Tiling Calculations
How to calculate your tile quantity requirements
If you measure your room in feet and inches the simple and safe method to convert to SQUARE METRES is:
Example 1 (measurement in feet & inches)
- 7 feet 6 inches X 5 feet 8 inches CONVERT TO INCHES - 90” x 68” = 6120 square inches.
- 6120 divide by 1296 = 4.72 square yards (dividing by 1296 converts square inches to square yards)
- 4.72 divided by 1.2 = 3.9 square metres (dividing by 1.2 converts to square metres)
- At this point ADD an extra 10% for cuts & waste – 3.9 plus 10% = 4.29 square metres
- ROUNDED UP = 5 square metres of tiles will be needed.
Example 2 (measurement in yards)
- 4 yards x 3 yards = 12 square yards
- 12 divided by 1.2 = 10 square metres
- Add 10% for cuts and waste – 10 plus 10% = 11 square metres.
Some tips to help you arrive at the correct tile quantity calculation:
- Calculate each wall individually. Give each wall a number, when you’ve finished making the calculation for each wall check you have the calculation for each wall and add them all up to give the total coverage.
- If you have included the extra 10% in your calculation for each wall, MAKE THE FOLLOWING REDUCTIONS;
- Deduct 1.5 square metres for a door
- Deduct 1.2 square metres for a bath
- Do not make adjustments for windows once you added 10% for cuts and waste.
Border Calculations
- Add together the width of the walls (e.g. 6+7+6+7 = 26 feet)
- Convert to linear metres by DIVIDING by 3.25 (26 divided by 3.25 = 8 linear metres)
- Divide 8 by the width of the border (some may call this the length) e.g. 8 divided by .2 (20cm) = 40 borders.
- When calculating borders DO NOT take out the door as this will allow for the cuts.
General Guidelines on Fixing Natural Stone & calculating adhesive & grout requirements
In general, the fixing of natural stones employs similar techniques and materials to those used for fixing ceramic tiling. Natural stones, however, possess specific properties that need to be taken into consideration when fixed using adhesives.
Adhesive Bedding
Bedding of natural stone tiles should be carried out using cement-based adhesives using the solid bed method. We recommend using a white cement-based adhesive with light coloured stone tiles .
Solid bed fixing is the best procedure and the technique of blob fixing should be avoided as this is a poor fixing technique that may result in:
- The blobs being visible through the tile
- Cracking
- Water penetration behind the tiling