Calculating Floor Tiles: The Definitive Guide

This is a definitive guide for calculating floor tiles.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to calculate the quantity of tiles needed for an apartment.

You’ll also learn the calculating process of other materials required to laying floor tiles.

After learning these, you’ll be able to calculate all the materials needed for any type of floor, not only for an apartment but also for a complete building project.

This is an easy-to-follow guide.

So, you don’t have to worry about any learning difficulties.

Let’s start learning the process of…

Calculating Floor Tiles?

We will calculate tiles for the following apartment.

Floor Plan

This is an example of a floor plan of an apartment.

But, you don’t have to have a floor plan. You can take measurements practically with a measuring tape going to an apartment.

In this guide, we’ll use this plan for calculating floor tiles.

With that, let’s…

First, Calculate The Floor Tiles Quantity For…

# Bedroom-1:

  • The floor area of Bedroom-1:
Dimension of bedroom-1

= Length × Width

= 10′ × 12′

= 120 square feet

  • Skirting area of Bedroom-1:
Skirting in bedroom-1

= Perimeter × Height of skirting

= 44′ × 4″

= 14.52 square feet.

[NOTE: Commonly used skirting height is 4″ or 6″. In this guide, I’ll use 4″.]

  • Total floor tiles area of Bedroom-1:

= Floor area + Skirting area

= 120 + 14.52

= 134.52 square feet.

  • Floor tiles quantity for bedroom1:

= Floor tiles area + 10% of floor tiles area

= 134.52 + (134.52 × 0.10)

= 147.97

Say, 148 square feet.

# Bedroom-2:

  • The floor area of Bedroom-2:
Floor dimension of bedroom-2

= Same as the bedroom-1

= 120 square feet

  • Skirting area of Bedroom-2:

= Same as the bedroom-1

= 14.52 square feet.

  • Total floor tiles area of Bedroom-2:

= Same as the bedroom-1

= 134.52 square feet.

  • Floor tiles quantity for bedroom-2:

= Same as the bedroom-1

= 148 square feet.

# Living Room:

  • The floor area of the Living room:
Dimension of the Living Room

= (4′-7″ × 7′-4″) + (10′-5″ × 9′-9″)

= (4.58′× 7.33′) + (10.42′ × 9.75′)

= 33.57 + 101.59

= 135.07 square feet.

  • Skirting area of the Living room:
Perimeter of the living room.

= Perimeter × Height

= 49.50′ × 0.33′

= 16.33 square feet.

  • Total floor tiles area in Living room

= Floor area + Skirting area

= 135.07 + 16.33

= 151.40

  • Floor tiles quantity for living room:

= Floor tiles area + 10% of floor tiles area

= 151.40 + (151.40 × 0.10)

= 166.54

Say, 167 square feet.

# Bathroom:

  • The floor area of the Bathroom:
Calculating floor tiles of a bathroom

=Length × Width

= 5′ × 7.33′

= 36.65 square feet.

  • Skirting area of bathroom:

Bathroom walls will have tiles. So you don’t need to calculate skirting.

  • Floor tiles area of bathroom:

As there is no skirting, so,

Floor tiles area = floor area

= 36.65 square feet.

  • Floor tiles quantity for the bathroom:

= Floor tiles area + 10% of floor tiles area

= 36.65 + (36.65 × 0.1)

= 40.31

Say, 41 square feet.

# Kitchen:

  • The floor area of the kitchen:
Calculating floor tiles of a kitchen

= Length × Width

= 9.58′ × 6′

= 57.48

  • Skirting area of kitchen:

There may have tiles on the kitchen wall. So no need to calculate skirting.

  • Floor tiles area of kitchen:

As there is no skirting, so,

Floor tiles area = floor area

= 57.48 square feet.

  • Floor tiles quantity for the kitchen:

= Floor tiles area + 10% of floor tiles area

= 57.48 + (57.48 × 0.1)

= 63.22

Say, 64 square feet.

You might have noticed, I’ve quickly converted inches into feet.

You can do so with the following chart:

Inches to feet conversion factor

[Note: As you can see, all the rooms in our example drawing are rectangular in shape. You may have different shapes in your project. Don’t worry. Just calculate the area of the portion applying the area calculation formula of different shapes.]

Okay! We have finished calculating floor tiles so far.

Now, Summarise The Floor Tiles Quantity…

For:

  • Bedroom-1 = 148 square feet
  • Bedroom-2 = 148 square feet
  • Living room = 167 square feet
  • Bathroom = 41 square feet
  • Kitchen = 64 square feet

Calculating the floor tile areas and summarizing them is a little bit confusing, especially in large projects.

That’s why I use a format in my projects.

You can download the format from my free resource library (Freebie #6).

Finally, Decide The Types Of Tiles For Various Rooms.

Obviously, you aren’t going to use the same type of tile in all the rooms.

Bathroom floor tiles won’t be the same as the bedroom floor tiles. And, the kitchen floor will not be the same as the bathroom floor.

So, decide which type of tiles you will use on which floor.

And, we have decided for our example apartment as follows:

Type of tiles on various floors of an apartment
  • A-type tiles: (Bedroom1 and Bedroom2)

= 148 + 148

= 296 Square feet.

  • B-Type (Living room):

= 167 square feet.

  • C-type (Bathroom):

= 41 square feet.

  • D-type (Kitchen):

= 64 square feet.

These are the exact quantity of floor tiles needed for our example apartment.

You don’t need to worry about how many tiles or how many boxes of tiles you’ll require.

Just go to a tile store and ask the quantity you calculated. They will supply the exact quantity you require.

However, if you want to know, let’s learn…

How To Calculate The Number Of Tiles Needed For A Room?

Let’s calculate the required number of tiles needed for the living room in our example project.

For that:

First, Calculate The Floor Tiles Quantity.

We did this above for the Living room.

  • Floor area = 135.07 square feet;
  • Skirting area = 16.33 square feet;
  • Total floor tiles area = 151.40 square feet;
  • Required floor tiles quantity = 167 square feet;

Next, Calculate The Area Of A Tile.

Let’s say, you’ll use 18″×18″ tiles.

So, the area of a tile is,

= 18 × 18

= 324 square inches.

= 324 ÷ 144 [one square feet = 144 square inches.]

= 2.25 square feet.

Now, Calculate The Required Number Of Tiles

The formula is,

= Required tiles quantity ÷ Area of a tile

= 167 ÷ 2.25

= 74.22

Say, 75 numbers.

These are the required number of 18″×18″ tiles for our example living room.

With this, you can calculate…

How Many 18×18 Tiles Needed To Cover 100 Square Feet

Knowing this is beneficial if you are going to calculate floor tiles for a large project.

Let’s see how.

The living room floor area of our example project is 135.07 square feet.

And the required number of 18″×18″ is 75.

So, the number of 18×18 tiles needed to cover 100 square feet floor area,

= (Required number of tiles × 100) ÷ Floor area

= (75 × 100) ÷ 135.07

= 55.52

Say, 56 nos.

You can now quickly calculate how many 18″×18″ tiles are needed to cover any floor area with this formula:

Number of tiles = (Floor area × number of tiles for 100 square feet) ÷ 100

Let’s say, your project has 1000 square feet of floor area and you want to cover that with 18″×18″ tiles.

Then, the required number of tiles is,

= (Floor area × Number of tiles for 100 square feet) ÷ 100

= (1000 × 56) ÷ 100

= 560 nos.

These are the number of 18×18 tiles needed to cover 1000 square feet.

Now, let’s see…

How Many 12×12 Tiles Are Required For 100 Square Feet?

Suppose, the bathroom floor of our example project requires 12″×12″ tiles.

  • The floor area of the bathroom = 36.65 square feet.
  • Required tiles quantity = 41 square feet, and
  • The area of a 12″×12″ tile is,

= 12 × 12

= 144 square inches

= 1 square foot. [one square feet = 144 square inches]

So, the required number of tiles for our bathroom is,

= Required tiles quantity ÷ Area of a tile

= 41 ÷ 1

= 41 nos.

With this, you can calculate how many 12×12 tiles are required for 100 square feet.

The formula is,

= (Required number of tiles × 100) ÷ Floor area

= (41 × 100) ÷ 36.65

= 111.86

Say, 112 nos.

So far, I’ve shared everything that you need to calculate floor tiles.

At this point, you may want to…

Calculate Materials For Laying Floor Tiles

Most of the time, cement mortar is used for laying tiles.

The average thickness of mortar for floor tiling, we assume, is 1½″.

So, you’ll learn the technique to calculate the quantity of mortar here.

For that:

First, Get The Floor Tiles Area.

This is the total area of the floor that you are going to lay tiles on.

And, we calculated this at the beginning of this post.

That is,

  • Bedroom-1 = 134.52 square feet
  • Bedroom-2 = 134.52 square feet
  • Living room= 151.40 square feet
  • Bathroom = 36.65 square feet
  • Kitchen= 57.48 square feet

Total floor tiles area is,

= 134.52 + 134.52 + 151.40 + 36.65 + 57.48

= 514.57 square feet.

Now, Calculate The Required Volume Of Mortar

The formula is,

= Floor tiles area × Thickness of mortar

= 514.57 × 1½″

= 514.57 × 0.12 [1½″ = 0.12 feet]

= 61.74

Say, 62 cubic feet.

This is the exact volume of mortar needed to lay tiles on our example apartment.

But, mortar is a mix of cement and sand.

So, let’s calculate…

The Required Cement For Laying Floor Tiles

For that:

First, Get The Dry Volume Of The Mortar

The mortar quantity we calculated above is the wet volume of mortar.

And, the dry volume of that is,

= Wet volume × 1.33

= 62 × 1.33

= 82.46 cubic feet.

Read More: Dry Volume Of Cement Mortar: Everything You Need To Know

Next, Calculate The Cement Quantity.

The formula is,

= (Dry volume of mortar ÷ Sum of ratio) × Cement ratio

= (82.46 ÷ 4) × 1

= 20.61 cubic feet.

[NOTE: The common cement-sand ratio for laying floor tiles is 1:3. So, the sum of ratio is 1+3=4]

Now, Convert Cement Volume Into Bags.

The formula is,

= Volume of the required cement ÷ Volume of one bag cement

= 20.61 ÷ 1.25 [One bag cement is equal to 1.25 cubic feet]

= 16.48

Say, 17 bags.

With this, you can now easily…

Calculate The Required Sand Quantity For Floor Tiles

The formula is,

= Required bags of cement × Volume of one bag cement × Sand ratio

= 17 × 1.25 × 3

= 63.75

Say, 64 cubic feet.

With these calculations, you can generate…

A Quick Formula For Calculating Floor Tiles Materials

For 514.67 square feet of floor tiling area:

  • Floor tiles quantity (148 + 148 + 167 + 41 + 64) = 568 square feet
  • Cement = 17 bags
  • Sand = 64 cubic feet.

So, for 100 square feet floor tilling area:

  • Floor tiles:

= (568 ÷ 514.67) × 100

= 110.36

Say, 111 square feet.

  • Cement:

= (17 ÷ 514.67) × 100

= 3.30 bags

  • Sand:

= (64 ÷ 514.67) × 100

= 12.43 cubic feet

Summary:

For 100 square feet floor area, required:

  • Tiles = 111 square feet
  • Cement = 3.30 bags
  • Sand = 12.43 cubic feet

That’s it.

Conclusion:

Although the process of calculating floor tiles seems long and time-consuming, it actually isn’t.

You just need to measure the floor area and the skirting area (if there aren’t any wall tiles) and then sum them up.

After that, just add 10% extra to the area.

And, you’ll get the required floor tiles quantity.

Download Tiles Calculation Format free