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Tile Calculator & Layout Planner — Work Out Tiles, Boxes, Cuts & Cost in Minutes
Draw your actual room — rectangle, L-shape, any shape — cut around the bath, vanity and windows, then get the exact tile count, boxes to buy, full cut list and a real price. Balance the set-out, place movement joints to AS 3958.1, and print the lot. Built by a Sydney tiler with 53+ years on the tools.
- Tiles, boxes & waste calculated instantly
- Cut list & set-out you can print or save
- Any room shape, with fixtures cut out
- Licensed Sydney tiler · Lic. 206514C
Free on-site quotes across Sydney · Bathrooms, kitchens, pools & commercial · Family-run since 1972
Estimate only. This calculator gives a guide for planning and budgeting. Actual quantities vary with substrate condition, out-of-square walls, falls, pattern, breakages and tiler discretion — always confirm final quantities with your supplier and allow your own waste margin before ordering. Figures are not a quote and Leerberg Tiling Pty Ltd accepts no liability for tiles ordered, costs incurred or decisions made based on these results. For a fixed price, request a free on-site quote.
Room
Tile
Tile colour
Waste
Fixtures & openings (cm, cut as holes)
Movement joints (AS 3958.1)
Joints are kept tile-free and filled with flexible sealant (silicone), never grout. AUTO spaces them ≤4.5 m internal / ≤3 m external. Add one over every slab control joint.
Materials & cost
Project autosaves in this browser. Save/Open moves it between devices.
Rectangle
L-shape
Wall by wall
Walk around the room: direction + length of each wall. The last wall closes itself.
Rectangle: drag to draw the room · Draw Shape: click each corner, double-click to close · Select: drag corners, fixtures, joints, or the tiles themselves · wheel zooms, Shift-drag pans
Cut list — tap a row to highlight
Numbers stacking up to a real job? Call 02 9808 1824 or send the quote form — the set-out you just planned is exactly what's included in every fixed quote.
The honest version
Why "add 10%" is the wrong way to work out tile quantities
Nearly every tile calculator in Australia does the same thing: it works out your square metres, adds a flat 10% or 15%, and calls it waste. That number is a guess dressed up as maths. On a real job the waste isn't a fixed percentage — it's whatever falls on the floor once the tiles are actually laid into your room, in your pattern, around your bath and doorway.
Two rooms with the identical floor area can need wildly different amounts of tile. A straight lay in a square room might waste under 5%. The same tiles in a small bathroom set in herringbone can waste north of 20%, because every tile meets the wall on a 45° angle and the triangular offcuts rarely fit anywhere else. A flat percentage is least accurate exactly where it matters most.
This calculator doesn't guess. It lays every tile into the room you draw, clips each one against the walls and around every fixture, counts the cuts, and shows you where they land. The waste it reports is measured from the actual set-out — then we add a small breakage buffer on top, because tiles chip and the odd one cracks. That's how a tiler works it out on site, and it's why the number you get here is closer to the truth than "area × 1.1".
Waste by pattern
How much extra tile each layout really needs
Pattern is the single biggest lever on waste after room shape. These are the ranges we work to after 50-plus years of Sydney jobs — use them as a sanity check against whatever the calculator shows for your specific room:
| Layout | Typical waste | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Straight / stack | 5–8% | Full rows, cuts only at the perimeter. The most economical lay. |
| Brick / offset (50%) | 8–12% | Staggered joints mean more part-tiles at the ends of rows. |
| Third-offset (large format) | 10–14% | Big tiles plus a one-third stagger leaves bigger offcuts. |
| Diagonal (45°) | 12–18% | Every perimeter tile is cut on an angle; corners are fiddly. |
| Herringbone / chevron | 15–25% | All four walls produce diagonal cuts. Triangular offcuts seldom reuse. |
| Hexagon / mosaic | 10–20% | Curved and angled edges; sheet-mounted formats cut to waste. |
Small rooms push every figure higher, because the cut perimeter is large relative to the area. Large-format tiles in a small bathroom are the classic waste trap — a higher proportion of every tile ends up cut.
The cut nobody warns you about
Thin slivers — and why the set-out matters more than the maths
The first decision a good tiler makes isn't how many tiles — it's where the first tile goes. Start in the wrong spot and you finish the wall on a 12 mm sliver: a fragile splinter of tile that cracks when you cut it, looks wrong once it's grouted, and screams "DIY" to anyone who notices. Shift the start point by half a tile and that same wall finishes on a clean, solid cut.
This tool highlights thin cuts in red on the plan and lets you drag the start point (the datum) to balance the set-out, so you can see the slivers disappear before a single tile is bought. No retailer calculator does this, because they never lay the tiles — they only multiply. Balancing the set-out is the difference between a job that looks laid by a tradesman and one that looks laid by a calculator.
Wet areas & the law
Waterproofing, falls and the Australian Standards that apply
Most tiling failures we're called to fix aren't tiling failures at all — they're waterproofing failures hiding under good-looking tiles. If you're tiling a bathroom, laundry, ensuite or balcony, the waterproofing under the tiles is what keeps the water out of the building, and it's governed by Australian Standards, not opinion.
- AS 3740 — waterproofing of domestic wet areas. Sets where membrane is required, how high it goes, and how junctions are treated.
- AS 4654.2 — external above-ground waterproofing, for balconies, terraces and podiums.
- AS 3958.1 — ceramic tile installation, including where movement joints go (this calculator spaces them for you: ≤4.5 m internal, ≤3 m external, plus over every structural joint).
- Falls to waste — wet-area floors must drain. A minimum 1:80 fall to the floor waste is standard so water doesn't pond.
NSW law: waterproofing of a wet area is work that must be carried out and certified by a licensed person, and any tiling or waterproofing job over $5,000 in labour and materials requires a licensed contractor and home-building insurance. A waterproofing certificate should be issued on completion — plenty of cut-price "tilers" skip it. Leerberg Tiling supplies one on every wet-area job as standard.
Measuring up
How to measure your room for tiles (the right way)
- Measure in millimetres. Length and width of the floor, and the height × width of any wall you're tiling. Millimetres avoid the rounding errors that creep in with metres.
- Break odd shapes into rectangles. An L-shaped room is just two rectangles — or draw the actual outline in the tool above and skip the maths entirely.
- Cut out the big openings. Subtract a doorway or a large window from a tiled wall. Don't bother subtracting small niches or pipe penetrations — the offcuts there usually balance against waste.
- Tile behind the vanity and under the bath hob. It's industry standard, it future-proofs the room, and it's what a certifier expects to see.
- Add your set-out and pattern before you total. The pattern and the start point change the count — which is the whole point of planning it here first.
Common questions
Tile calculator FAQ
How many tiles do I need?
Work out the area to be tiled (length × width), divide by the area of one tile, then add waste for cuts and breakage. The honest figure depends on your tile size, pattern and room shape — which is why this calculator lays the tiles into your actual room rather than just adding a flat percentage. Draw your room above and it returns the exact tile count, the number to order with waste, and how many boxes that is.
How much waste should I allow for tiles?
As a rule of thumb: 5–10% for a straight lay, 10–15% for offset and diagonal, and 15–25% for herringbone or natural stone. But waste is driven by your room shape and tile size as much as the pattern, so a measured figure from the layout above beats any rule of thumb. Always keep a few spare tiles from the same batch for future repairs — dye lots change.
How many tiles come in a box?
It varies by tile size — check the box label for the coverage in m² or the piece count. Common formats: 600×600 mm tiles often come 4 per box (1.44 m²), 300×600 mm around 8–9 per box. Enter your tiles-per-box in the calculator and it rounds your order up to whole boxes for you.
Does the calculator account for grout gaps and pattern?
Yes. You set the grout joint width and choose the pattern, and both feed into the layout — the tiles are spaced by the joint and laid in the pattern you pick, so the count reflects the real set-out, not a simplified grid.
Is herringbone really more expensive to tile?
Yes — on two fronts. It wastes more tile (every edge cut is diagonal), and it's slower to lay, so the labour is higher too. Set your pattern to herringbone in the tool and compare the order quantity against a straight lay for your room to see the tile difference in your own numbers.
Do I legally need waterproofing and a certificate?
In NSW, wet-area waterproofing must comply with AS 3740 and be done by a licensed person, and work over $5,000 requires a licensed contractor with home-building insurance. A waterproofing certificate should be supplied on completion. It's not optional, and it's the step most leaking-shower problems trace back to. Leerberg Tiling certifies every wet-area job.
Is this calculator a quote?
No. It's a planning and budgeting guide. The real count on site shifts with substrate condition, out-of-square walls, falls and tiler discretion. For a fixed price, Leerberg Tiling gives free on-site quotes across Sydney — call 02 9808 1824.
Planned it? Now get it laid properly.
This tool gives you the numbers. Leerberg Tiling gives you the finish — a licensed, insured Sydney tiler since 1972, waterproofing certified to standard, no subcontractors, the tiler who quotes your job is the tiler who lays it.
Lic. 206514C · Fully insured · HIA members · Bathrooms, kitchens, pools & commercial across Sydney