How much more tile will I need?
Question:I'm replacing approximately 1640 sq ft of tile in my office. How much OVER that should I buy to allow for cutting and piecing? I am going to order 18" squares. Someone told me to order 5% more than I need. That seems like a LOT of extra!
Answers:
Unless you are talking about really expensive tiles it is a lot cheaper to buy 5% or 10% more and have it all left over than to make several extra trips chasing down tiles and maybe finding they are a different lot number [color matching] or discover it isn't available anymore.
Some places while allow returns.
And of course, it all depends on how chopped up the job is, a square room differs from a long hall and a bunch of offices.
If you have really expensive tile, you need to work out a good count and add a few for damaged product or mistakes.
I alway leave any full tiles behind and tell the customer to store them for repair or alterations in the future.
When we did our tiling job, we ordered 10% more than the square footage. On one job, we ended up with quite a bit leftover. On another, we squeeked by with only one tile to spare at the end (that job required more cutting).
I would order at LEAST 5% more than the square footage, minimum. Better to have too much than not enough (I speak from experience, as our very first tiling job, we did not order enough and, when we got some more, it did not perfectly match the exsisting (already installed) tile. It bugs me everytime I look at that floor.
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