Tiling Calculator (South Africa)

Work out the room's area first, length times width, then subtract anything you don't tile under, like a built-in bath or a kitchen island footprint. Divide that net area by the area of one tile, then add waste for cuts, typically 10% for a straight grid layout. As a worked example, a 4m by 3m room, 12 m², tiled in 60cm by 60cm tiles in a straight layout, needs about 37 tiles once that 10% waste is added, which rounds up to 10 boxes at 4 tiles a box. The calculator above does this for your own rooms, and lets you add as many rooms as you're tiling in one go.

A 600 x 600mm tile covers 0.36 m², so a square metre needs 1 divided by 0.36, about 2.78 tiles, just under 3 whole tiles before any cuts or grout joints are accounted for. Smaller tiles need far more per m², a common 30cm by 30cm tile needs about 11.1 tiles for the same square metre, which is why a small tile costs more to lay even at a lower price per box, you're buying and cutting a lot more of them. The calculator above works this out for your exact tile size rather than a rule of thumb, and adds your layout's waste percentage on top.

It depends on your layout, not one flat number for every job. A straight grid layout, tiles square to the walls, typically needs about 10% extra for cuts and breakages. A diagonal layout needs more, around 15%, since every edge tile is a cut rather than a whole tile. A herringbone layout needs the most, around 20%, because of the angled cuts at every wall and corner. A room with lots of corners, alcoves, or obstacles to cut around should add a further 5% on top of whichever layout percentage applies. The calculator above applies the right percentage for your chosen layout automatically rather than a single generic figure.

Yes, noticeably more. Take that same 12 m² room from the example above: a straight layout needs about 37 tiles, a diagonal layout needs about 39, and a herringbone layout needs about 40, all for the exact same floor. That difference is extra tiles you pay for and extra boxes you have to buy, not just extra labour time, which is why the calculator above builds the waste percentage into the tile count itself rather than leaving you to guess and add a vague buffer at the till.

It depends on the trowel notch size the job calls for, which in turn depends on the tile size and whether it's a wall or a floor. South African technical data sheets, based on SANS 10107:2011, the code of practice for ceramic tiling, put a lightweight wall tile at roughly 3kg/m² with a 6mm notch trowel, about 6m² from a 20kg bag. A floor tile or a larger wall tile needs roughly 6kg/m² with a 10mm notch trowel, about 3m² from a 20kg bag. A large-format tile over 600mm needs the most, roughly 7 to 8kg/m² with a 20mm notch trowel and double-trowelling, about 2.5m² from a 20kg bag. Those figures are obtained under ideal laboratory conditions though, so manufacturers themselves recommend ordering about 10% more than the raw calculation to cover site conditions and workmanship, which the calculator above adds in automatically before rounding up to whole bags. It works out which tier your tile falls into and shows the coverage and notch size it used.

It's set by your tile size, not a personal preference. A 6mm square-notch trowel suits small, lightweight wall tiles. A 10mm square-notch trowel is the standard choice for floor tiles and larger wall tiles, up to 600mm. A 20mm notch trowel, sometimes called a thick-bed floor trowel, is for large-format tiles over 600mm, and those tiles usually need double-trowelling too, adhesive combed onto both the substrate and the back of the tile, to avoid voids under a tile that large. Using too small a notch under a big tile is a common cause of hollow-sounding tiles later. The calculator above recommends the right notch size for your tile automatically.

Grout coverage depends on your tile size, the joint width and the joint depth, smaller tiles need noticeably more grout per m² than large ones, since there's more joint length packed into the same area. As a worked example, a 60cm by 60cm tile with a 3mm joint and a 8mm tile depth needs only about 0.13kg per m², while the same joint on a small mosaic-sized tile can need several times that. The calculator above works this out from your own tile size and joint width using the standard grout coverage formula, rather than a single average figure for every tile.

20kg, 5kg and 2kg are the standard South African retail sizes, confirmed on manufacturers' own grout calculators, not the odd sizes some generic international calculators assume. The bigger bag works out cheaper per kilogram, so for a small job like a bathroom splashback a single 2kg or 5kg bag is usually the right buy rather than opening a 20kg bag you'll mostly throw away, while a full room is usually cheaper bought as 20kg bags. The calculator above works out the cheapest combination of the three real sizes for your exact kilogram total.

You don't tile under them, so their footprint should be subtracted from the room's area before you calculate tiles, adhesive or grout, otherwise you'll overbuy all three. A built-in bath, a kitchen island's cabinet footprint, or a fireplace hearth are the common culprits in an otherwise simple rectangular room. The calculator above has a dedicated "subtract openings" section for exactly this, add each opening's own length and width and it's taken off the total before anything else is calculated.

The same way as any other room, work out the floor area and subtract the footprint of a built-in bath or vanity cabinet, then apply your waste percentage. A typical small South African bathroom floor is roughly 5 m², which in 60cm by 60cm tiles at a straight layout works out to about 16 tiles, roughly 4 boxes. Bathrooms tend to have more corners and pipe cutouts than a simple rectangular room though, a toilet base, a shower step, a niche, so it's worth ticking the calculator's "complicated layout" option for an extra 5% even on a straight layout, rather than assuming a bathroom wastes tile at the same rate as an open floor.

As a July 2026 reference point using this tool's own defaults, that 4m by 3m room above, tiled in a mid-range 60cm by 60cm porcelain or ceramic floor tile in a straight layout, comes to roughly R4 002 in materials alone, tiles, adhesive and grout, rounded up to what you'd actually buy at the till rather than a raw square-metre figure. That's before you add labour if you're hiring a tiler, see the next question, or tools and trims if you don't already own them. The calculator above gives you this total from your own room sizes and prices.

South African tiling labour typically runs R90 to R300 per m² for labour only, and R200 to R800 per m² for a supply-and-fit quote that includes the tiler's own materials, based on 2026 South African market rates. For that same 12 m² example room, that's roughly R1080 to R3600 for labour on top of your own materials, or roughly R2400 to R9600 all in in if you'd rather not source tiles and adhesive yourself. Complex layouts like herringbone, waterproofing in a wet area, and levelling an uneven floor all push a quote toward the top of these ranges. Always get a few written quotes rather than relying on a single average figure, the calculator above shows both ranges alongside your own DIY materials total so you can weigh them up side by side.

That depends on the room and your own experience more than the money alone. A simple, dry room like a small straight-laid floor is a reasonable first DIY tiling project. A wet area like a shower, a diagonal or herringbone layout, large-format tiles that need dead-flat levelling, or anywhere waterproofing is involved are far less forgiving of a first attempt, a mistake there can mean redoing the whole job, tiles included. Weigh the labour saving shown in the calculator above against your own comfort level and the cost of getting it wrong before deciding.

Add each room or area as its own row in the calculator above, an L-shaped room is usually easiest to enter as two rectangles that together cover the same floor. Every room you add is summed into one net area before waste, tiles, adhesive and grout are worked out, so you get one shopping list and one total cost for the whole job rather than adding up several separate calculations by hand.

Yes, noticeably more. A large-format tile, generally anything over 600mm on its longest side, needs a bigger 20mm notch trowel and usually double-trowelling, adhesive combed onto both the substrate and the back of the tile, which works out to roughly 7 to 8kg/m² against about 6kg/m² for a standard floor tile. Large tiles are also more prone to being slightly bowed, so that extra adhesive is about filling any hollow behind the tile as much as it is about coverage. The calculator above detects this automatically from your tile's dimensions and shows the higher rate and larger notch size it used.

Often, yes, though it comes down to tile size and weight more than floor versus wall as such. A small, lightweight ceramic wall tile needs the least adhesive of any tile, roughly 3kg/m² with a 6mm notch trowel, since it doesn't carry the same load as a floor tile. Once a wall tile gets larger or heavier, it moves into the same 6kg/m² tier as a standard floor tile, and a large-format tile needs the most either way. The calculator above asks whether you're tiling a floor or a wall as well as your tile size, since both affect which coverage tier applies.

Yes. It's brand-neutral, you enter your own tile size, price per box and tiles per box, so it works whether you're buying from CTM, Tile Africa, Italtile, a hardware chain's own range, or an imported tile from anywhere else. The adhesive and grout coverage rates are based on published South African technical data sheets for standard cementitious products rather than one specific brand, and every price field is editable to match whatever quote or receipt you're actually working from.