24x24 & Large Format Tile Calculator

Coverage by tile size

Every other size: what it is for and where it catches people out

Pick any of these in the calculator above. The numbers come from the tile's nominal size; the notes are the part a formula cannot tell you.

• 2 x 2 in

  0.03 sq ft per tile · 3600 tiles per 100 sq ft · typical joint 1/8 in

  Mosaic sheets for shower floors, where small tiles let the surface slope to the drain.

  Almost nobody buys these loose. They come face-mounted on 12x12 sheets, so what you are really counting is sheets — and the sheet, not the tile, is what has to fit your space.

  Shower floors need more cutting than a flat floor because the slope meets the walls at an angle, so 15% is a safer allowance than 10%.

• 4 x 4 in

  0.11 sq ft per tile · 900 tiles per 100 sq ft · typical joint 1/16 in

  Classic wall tile for kitchens and bathrooms, and still common on countertops in older homes.

  Four-inch tile puts a lot of joint into a small area — roughly three times the grout of 12x12 for the same square footage. Budget the grout accordingly.

• 6 x 6 in

  0.25 sq ft per tile · 400 tiles per 100 sq ft · typical joint 1/8 in

  Wall tile and small-format floors, often in period-style bathrooms.

  Six-inch tile divides evenly into most room dimensions, which means long unbroken grout lines. Offsetting the rows by half a tile hides slight variations in the wall.

• 8 x 8 in

  0.44 sq ft per tile · 225 tiles per 100 sq ft · typical joint 1/16 in

  Patterned cement and encaustic-look tile, where the design repeats across the field.

  Patterned 8x8 is the one size where waste depends on the pattern rather than the cuts — if the design has an orientation, you cannot rotate a tile to make it fit, so you cut a fresh one.

  Directional patterns push waste to 15-20% because an offcut often cannot be used anywhere else.

• 16 x 16 in

  1.78 sq ft per tile · 57 tiles per 100 sq ft · typical joint 3/16 in

  Budget floor tile, common in builder-grade installations.

  Sixteen inches divides awkwardly into most rooms, so you get a thin cut strip at one edge. Plan the layout from the centre of the room rather than from a wall and you split that strip between two sides where it is less obvious.

• 18 x 18 in

  2.25 sq ft per tile · 45 tiles per 100 sq ft · typical joint 3/16 in

  A common floor size, big enough to look modern without needing large-format handling.

  At 18 inches the subfloor starts to matter. A tile this size cannot bridge a dip, so any hollow under it becomes a crack later. Check flatness before you spread thinset, not after.

• 20 x 20 in

  2.78 sq ft per tile · 36 tiles per 100 sq ft · typical joint 3/16 in

  Large-format floor tile for open-plan living areas.

  Twenty-inch tile weighs enough that a full box is awkward to carry up stairs. Work out the box count before delivery day and have somewhere on the same level to stack them.

• 3 x 12 in

  0.25 sq ft per tile · 400 tiles per 100 sq ft · typical joint 1/16 in

  Long subway tile, used for a more contemporary version of the classic brick wall.

  The longer the tile, the more any bow in it shows at the joint. Stick to a third-offset rather than a half-offset on 3x12 — a half-offset puts the peak of one tile's bow against its neighbour's centre, which is where lippage is most visible.

• 4 x 12 in

  0.33 sq ft per tile · 300 tiles per 100 sq ft · typical joint 1/16 in

  Wide subway tile for backsplashes and shower walls.

  Four by twelve covers a backsplash quickly, which is the point — but it also means a single cut tile at the end of a run is very visible. Set out the run dry first and split the difference between both ends.

• 6 x 24 in

  1 sq ft per tile · 100 tiles per 100 sq ft · typical joint 3/16 in

  Wood-look plank tile, the most common plank proportion.

  Plank tile is where the one-third offset rule matters most. Laying planks at a half-offset exaggerates any curvature along the length, and on a 24-inch plank that shows as a ridge you can feel underfoot.

  Plank layouts waste more than square tile because the offcut from the end of one row only starts the next row if the offset happens to match. Allow 12-15%.

• 6 x 36 in

  1.5 sq ft per tile · 67 tiles per 100 sq ft · typical joint 3/16 in

  Long wood-look plank tile, for rooms where fewer end joints look more like real boards.

  Three feet is long enough that flatness tolerance becomes the deciding factor. A subfloor that passes for 12x12 will not pass for 6x36 — the standard is tighter the longer the tile gets.

  Allow 12-15%; long planks produce offcuts that rarely start the next row cleanly.

• 8 x 48 in

  2.67 sq ft per tile · 38 tiles per 100 sq ft · typical joint 3/16 in

  Extra-long wood-look plank, closest in proportion to real floorboards.

  A four-foot tile needs two people and a suction-cup lifter to place accurately, and it needs back-buttering to get full coverage. This is not a size to learn on.

  Allow 15%; a bad cut on a four-foot plank wastes a lot of tile at once.

• 12 x 36 in

  3 sq ft per tile · 34 tiles per 100 sq ft · typical joint 1/8 in

  Large-format wall tile, often run vertically in showers to reduce joint lines.

  Run vertically, a 12x36 shower wall can be done with a single horizontal joint or none at all. Measure the wall height before ordering — if it is under 36 inches above the curb you may not need a cut at all.

• 24 x 48 in

  8 sq ft per tile · 13 tiles per 100 sq ft · typical joint 1/8 in

  Large-format panels for floors and feature walls where minimal grout is the goal.

  At this size a levelling system is not optional. Two millimetres of lippage across a 48-inch edge is both visible and a trip hazard, and there is no fixing it once the thinset cures.

  Allow 15%. Panels this large are also the ones most likely to arrive with a damaged corner, so check every piece on delivery while the pallet is still on the truck.

12x12 and 12x24 have their own pages with room-by-room tables: the 12x12 tile calculator and the 12x24 tile calculator.