Guide
How much tile to order, and why it should all come at once.
Scale Homes Design Center · Updated
The short answer
Measure the area in square feet, add 10% for a straight lay or about 15% for diagonal, herringbone or a room full of cuts, divide by the square feet in a carton, and round up to whole cartons. Then order it all in one go, so every carton comes from the same dye lot.
Measure the area
Break the room into rectangles, multiply length by width for each, and add them up. For walls, multiply height by width and take out windows and doors. For a shower, measure each wall, the floor and the niche separately, because they're often different tiles.
Add overage for the layout
| Layout | Add |
|---|---|
| Straight lay, simple room | 10% |
| Offset or large-format tile | 10 to 15% |
| Diagonal or herringbone | 15 to 20% |
| Small room with many cuts, or mosaic around a drain | 15% |
Overage covers cuts, the odd broken tile, and the pieces that don't fit the next row. A cut at a doorway rarely goes back in the box.
Round up to cartons
Tile is sold by the carton, and each carton covers a set number of square feet, listed on every tile's page here. Say the floor is 120 sq ft, laid straight, and the tile comes at 15.5 sq ft to a carton. 120 × 1.10 = 132 sq ft. 132 ÷ 15.5 = 8.5, so 9 cartons.
Why it should all come at once
Tile is fired in batches, and two batches of the same colour rarely match exactly. The carton carries a lot or shade code; cartons with the same code match, and cartons from a second order months later can look like a different tile next to the first. We deliver the whole job together so it comes from one run.
Keep one spare carton when the job is done. If a tile cracks in five years, the replacement will match.