HOW MANY TILES?
Square or oblong areas
• measure lengths and width of the area
• divide each measurement by the size of tile you’re using, rounding up to the next whole number if you get a fraction • multiply the two figures to give the number of tiles needed Awkwardly-shaped areas
• divide area into convenient squares or oblongs
• work out each one as above adding up the area totals to give the final figures Patterns using two or more different tiles
• sketch out design on graph paper, one square for each tile (two for oblong tiles); use colours to mark where different tiles fall
• count up totals needed of each pattern, counting part tiles as whole ones Add 10% to your final tile counts to allow for breakages
ADHESIVE/GROUT For each square metre of tiling allow:
• 1.5kg (about 1 litre) of adhesive
• 150g of grout
TIP: AVOID NARROW STRIPS Less than about 25mm/1 in wide is very difficult to cut. When planning, if you see narrow strips are going to occur you can:
• replan the rows to use one less whole tile with two wider cut pieces at either end
• or increase the grouting space slightly between every tile in the row