How Many Tiles Do I Need?

Purchasing the wrong number of tiles can really hinder your decorating plans. When you decide to tile a room, you want to get it perfect. Not having enough to finish the job will be an annoying delay you wish you didn’t have; alternatively, you may have ones you can’t use after buying too many.

Neither result is what any decorating project needs; we all want just the right amount. Please read our blog to learn how many tiles you need for your next project.

Cost-Effective Planning

Before fantasising about the result and browsing for free tile samples, you should take the time to determine how many tiles are needed to cover the space. It’s an essential first step that you can easily forget in the excitement of home improvement. Doing this first will allow you to budget correctly for your project and avoid unforeseen expenditures.

When planning, be sure to factor in negative areas like doors, windows or any storage units in the space. It’s helpful to create a sketch of your room and write your measurements down so it’s easy to keep track of the numbers.

Each Design is Unique

You will also need to remember that not every tile is the same uniform size. It’s an easy mistake to assume all tiles are square and have a fixed height, but they can come in all kinds of sizes. For example, our Grespania tiles are rectangular, but our Ca’Pietra tiles can be square or rectangle, depending on your choice.

What Room Are You Tiling?

The room you want to tile will help dictate the number of tiles you need. For example, transforming your kitchen or bathroom will differ from tiling a living area or conservatory. However, no matter which style you’re going for, most people will want to tile at least some of the kitchen or bathroom walls.

You should make sure to consider how much of a wall or floor space you would want to tile with the same pattern tiles. Likewise, you wouldn’t want to tile an area with two different styles.

Calculating a Square or Rectangle Space

For square or rectangular areas like a wall or floor space, a 5-meters square space would be an area of 25 meters (5 x 5 = 25). However, while many online tile suppliers sell their tiles in imperial sizes, our tiles are sold in metric measurements, so we recommend measuring your space using centimetres, not inches.

You need to remove any space you won’t be tiling to get an accurate calculation. For example, if your space is a rectangle wall, you won’t include the door or window in the final calculation. Then, measure the individual area you won’t be tiling and subtract it from your original area size to get your total.

L-Shapes, Circles And Unique Shaped Spaces

If you wish to tile an irregular shaped area, we recommend that you break the area down into more regular shapes before you measure it. For example, you can use masking tape to mark out triangles, squares and rectangles on the space, breaking it down into easy to calculate chunks.

Once you’ve done that, you can add these numbers together to get your final figure. Breaking the complex shape down can also help determine how many square tiles you need and how many will require cutting into bespoke shapes.

Plan For Accidents

It sounds contradictory to recommend buying extra tiles when trying to be cost-effective. But the truth is in any decorating project, accidents happen, and you should budget for that by making sure you have some spare tiles.

Similar to the logic behind the baker’s dozen, you should consider an overage when buying your tiles. Again, you take your area coverage calculation to do this, and we recommend multiplying it by 10-15%.

This is not only to cover the possibility of accidental breaks when decorating, but it is also insurance for the future of your space. For example, imagine replacing a damaged wall tile years after installation. But it was an original style wall tile design and is no longer in stock, and suddenly you have a permanent defect in your tiling that can’t be replaced.

Luxurious Tiles for Your Home

As experienced retailers and distributors of luxurious kitchens, bathrooms and floor tiles, we are sure we have the right tile for your home. Specialising in natural stone, porcelain and ceramic, we have tiles great for indoors and outdoors.

Whether you want something from our website or something tailored just for you, our expert team is available to offer additional advice for any stage of your project. So if you’re still unsure how many tiles you need, don’t hesitate to contact our team today!