How do I calculate how much tile I need for a bathroom floor?

Measure the room length times width in feet to get square footage. Add 10 percent for a straight grid layout or 15 percent for diagonal. Divide the total by the box coverage printed on the tile carton and round up to the next whole box. For a 5x8 bathroom with 10% waste, you need 44 sq ft of tile.

How much does it cost to tile a bathroom floor?

Bathroom floor tile material costs $1 to $15 per square foot depending on tile type. Labor adds $8 to $20 per square foot. A standard 40 sq ft bathroom floor in mid-range porcelain with standard labor runs $400 to $1,400 total for floor tile only, not including walls.

How many square feet of tile do I need for a tub surround?

A standard 5-foot tub in a three-wall alcove tiled to 60 inches high has roughly 55 square feet of surface area. Add 10 to 15 percent for waste, bringing the order quantity to about 60 to 63 square feet. This does not include the floor tile, which is calculated separately.

Should I tile behind the toilet and vanity?

Tiling behind a wall-hung or pedestal vanity is standard practice since those fixtures are removed during tile work anyway. For a floor-mounted vanity with a full base, tile installers typically stop at the vanity base since it will not show. For the toilet, the tile almost always runs under it — the toilet is removed, tile is laid, and the toilet is reset with a new wax ring. This adds a small reset fee but is the correct approach.

How Much Tile Does a Bathroom Need? (With Cost Guide)

A typical 5x8 bathroom needs 40 to 60 square feet of floor tile plus 80 to 120 square feet of shower or tub wall tile, depending on how high you tile. Here is how to measure each surface correctly, choose the right waste factor, and estimate material cost before you buy.

Measuring the Bathroom Floor

Start with the floor. Measure the room length by width in feet and multiply to get square footage. For a standard 5x8 bathroom, that's 40 square feet. Subtract the footprint of the toilet (about 0.5 sq ft at the base), vanity (if floor-to-wall with no floor tile underneath), and tub if it sits on the subfloor and won't have tile under it. In practice, most tile installers do not subtract the toilet because the tile runs under it, and the small deductions rarely change the tile order quantity.

For L-shaped or irregular bathrooms, break the space into rectangles, calculate each, and sum them. Include the closet floor if it gets the same tile. Once you have the net square footage, add a waste factor: 10 percent for a straight grid layout, 15 percent for a diagonal layout (cuts on every edge create more waste), and 15 to 20 percent for mosaic or small-format tile like 2x2 penny tile, which has many more cuts and a higher chance of breakage.

A 40 sq ft bathroom floor at 10 percent waste needs 44 sq ft of tile to order. Check the box coverage printed on the tile carton and divide your total by that number, rounding up to the next full box. A 12x12 tile in a box covering 8 square feet needs 6 boxes for a 44 sq ft floor.

Measuring Shower Walls or Tub Surrounds

Shower and tub walls are measured by their surface area in square feet. For a standard tub surround that tiles three walls up to 60 inches high, measure the width of the back wall and multiply by the tile height (5 feet), then do the same for each side wall. A standard 5-foot tub with a 3-foot-wide alcove has a back wall of 5 feet wide by 5 feet high (25 sq ft) and two side walls of 3 feet wide by 5 feet high (15 sq ft each) for a total of 55 square feet. Add 10 to 15 percent waste for a tub surround — the cuts at the tub deck, corners, and around the faucet valve add up.

A walk-in shower is measured the same way: measure each wall that gets tile and multiply by the tile height. If you are tiling to the ceiling (a common design choice for a spa look), measure the full wall height. Do not forget the shower floor, which is usually a different, smaller tile — 2x2, 3x3, or 2x4 — for slip resistance. A 36x36 inch shower floor is 9 square feet, and with 20 percent waste for mosaic tile it rounds to about 11 square feet. The ProBuildCalc bathroom tile calculator handles all of this — input each surface and it adds the right waste factor and outputs the total boxes to order.

Free tool: Bathroom Tile Calculator →

Tile Cost Breakdown

Ceramic tile for bathroom floors runs $1 to $5 per square foot for standard field tile, $5 to $15 for mid-range porcelain, and $15 to $30 or more for large-format, natural stone, or imported designer tile. For the wall tile in a shower or tub surround, costs follow a similar range. The total material cost for tile in an average bathroom (floor plus tub surround) using mid-range porcelain ranges from $400 to $900 in tile alone.

Add grout, thinset mortar, and backer board. Thinset runs roughly $20 to $35 per 50-pound bag, which covers about 40 to 60 square feet at 3/16-inch notch trowel. Grout comes in sanded (for joints wider than 1/8 inch) and unsanded (for narrow joints) varieties and costs $15 to $25 per bag covering 50 to 100 square feet depending on tile size and joint width. Cement board (backer board) for the shower walls costs $10 to $15 per 3x5 sheet. For a full bathroom tile job, budget an additional $200 to $400 in materials beyond the tile itself.

Labor Cost for Bathroom Tile

Professional tile installation typically runs $8 to $20 per square foot for labor, depending on tile size, layout complexity, region, and the contractor. Large-format tile (24x24 or bigger) often costs more to install because each piece requires a perfectly flat surface and more time to set. Mosaic tile with many small pieces takes longer to set than standard field tile, so its labor cost is higher per square foot as well. A diagonal or herringbone layout adds roughly 15 to 25 percent to the labor cost over a straight grid pattern.

For a standard bathroom with a 40 sq ft floor, 60 sq ft tub surround, and 9 sq ft shower floor using standard porcelain tile in a straight layout, expect $800 to $1,600 in labor on top of materials. Total project cost (materials plus labor) for a bathroom tile job in the average size and material tier runs $1,500 to $3,500. Upgrading to large-format stone or complex layouts can push the total to $4,000 to $6,000 or more.

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FAQ

How do I calculate how much tile I need for a bathroom floor?: Measure the room length times width in feet to get square footage. Add 10 percent for a straight grid layout or 15 percent for diagonal. Divide the total by the box coverage printed on the tile carton and round up to the next whole box. For a 5x8 bathroom with 10% waste, you need 44 sq ft of tile.
How much does it cost to tile a bathroom floor?: Bathroom floor tile material costs $1 to $15 per square foot depending on tile type. Labor adds $8 to $20 per square foot. A standard 40 sq ft bathroom floor in mid-range porcelain with standard labor runs $400 to $1,400 total for floor tile only, not including walls.
How many square feet of tile do I need for a tub surround?: A standard 5-foot tub in a three-wall alcove tiled to 60 inches high has roughly 55 square feet of surface area. Add 10 to 15 percent for waste, bringing the order quantity to about 60 to 63 square feet. This does not include the floor tile, which is calculated separately.
Should I tile behind the toilet and vanity?: Tiling behind a wall-hung or pedestal vanity is standard practice since those fixtures are removed during tile work anyway. For a floor-mounted vanity with a full base, tile installers typically stop at the vanity base since it will not show. For the toilet, the tile almost always runs under it — the toilet is removed, tile is laid, and the toilet is reset with a new wax ring. This adds a small reset fee but is the correct approach.