Tile & Flooring Calculator

How to use the Tile & Flooring Calculator

1. Choose US (feet and inches) or Metric (meters and centimeters).
2. Pick Tile for individual tiles or Flooring sold by the box for laminate, vinyl plank or engineered wood.
3. Enter the length and width of the floor. Add a section for each rectangle of an L-shaped room, hallway or closet.
4. For tile, enter the tile size and, if you know it, how many tiles come in a box. For boxed flooring, enter the coverage per box.
5. Set the waste allowance (10% is typical; tick Diagonal to use 15%), then read the number of tiles and boxes. Add your price for a cost estimate.

How it works

The calculator adds up the area of every section, increases it by the waste percentage, and divides by the area of one tile (width × length). The tile count is rounded up to a whole tile, and if you enter tiles per box, the box count is rounded up too. For boxed flooring the area with waste is divided by the coverage printed on the box.

Waste covers cut pieces at walls and doorways, breakage and pattern matching. About 10% is a common allowance for a straight layout in a simple room. Diagonal and herringbone layouts produce more offcuts, so 15% or more is typical. Rooms with many corners, large-format tiles or natural stone may need more. Keeping a few spare tiles from the same batch also helps with future repairs, because colors vary between production runs.

Example: a 10 × 12 ft floor is 120 sq ft. With 10% waste that is 132 sq ft. A 12 × 12 in tile covers exactly 1 sq ft, so you need 132 tiles. At 10 tiles per box that is 14 boxes (140 tiles).

Grout joints are not subtracted from the tile area. Joints make the real coverage slightly larger than the tile count suggests, which simply adds a little extra margin.

Frequently asked questions

How much extra tile should I buy?
A common rule is 10% extra for straight layouts and about 15% for diagonal or herringbone patterns. Add more for rooms with lots of corners, for large tiles or if you are new to tiling.

How do I convert tile size to square feet?
Multiply width × length in inches and divide by 144. A 12 × 24 in tile is 288 ÷ 144 = 2 sq ft. In metric, multiply the size in centimeters and divide by 10,000 to get m² (30 × 60 cm = 0.18 m²).

Should I include closets and areas under appliances?
Include anywhere the floor will actually go. Many people skip the area under built-in cabinets but tile under freestanding appliances such as a refrigerator.

Does it work for wall tile or backsplashes?
Yes. Enter the wall width and height as a section, and subtract nothing for small outlets; the waste allowance absorbs those. For a window, you can add a separate calculation and subtract the result.

Can I use it for carpet?
For carpet sold by the square foot or square yard, use the measured area and add waste. Carpet comes off a roll in fixed widths, so seam placement can change how much you need; ask the installer for a seam plan.