Tile installation cost dataset
This is the complete dataset behind the tile calculator, at national rates. It leads with the substrate rather than the tile, because that is what actually separates two quotes for the same room — and with the piece count, because that is what separates two rooms for the same tiler. Both tables are the answer to a question people ask about price and that is really about geometry. Last reviewed 2026-08-23.
What goes underneath, and what it costs
National figures, 144 square feet of standard porcelain, straight pattern, old surface removed. Only the substrate changes.
| Substrate | Share of bill | Total | Per sq ft | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concrete slab | 27% | $3,775 | $26 | The easy case: clean it, prime it and set the tile. Nothing moves under a slab, so nothing needs to go between it and the tile except the adhesive. |
| Wood subfloor with cement backer board | 37% | $4,320 | $30 | The traditional answer over a timber floor: a layer of cement board screwed and bedded down first. It adds height, it adds weight and it adds a day, and it is what stops the floor moving under the tile. |
| Wood subfloor with an uncoupling membrane | 37% | $4,331 | $30 | A dimpled sheet that lets the floor move underneath while the tile stays still. Thinner and faster than backer board and dearer per square foot, and it is what most tilers now use where height matters. |
| Straight over existing tile | 29% | $3,863 | $27 | ⚠️ Possible and often a false economy. It saves the demolition and it raises the floor by half an inch, which then fights every door, every threshold and the toilet flange. It also inherits whatever was wrong underneath. |
Same tile, same tiler, same room: $556 apart. Tile does not bend and a timber floor does, so something has to go between them or the bond breaks and the grout cracks within a season. When two quotes for the same job differ by a wide margin, the useful question is not why one is expensive — it is what each of them puts underneath, and whether the cheap one has answered that at all.
The piece count, which is the labour
Same 144 square feet, same porcelain, same substrate. Only the tile size changes.
| Format | Pieces per sq ft | Pieces in total | Setting hours | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mosaic, around 2 inches | 36 | 5,184 | 32 | $5,323 |
| Small format, around 6 inches | 4 | 576 | 21 | $4,714 |
| Standard, around 12 inches | 1 | 144 | 14 | $4,320 |
| Large format, 18 to 24 inches | 0.3 | 43 | 11 | $4,185 |
| Plank or wood-look, long and narrow | 2.3 | 331 | 19 | $4,584 |
A 2-inch mosaic has 120 times the pieces per square foot of a 22-inch format, and somebody places every one of them. ⚠️ The reverse is not free: a large tile cannot bend, so it shows every hollow in a floor as a raised corner, and levelling underneath often costs more on a large-format job than the pattern does. Fewer pieces is not the same as less work.
Cost by area
| Area | Tile to buy | Trade hours | Cost | Per sq ft | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 sq ft | 43.2 sq ft | 13 | $1,685 | $42 | A small bathroom floor |
| 100 sq ft | 108 sq ft | 27 | $3,217 | $32 | A hall or a utility room |
| 144 sq ft | 155.5 sq ft | 36 | $4,320 | $30 | A 12 by 12 room |
| 400 sq ft | 432 sq ft | 94 | $10,681 | $27 | An open-plan kitchen and diner |
| 1000 sq ft | 1080 sq ft | 229 | $25,352 | $25 | A whole ground floor |
⚠️ Above a few hundred square feet two things start to matter that are not in this model: the tile has to be ordered in a single batch, because two batches of the same product are not the same colour, and a large continuous floor needs movement joints, which are a real detail rather than an optional one.
Material and pattern
Tile material
| Material | Labour factor | Total | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ceramic | ×1 | $3,788 | Softer and easier to cut than porcelain, and it takes water in more readily, so it belongs on walls and on floors that stay dry. The cheapest tile there is. |
| Porcelain | ×1.12 | $4,320 | Denser, harder and nearly waterproof, which is why it is the default for floors, showers and anywhere that freezes. It needs a diamond blade and it takes longer to cut, which is where the extra hours go. |
| Natural stone | ×1.35 | $5,666 | Marble, travertine, slate. Every piece is a different thickness and a different colour, so each one is bedded individually and the batch is laid out dry first. It also needs sealing, and the sealing is not once. |
Laying pattern
| Pattern | Waste | Tile to buy | Adds | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Straight or running bond | 8% | 155.5 sq ft | — | Grid or half-offset. Cuts only where the field meets a wall, which is the least waste and the least time. |
| Diagonal, at 45 degrees | 15% | 165.6 sq ft | +$244 | Every tile at the perimeter is cut on a diagonal, and each cut leaves an offcut that fits nowhere. It makes a small room read larger and it costs about twice the waste. |
| Herringbone or basketweave | 20% | 172.8 sq ft | +$503 | The most work per square foot of any common pattern: every piece is set to two neighbours rather than one, and the perimeter is entirely cuts. Beautiful, and priced accordingly. |
Line items
The default job is 144 square feet of porcelain over a timber subfloor with cement backer board — 144 pieces and 36 trade hours.
| Line item | Unit | Material | Equipment / hr | Trade | Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Take up the existing surface (conditional)2 h + 0.06 h per sq ft where the old surface comes up | hour | — | — | Construction Laborers | sourced |
| Haulage and disposal (conditional)1 where the old surface comes up | job | $140 – $400 | — | — | estimated±48% |
| Lead-safe setup and cleaning verification (conditional)1 where a pre-1978 house has an existing surface removed | job | $260 – $720 | — | — | estimated±47% |
| Substrate preparation: concrete slab (conditional)area where the substrate is concrete-slab | sq ft | $0.40 – $1.30 | — | — | estimated±53% |
| Substrate preparation: wood subfloor with cement backer board (conditional)area where the substrate is wood-backer | sq ft | $1.60 – $3.40 | — | — | estimated±36% |
| Substrate preparation: wood subfloor with an uncoupling membrane (conditional)area where the substrate is wood-uncoupling | sq ft | $2.30 – $4.80 | — | — | estimated±35% |
| Substrate preparation: straight over existing tile (conditional)area where the substrate is over-existing | sq ft | $0.50 – $1.60 | — | — | estimated±52% |
| Prepare and level the substratearea × hours per sq ft for the chosen substrate | hour | — | — | Tile and Stone Setters | sourced |
| Ceramic tile, supplied (conditional)area plus pattern waste where the tile is ceramic | sq ft | $1.90 – $7.50 | — | — | estimated±60% |
| Porcelain tile, supplied (conditional)area plus pattern waste where the tile is porcelain | sq ft | $3.20 – $12 | — | — | estimated±58% |
| Natural stone tile, supplied (conditional)area plus pattern waste where the tile is natural-stone | sq ft | $6.50 – $24 | — | — | estimated±57% |
| Thinset, grout and trimarea | sq ft | $0.95 – $2.30 | — | — | estimated±42% |
| Set the tilearea × (format hours × material factor + pattern surcharge) | hour | — | — | Tile and Stone Setters | sourced |
| Edge trim and bullnose (conditional)linear feet of exposed edge | linear ft | $3.20 – $11 | — | — | estimated±55% |
| Epoxy grout instead of cementitious (conditional)area where the grout is epoxy | sq ft | $1.40 – $3.60 | — | — | estimated±44% |
| Seal the stone (conditional)area where natural stone is sealed | sq ft | $0.50 – $1.40 | — | — | estimated±47% |
| Protection, grout clean and final wash1 per job | job | $45 – $140 | — | — | estimated±51% |
| Protection and cleaning hours2 h + 0.01 h per sq ft | hour | — | — | Construction Laborers | sourced |
The reasoning behind each figure
Written out so a tiler can point at the exact assumption that is wrong.
- Take up the existing surface
- Two hours plus 0.06 hours per square foot: breaking out old tile, scraping adhesive and getting the substrate back to something flat and sound.
- ⚠️ Breaking and cutting tile is respirable crystalline silica work under OSHA 1926.1153, so the tools run wet and the room is contained. It is also the dustiest hour of any tiling job by a wide margin.
- ⚠️ Sheet vinyl and its mastic from before the eighties can contain asbestos, and it should be tested rather than lifted. That is a different trade and nothing here prices it.
- Haulage and disposalestimated, ±48%
- Broken tile and old backer board are heavy rather than bulky, and a room of it fills a skip faster by weight than by volume.
- Lead-safe setup and cleaning verificationestimated, ±47%
- ⚠️ Only where the house predates 1978 and painted surfaces are disturbed — trim taken off, a wall opened, a painted floor scraped. Above the federal minor-repair threshold, paid work has to be done by an EPA lead-safe certified firm.
- It is easy to assume tiling never touches paint. Removing the baseboard to tile under it does.
- Substrate preparation: concrete slabestimated, ±53%
- The easy case: clean it, prime it and set the tile. Nothing moves under a slab, so nothing needs to go between it and the tile except the adhesive.
- ⚠️ This is the line that explains why two tiling quotes for the same room can differ by nearly double. Tile does not bend and a timber floor does, so something has to go between them. Ask each quote what that something is.
- Substrate preparation: wood subfloor with cement backer boardestimated, ±36%
- The traditional answer over a timber floor: a layer of cement board screwed and bedded down first. It adds height, it adds weight and it adds a day, and it is what stops the floor moving under the tile.
- ⚠️ This is the line that explains why two tiling quotes for the same room can differ by nearly double. Tile does not bend and a timber floor does, so something has to go between them. Ask each quote what that something is.
- Where a plywood underlayment goes down first it is a composite wood product under the emission standards the EPA administers following the Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act of 2010.
- Substrate preparation: wood subfloor with an uncoupling membraneestimated, ±35%
- A dimpled sheet that lets the floor move underneath while the tile stays still. Thinner and faster than backer board and dearer per square foot, and it is what most tilers now use where height matters.
- ⚠️ This is the line that explains why two tiling quotes for the same room can differ by nearly double. Tile does not bend and a timber floor does, so something has to go between them. Ask each quote what that something is.
- Substrate preparation: straight over existing tileestimated, ±52%
- ⚠️ Possible and often a false economy. It saves the demolition and it raises the floor by half an inch, which then fights every door, every threshold and the toilet flange. It also inherits whatever was wrong underneath.
- ⚠️ This is the line that explains why two tiling quotes for the same room can differ by nearly double. Tile does not bend and a timber floor does, so something has to go between them. Ask each quote what that something is.
- Prepare and level the substrate
- Between 0.02 and 0.06 hours per square foot depending on what goes down — almost nothing over a slab, the better part of a day of screwing and bedding for cement board over a room-sized floor.
- ⚠️ Large-format tile needs a flatter substrate than any other, because a tile that cannot bend shows every hollow as a raised corner. On a large-format job this line often costs more than the pattern does.
- Ceramic tile, suppliedestimated, ±60%
- Softer and easier to cut than porcelain, and it takes water in more readily, so it belongs on walls and on floors that stay dry. The cheapest tile there is.
- Priced on the area you have to buy rather than the area you cover: the pattern wastes between 8% and 20% in cuts, and that waste is inside this quantity.
- Order it all at once. Tile is made in batches and two batches of the same product are not the same colour, which is why the box says to check the shade code.
- Porcelain tile, suppliedestimated, ±58%
- Denser, harder and nearly waterproof, which is why it is the default for floors, showers and anywhere that freezes. It needs a diamond blade and it takes longer to cut, which is where the extra hours go.
- Priced on the area you have to buy rather than the area you cover: the pattern wastes between 8% and 20% in cuts, and that waste is inside this quantity.
- Order it all at once. Tile is made in batches and two batches of the same product are not the same colour, which is why the box says to check the shade code.
- Natural stone tile, suppliedestimated, ±57%
- Marble, travertine, slate. Every piece is a different thickness and a different colour, so each one is bedded individually and the batch is laid out dry first. It also needs sealing, and the sealing is not once.
- Priced on the area you have to buy rather than the area you cover: the pattern wastes between 8% and 20% in cuts, and that waste is inside this quantity.
- Order it all at once. Tile is made in batches and two batches of the same product are not the same colour, which is why the box says to check the shade code.
- Thinset, grout and trimestimated, ±42%
- Modified thinset adhesive, cementitious grout, spacers and the edge trim where tile meets something that is not tile.
- Large-format tile uses noticeably more adhesive than small, because the notch has to be deeper to get full coverage under a piece that cannot flex.
- Set the tile
- From 0.07 hours per square foot for large format up to 0.2 for mosaic, multiplied by the material and with the pattern surcharge on top. On a 144 square foot floor in 12-inch porcelain that is about fourteen hours: a day of setting and half a day of grouting. The driver is the piece count: a 2-inch mosaic has 144 times the pieces per square foot of a 24-inch tile, and every piece is placed, aligned and cleaned.
- ⚠️ The wage is official BLS data for tile and stone setters adjusted to your area, and that occupation is published for only 141 of the 530 areas in our index — the thinnest coverage of any trade on this site, on the page where it is the entire job. Outside those 141 this hour comes from the broader construction group for the same area, which is a real approximation rather than a rounding.
- ⚠️ Cutting tile is respirable crystalline silica work under OSHA 1926.1153. Wet cutting is the control, and a saw running dry indoors is the clearest signal there is about the rest of the job.
- Edge trim and bullnoseestimated, ±55%
- Metal profile or a bullnose piece wherever the tile stops and something else begins. Priced per linear foot of exposed edge.
- It is a small line and it is the whole difference between a finished job and one that ends in a raw cut edge. Most tiles have no glazed edge, so without trim the biscuit shows.
- Epoxy grout instead of cementitiousestimated, ±44%
- Stain-proof, water-proof and it never needs sealing. It is also unforgiving to work with — it sets on a clock and any haze left behind is permanent — which is why some tilers decline it and others charge more for it.
- It earns its price on a shower floor and on a kitchen backsplash behind a hob. On a bedroom floor it is money spent on a problem you do not have.
- Seal the stoneestimated, ±47%
- Impregnating sealer over natural stone, applied after the grout has cured. Ceramic and porcelain do not need it; the grout between them sometimes does.
- ⚠️ It is not once. Stone needs resealing every year or two depending on where it is and what lands on it, and a floor that has stopped beading water has stopped being sealed.
- Protection, grout clean and final washestimated, ±51%
- Sheeting the route in, and washing the grout haze off the finished surface. Haze left on is the commonest visible complaint about new tile and it comes off far more easily on the day than a week later.
- Protection and cleaning hours
- Two hours plus 0.01 per square foot. Grouting is followed by two or three passes with clean water over the whole surface, and each one is slower than it sounds.
Not included in this dataset
- A floor that is not flat enough
- The substrate lines here assume an ordinary floor. A floor with a real dip, a sloping old house or a large-format job over an uneven subfloor needs a self-levelling compound first, and that is priced by the bag and the hour once somebody has put a straightedge on it.
- Waterproofing a shower
- Tile is not waterproof and grout is not waterproof; the membrane behind them is. A shower needs a full waterproofing system under its tile and that is priced by our walk-in shower calculator, not here.
- Underfloor heating
- An electric mat or a hydronic loop goes in between the substrate and the tile, needs its own circuit and thermostat, and has to be decided before anything is bonded down. Retrofitting it means lifting the floor.
- Everything at the edges of the room
- Removing and refitting a toilet, cutting doors down to clear a raised floor, and new baseboard or thresholds are all real work that a tiling job creates and none of it is priced here. Tiling over an existing floor makes all three more likely.
- Asbestos and lead beyond the tiling
- Sheet flooring and mastic from before the eighties can contain asbestos and must be tested rather than lifted. The lead-safe line covers pre-1978 paint disturbed by the work itself.
Use the calculator, price the whole room at bathroom remodel cost, or read the full method.