9.01 Masonry

Learn

Tile

The first step in any home improvement project is estimating the cost to determine if you can afford it. This is true whether you plan to do the project yourself or to hire someone to do it for you.

Example #1

Find the cost of tiling the area below. To figure the cost of tiling a floor, you will need to do the following:

1. Measure the area that you want to install the tile.
   


2. Calculate the area.
   
   • 4(12) + 8(10) = 48 + 80 = 128
   • The square footage of this room is 128 ft².

 

Calculating Tile Overage

When working with tile, you should take into consideration that there is a certain amount of waste, called an overage. Tiles sometimes get broken and you often have to cut a certain number of tiles to finish a row to the wall. A general rule of thumb is to figure 15% as overage and then add this to the original square foot calculation.

If you are going to have the tile laid in a more complicated pattern such a diamond, you should figure 20% overage.

Including overage in your calculations will give you the amount of tile you should buy.

Example #2

Let's use the room from our first example but, this time, we'll calculate how much tile we will need including 15% overage.

1. Calculate the area.
   
   • 4(12) + 8(10) = 48 + 80 = 128
   • The square footage of this room is 128 ft ².


2. Calculate the overage.
   
   • Convert the 15% overage to a decimal. 15% = 0.15
   • Multiple the overage amount by the square footage of the room
     0.15(128) = 19.2


3. Add the square footage and the overage to find the total amount of tile needed
   128 + 19.2 = 147.2 ft²

A good rule of thumb is to wind up with one full box of tile when the project is finished. This will provide you with needed material for possible future repairs. You should keep in mind that it is possible that the tile you choose could be discontinued and you may not be able to find these in the future.

 

Buying Tile

Once you have figured how many square feet of tile you need, you will need to figure out how many tile you will need to buy. You will find that there are many shapes and sizes to choose from.

Example #3

We are going to use a 6 inches x 24 inches tile. We figured the area of the room in square feet so we need to get our measurements in the same units. Remember, our room has a total square footage and overage of 147.2 ft².

We need to convert 6 inches into feet.

 

Next, convert 24 inches into feet.

 

The tiles are (½ feet x 2 feet) or 1 ft ².

For this job, you need 147.2 ft² of tile including overage and you are using tile that are 1 ft² each. To figure out how many tile you need, divide the total square footage (147.2) by the square footage of one tile (1).

147.2 ÷ 1 = 147.2 tiles

We need to round this to a whole number because the store is not going to sell you 0.2 of a tile. 147.2 tiles rounds up to 148 tiles. We need 148 tiles to complete this job.

Additional Costs

Another thing to note: The store may not sell you individual tiles. You may have to buy them by the box. For example, the store may sell the type of tiles we've used in this example by a box of 100. We need 148 tiles but can only buy them by the 100. So, we would need to purchase 2 boxes, leaving us with 52 extra tiles (200 tiles − 148 tiles needed = 52 extra tiles).

It is important to discuss all of the cost of a job before making a commitment to have it done. You will want to keep in mind the square footage of the room when you are discussing, the labor costs for putting the tile down, and any other expenses that will be part of the job, such as subflooring. Always ask for an itemized quote and check the figures before agreeing to the contract.