How to Figure Out the Number of Tiles for a Kitchen

Draw a rough sketch of the area you will be tiling.

Divide the sketch into basic shapes if necessary. If the area is composed of one square or rectangle, you won't need to do this. Typically in a kitchen tiling project, you will be working with one or more rectangles or squares, although you may have triangular or circular portions in some projects.

Measure the length and width of the rectangular and square portions and write the measurements in inches on your sketch. For triangles, measure the base and the height and record your measurements on the drawing. For circles, measure the distance across the circle and record the data.

Multiply the length times the width to find the area of the rectangular or square parts of the job. Multiply the base times the height and divide by 2 for triangular sections. For the area of circles, divide the diameter by 2 to find the radius. Then multiply the radius times itself. Multiply that answer times pi, which equals 3.1416.

Add the individual areas of each shape in your sketch to find the total area of the project. Again, if you have one basic shape, you won't need to add the areas of individual sections.

Measure the length and width of the tile you plan to use. Add the width of the recommended grout strip to the length and width measurements. Tile packages usually come with this recommendation printed on them. Multiply the tile length plus grout width by the tile width plus grout width to find the area of the tile. Measure in inches.

Divide the total area of the work space by the area of a tile to determine the minimum number of tiles you will need. Consider an example in which you have a floor that is 120 inches wide by 144 inches long. Multiply these measurements together to get an area of 17,280 square inches. If your tile is 12 inches by 12 inches, with a recommended 1/4 inch grout, multiply 12.25 times 12.25 to get a tile area of 150.0625 square inches. Divide 17,280 by 150.0625 to get 115.15. This means that you will need at least 116 tiles for the job.

Multiply the minimum number of tiles by .05 to .10 and add the product to your total. This calculation adds overage material to account for waste. For instance, 115 times .05 equals 5.75. This means that you should estimate approximately 6 extra tiles for a total of 121 tiles.