tiles a box
- 18
- Across the roomCut tile 5 1/16" wide
- 9 full + cut
- Down the roomCut tile 4 7/8" wide
- 11 full + cut
Before you cut
- No cut tile under 2" — passesEvery cut tile is wide enough to set and grout cleanly.
Why centred
Starting from the centre of the room puts a matching cut tile at both walls instead of a full tile at one and a sliver at the other, which is the layout that reads as planned rather than improvised in a room anyone sees as a whole.
About laying tile
- Should I lay tile from the wall or from the centre of the room?
- Centred, for almost any room anyone will look at as a whole. It puts an even cut tile at both edges instead of a full tile at one wall and a leftover sliver at the other, and a floor with two matching narrow borders reads as designed while a floor with one thin strip at one side reads as a mistake nobody caught in time.
- How wide should a grout joint be?
- 1/16" for rectified (precision-cut) tile with sharp, consistent edges, and 3/16" to 1/4" for standard tile whose edges vary enough that a tight joint would telegraph every difference. Bigger tile generally wants a slightly wider joint too, so more of an inevitable edge variation is absorbed by the grout line rather than showing as a wavy line between tiles.
- How much extra tile should I buy?
- Ten percent for a straightforward grid layout, and more for anything that adds cuts: fifteen for a diagonal layout, more again for herringbone or a room with a lot of jogs, niches or doorways. Buy it all from one production run — tile is dye-lotted the way flooring is, and a box ordered later to make up a shortfall will not match.
- How wide can a cut tile at the edge be before it looks wrong?
- Under about 2" reads as an afterthought and is hard to set and grout cleanly besides — a sliver that thin chips easily and barely holds its own grout joint. If a layout leaves one, shifting the starting line by an inch or two, or switching between a centred and an edge-start layout, usually finds a wider cut.
- Why does the tile count assume a rectangular grid?
- Because that is the layout a full box of square or rectangular tile is sold for, and it is the one every other figure on this page — grout joint, waste factor, cut width — assumes too. A herringbone, basketweave or diagonal pattern cuts differently and wastes more, and needs its own waste allowance layered on top of what this calculator gives you.