Many people have wondered how tiles are measured. Say something like Paving tile, Interior Wall Tile.To many individuals in this category, the idea of measuring tiles seems like rocket science that cannot be got. Chances are you too stumbled on this post while you are in search of a resource solution to help satisfy your curiosity and clear your imagination on tile measuring.
Of course, getting your tiling project started on the right foot is an important project in itself and the best way to achieve that is by taking the actual measurement to ensure that you are not buying too little time or too much in excess.
Happily, to address your concerns on “how tiles are measured”, we bring to you these awesome reviews through a pretty straightforward practical-based solution. It is based on the formula. Once you grasp the formula, which we will share, we bet you can handle your tiling project successfully like a pro and without any headache.
Measuring Tile –Why So Important?
Whether you are the engineer, builder, contractor, project manager, project supervisor, or project owner, measuring tile before going into the project is a great idea.
It helps to ensure that you are not going to end up with a loss of time due to a delay in the project as a result of a shortage of material as well as monetary loss due to an overstock of tiles in excess.
Monetary Loss
Modern-day tiles are a huge investment that comes at a great cost. It’s a piece that you add into your space to elevate it and keep floors and walls looking awesome for longer.
Therefore, you would not want to end up purchasing too many tiles and having leftovers that you won’t use. That would be a waste of resources.We can say, that measuring is a value-driven concept that saves money.
Time Loss
Conversely, there is the potential issue that you order too little, quite less than your project space. Although this might not result in a loss of money to you, it is a loss of time.
There are two risks involved –One is that you simply have to place an additional order for more tiles to complete the project and then wait for it the order to arrive. This automatically delays your project.
Design Unavailability
Not to be ignored is the painful reality when your initial chosen brand, design, size, color, and pattern of tiles are “sold out” and “out of stock”. The last thing you want is to learn halfway through your tile project that you didn’t order enough.
The result? You either end the project without completion or you complete the project with a design mixture that may violate your project goal and master plan.
That said, the issues involved are clearer. Learning the technical know-how on measuring tiles can help prevent many of the problems highlighted above and help race your project to success.
How to Measure a Room or Wall
When it comes to measuring and calculating the amount of tiles that are required to fill a space, a clear procedure is involved. Happily, with these 3 clear and easy-to-understand steps below, you do not need a math degree to do this.
Materials For the task at hand, you will need the following materials:
Measuring Tape
Paper/Notepad
Pencil
Calculator
1. measure Your Areas
Once you have gathered your materials, next is to measure the space you would be tiling, make sure the area is clear and nothing like the bump is in the way of your measuring tape. The idea is that your measuring tape should be able to travel from one end to another without bending or folding.
To do this, grab your measuring tape. Measure the length of your walls or floors and the width of your walls or floors. Whether you are working with wall or floor, the procedure of measuring your tiles is the same.
2. Multiply For Total Coverage
Now, it’s time to get the full “square footage of the room”. To do so, take the length measurement and multiply it by the width measurement.
Formula for Measuring Tile
For spaces that are standard shape i.e. perfect square or rectangle
Length x Width = Area
Measuring Irregular Shape
There is caution when dealing with irregularly shaped spaces like L- L-shaped, T- T-shaped, etc. You will want to break the irregular shape down into smaller sections and use the area formula in each section. After that, you’d add the areas of the square together for a total.
How Many Tiles Would Cover an Area/Space?
Now you need to find out the square footage of the tile you are installing. This is important to figure out the amount of tiles required to fill a space down to the last piece
First, find the total area of the tile. While doing that, as a best practice, remember to add the “grout lines” difference. While they can vary, the standard is 1/8. Hence, whatever measurement you get, tack on 1/8 to it. That will ensure an accurate measurement and calculation.
Grout Lines
Wondering what a grout line is?
It is the distance that separates one tile from the other. Grout lines are important because permit dilation of the floors and natural settling due to structural movements, humidity, and temperature changes.
Now let’s calculate the area. Also note that if the tile dimensions aren’t listed in feet, you should convert it to feet. To achieve that, divide the total area of the tile by 144 (the number of square inches in a foot)
Consider this example:Suppose your tile is 36’’ by 36’’. First, add 1/8 grout line to both sides so that it comes to 1,305.015.Taking the unit to the square foot, divide the result by 144, this gives 9.06 Approximately, the total area of the tile will be 9 sq.
ft Finally, you need to place that number in your number of tiles formula, which is
Number of Tiles = Area of Room / Area of tiles
As an imaginary example, if your room area is 2300 by 2300, then the Total room area is 4,600sq.ft,
Number of tiles = 4600 / 9
= 511.11
Precise Number of Tiles = 511
Measuring Tiles for Round Space
It can be a challenging task to measure tiles for round space. However, this trick will simplify the process. To achieve this, figure out the diameter, that is ‘measuring straight line through one end of the circle center to the other end’.
Then divide the diameter (length) by two to obtain the ‘radius’. As usual, you aim to get the total area in square feet by multiplying the radius by pi – or 3.14
Take a look at the example below:
Assume you are tiling a circular area of 240-inch diameter
To get the radius, divide by 2: 240/2 = 120’’ inch
The total area in square feet will be 120 multiplied by 3.14 =376.8 sq. ft
Since tiles are not sold in fractions, aim for whole/rounded-up figures.
That is 377 sq ft
Factoring Overage
Here comes another big term you should be familiar with in the cause of your tile project. Overage refers to some percentage extras more than what your actual footage is. Accommodating for overage in your tile measurement when budgeting is both ideal and best practice.
Factors Affecting Overage
Type of tile. stone tile with a wide variation like slate, would require higher overage because the cull rate is much higher. For ceramic or porcelain laid straight, the overage is considerably low.
The shape of space or room. some room requires unusually unique cuts. if you are tiling a room with curved walls, or angular walls, or if the room has several columns, you are going to have more materials wasted.
Mistake/Error. Try as we might, mistakes will occur, however little. It could be due to incorrect measurement when cutting or chipping, poor machine handling, or mechanical faults developed by the machine in the process of cutting. This could result in a piece or two that get wasted or bad.
Click to know Do you Know How to Cut the Porcelain Tile to Reduce Cracking? Hope it can help you.
General Cuts. Normally, there are certain cuts that you would need to make. When you are dealing with 2’’ x 2’’ tiles and have installed almost the entire room and still need a row of tiles that is 2’’ x 11/2’’ to fit up tightly against the wall you’re going to have a lot of pieces that measure 2’’ x 11/2’’ which you wouldn’t be able to avoid.
As standard practice, the moderate overage is set at 15%, especially for a project that entails angular cuts and curve patterns.
conclusion
With these many details shared on how to measure tiles, the methods, and standard formula, important caution to take, and special consideration to be given to unusual shapes, your next tiling project would be a lot easier.
You won’t also be in doubt about how many tiles you would need to cover an area when shopping for tiles. Knowledge of accurate measuring techniques will free you from the frustrations of having your project paused or delayed when tiles are exhausted due to inaccurate measurement.
We, George Ceramic, are one of the best suppliers in China, if you have any questions, please contact us to solve them for you.
Related Reading: A Guide to Understanding the Costs of Installing Floor Tiles