Tile Takeoff Calculator

It depends almost entirely on the layout, not the room: 10% covers straight-set and brick/offset joints where cuts land only at walls, 15% for 45° diagonals, and 20% for herringbone. On a 200 sq ft floor that is the difference between ordering 230 sq ft straight-set and 240 sq ft herringbone — same floor, three extra boxes. Keep one unopened box as attic stock for future repairs, and buy every box from the same dye lot.

For standard 12-inch tile with a 1/4-inch square-notch trowel, 2 bags (2 needed at ~80 sq ft per bag). Large-format tile takes a deeper 1/2-inch notch and burns through coverage: budget 3 bags for 16-inch-plus tile at ~45 sq ft per bag — and if the spec calls for back-buttering every plank (common on 24-inch formats and glossy porcelain), plan on landing at the bottom of that coverage band. If you are setting over an uncoupling membrane like DITRA, add one more bag — Schluter figures one 50-lb bag per 100 sq ft just for the bond coat in the membrane waffles.

At the standard 3/16-inch floor joint, a 25-lb bag covers about 120 sq ft — matching The Tile Shop's published chart of 115–125 sq ft per bag. Grout demand scales with joint width and drops as tiles get bigger: 24×24 tile at 3/16" stretches the same bag to roughly 190 sq ft, while 2×2 mosaics can eat 25 lb in under 60 sq ft. The calculator rounds up to whole bags.

Yes, and 20% is the middle of the professional range, not the ceiling — herringbone and chevron cut every single tile, and perimeter cuts are all angled, so installers commonly plan 15–25%. Diagonal layouts are the next hungriest at ~15% because every border tile is cut twice. If your room has many jogs, insets or an island, lean to the top of the range.

It varies by product, which is why the calculator asks: common counts are 10–11 pieces per box of 12×12 (about 10–11 sq ft), 5–6 pieces of 12×24 plank, 20+ mosaic sheets, and as few as 4 for 24×24 large format. The count is printed on the carton. Boxes are always sold whole — the takeoff rounds your piece count up to complete cartons, since partial boxes don't exist and dye lots won't match later. And if your order lands within a box of a round number anyway, keep it: breakage in transit is real, and an unopened attic carton is what makes a future crack repair invisible.

Unsanded for joints 1/8 inch and narrower (it packs into tight lines without bridging), sanded for anything wider — the sand stops shrink-cracking in fat joints. Most floor installations on this calculator's default 3/16-inch joint take sanded grout. Vertical walls and glass or soft stone tile often specify unsanded even at wider joints so the abrasive can't scratch the face — check the tile's datasheet.

No — this is a materials takeoff only: tile, thinset and grout in buyable units. Professional installation typically adds $4–$15 per sq ft in labor on top of materials (Angi's 2025 data puts all-in ceramic installs at $12–$45 per sq ft). For a full installed-cost estimate with substrate prep, waterproofing and demo, use the Tile Installation Cost Calculator.

Enter the actual face dimensions off a real tile, not the nominal size on the box. Nominal sizes round up to the nearest inch and can overstate a plank's face by a couple of percent — enough to skew a big order by a box or two. The grout joints absorb the fractional difference, and modular sizes are designed for that. Ungauged natural stone varies most of all; measure two or three pieces and average.