This is the ultimate guide to calculating wall tiles.
So if you want to learn:
- How to calculate tiles for bathroom walls
- How to calculate tiles for kitchen walls
- The process of calculating tiles for any walls
Then you’ll love this guide.
Not only these, after reading the guide you will be able to calculate wall tiles for a whole building project.
Let’s get started.
Calculating Wall Tiles For A Bathroom
For that:
First, Measure The Length Of The Walls
For the wall length, you either need to measure practically with a measuring tape.
Or, you should have a drawing of the bathroom’s plan.
Let’s say, we have the following drawing:
So, the length of walls of our example bathroom is,
= 7′-4″ + 5′-0″ + 7′-4″ + 5′-0″
= 24′-8″
Next, Get The Height Of Walls
Although the floor height of a building is ten feet, most of the time the bathroom height is 7 feet.
Because a false slab is made at 7′ level in the bathroom.
Tiles are laid on the wall below the false slab.
So, the height is 7 feet.
After That, Calculate The Gross Tiling Area
The formula is,
= Length × Height
= 24′-8″ × 7′-0″
= 172.69 square feet.
Now, Calculate The Area Of Openings
Here,
We have one door and one window opening.
The door opening area is,
= 2′-6″ × 7′-0″
= 17.50 square feet.
And, Window opening area is,
= 2′-0″ × 2′-0″
= 4.0 square feet.
So the total area of openings is,
= Door + window
= 17.50 + 4
= 21.50 square feet.
Next, Calculate The Net Tiling Area
The formula is,
= Gross tiling area — Area of openings
= 172.69 — 21.50
= 151.19 square feet.
Finally, Calculate The Quantity Of Tiles
If you add 10% extra to the net tiling area you’ll get the required quantity of tiles for the bathroom.
That is, the required tiles quantity is,
= Net tiling area + 10% of net tiling area
= 151.19 + (151.19 × 0.10)
= 166.30
Say, 167 square feet.
These are the exact tiles quantity you’ll require for the bathroom.
But most of the time, bathroom walls have border tiles like this:
The height of the border is normally 4″ or 6″.
You actually don’t need to calculate border tiles separately.
Suppliers provide a portion of total wall tiles as border tiles.
That portion comes as a percentage of the total quantity of ordered tiles.
And, I found that the portion actually covers all the bathroom walls most of the time.
But sometimes not.
That’s why you want to make sure that the quantity of border tiles that the supplier’s giving you is fulfilling your needs.
For that:
First, Calculate The Required Quantity Of Border Tiles.
And, the formula is,
= Total length of walls × height of the border
Here,
The total length of the wall in our example bathroom is,
= 7′-4″ + 5′-0″ + 7′-4″ + 5′-0″ — 2′-6″
= 22′-2″
And,
The height of the border depends on the type of tiles.
Let’s say, it is 4″.
So, the required quantity of border is,
= 22′-2″ × 4″
= 7.31 square feet.
Next, Calculate the border tiles providing by suppliers.
For that, you need to contact tile vendors and find out how much border is providing by the vendor.
Let’s say they are providing 5% of ordered tiles as border.
And our ordered quantity is 167 square feet.
So, the border tiles we are getting is,
= 167 × 5%
= 8.35 square feet.
Finally, Compare The Required Quantity And Supplied Quantity.
Our required border tiles quantity is 7.31 square feet.
And we’re getting 8.35 square feet.
That is actually meeting our requirements.
If you require more or less, you just need to consult with your vendor.
That’s simple.
There are also some decore tiles that come with wall tiles.
The size of a decore tile is normally the same as the wall tiles. So, you don’t need to worry about this.
[NOTE: It’s not necessary that all wall tiles should have a border and decore. And, If you want to eliminate border and decore tiles from your bathroom you can do that.]
How To Calculate Wall Tiles For A Kitchen?
Calculating wall tiles for bathroom and kitchen are the same.
But here I would like to show you some different perspectives.
This time, this is our kitchen:
First, Measure The Length Of The Walls
You can practically measure the length going to the kitchen.
Or, you can do that from drawings.
Let’s say, we have the above drawing.
So, the length of walls of our example Kitchen is,
= 9′-7″ + 6′-0″ + 9′-7″ + 6′-0″
= 31′-2″
Next, Calculate The Gross Tiling Area
The formula is,
= Length × Height
= 31′-2″ × 9′-6″
= 296.11 square feet.
After That, Calculate The Wall Openings
Here,
We have two wall openings — Door and Window.
The door opening area is,
= 3′-0″ × 7′-0″
= 21.0 square feet.
And, the Window opening area is,
= 3′-0″ × 3′-6″
= 10.50 square feet.
So the total area of openings is,
= Door + window
= 21.0 + 10.50
= 31.50 square feet.
Next, Calculate The Cabinet Area
In kitchens, we often have wall cabinets.
And, in our kitchen we have like this:
The area covered by cabinets is,
= (6′-0″ × 2′-6″) + (6′-0″ × 2′-9″)
= 31.50 square feet.
Next, Calculate The Net Tiling Area
The formula is,
= Gross tiling area — Area of openings — Cabinet area
= 296.11 — 31.50 — 31.50
= 233.11 square feet.
Finally, Calculate The Quantity Of Tiles
If you add 10% extra to the net tiling area you’ll get the required quantity of tiles for the kitchen.
That is,
= Net tiling area + 10% of net tiling area
= 233.11 + (233.11 × 0.10)
= 256.42
Say, 257 square feet.
These are the exact tiles quantity you’ll require for the kitchen.
Calculating Wall Tiles For Any Wall
Other than the bathroom and kitchen, we sometimes use wall tiles anywhere inside an apartment to increase the wall’s aesthetic look. Such as the living room’s wall.
Calculating wall tiles for this type of work is actually easy.
You just need to calculate the net tilling area and then add 10% to that to get the required tiles quantity.
Let’s say, we have a wall in our living room where we want to lay tiles on.
The width of the wall is 4′-5″ and the height is 7′-0″.
To calculate wall tiles for this…
First, Get The Net Tiling Area.
The formula is,
= Length × height
= 4′-5″ × 7′-0″
= 30.94 square feet.
Now, Calculate The Tiles Quantity.
The formula is,
= Net tiling area + 10% of net tiling area
= 30.94 + (30.94 × 0.10)
= 34.03
Say, 35 square feet.
That’s it!
Conclusion
After reading up to this point, you already get the idea of calculating wall tiles.
It’s actually easy.
You can calculate tiles for any wall of an apartment. You just need to go through these steps:
First, calculate the total wall area. We call this “gross tiling area”.
Next, calculate the area of openings and any other portions where tiles won’t be laid on. And deduct these areas from the gross tiling area. After deduction, you’ll get the net tiling area.
Finally, add 10% extra to the net tiling area to get the required tiles quantity.
But for a whole building project, calculating tiles and keeping records is a little bit difficult.
That’s why I developed a format that I use in my projects.
You can download that Tiles Calculation Format here for free.