How to price a re-tile
Tiling is priced badly more often than almost anything else in the trade, and always for the same reason: the price is set on the tiling and the time goes on everything else. Stripping the old tiles. Levelling a wall that's 25mm out over two metres. Waiting for the floor to dry. Cutting round a bullnose corner and a pipe boss on the same tile.
This is how to price a re-tile so the number survives the prep. Treat every figure as indicative and swap in your own rates.
Per square metre or per day?
Both, used properly.
Estimate in square metres — it's the only unit that scales and the only one you can check yourself against afterwards. Quote as a fixed price for the job. Never hand the customer a rate per square metre, because the moment you do, every awkward metre is priced the same as the easy ones and you've lost the argument before it starts.
Your per-m² estimate should be a family of rates, not one number:
| Work | Relative difficulty |
|---|---|
| Large-format wall tiles, straight, plain wall | Baseline |
| Standard 300×600 walls, straight set | Baseline |
| Small format (100×100, metro, 150mm) | Slower — more tiles, more grout lines |
| Mosaic and sheet | Much slower, especially cuts and edges |
| Diagonal, herringbone, brick bond with offsets | Slower + more wastage |
| Floors with lots of cuts, thresholds, pipe bosses | Slower |
| Large-format porcelain (600×1200 and up) | Slower, two-person lifts, levelling system |
If you carry a single "per metre" rate in your head and use it on everything, herringbone in a small bathroom will lose you money every time.
Price the prep separately — it's a different job
The single biggest fix in tiling pricing is to stop treating prep as part of the tiling rate. Prep is its own scope, priced on what you find:
- Strip-out. Removing old tiles, adhesive and any old backing. On plaster this often takes the plaster with it — which means boarding or re-skimming. On a screed floor it can mean grinding.
- Substrate. Tile backer board, plywood overlay, re-skim, or nothing. Every option is a different price.
- Levelling. Self-levelling compound on floors; dot-and-dab or float on walls that are out. Add drying time to the programme.
- Tanking. Wet rooms and shower enclosures — the tanking kit, the time and the curing.
- Waterproofing and movement joints. Perimeter joints, changes of plane, expansion joints on larger floors.
- Underfloor heating. If it's going in, the mats, the levelling over them, and the extra care.
Then say so on the quote: "Priced on the assumption that the existing walls are sound and within tolerance once tiles are removed. Any re-boarding, skimming or levelling required will be quoted separately before work continues." One sentence, and the awkward conversation is pre-agreed.
Wastage: the bit that comes out of your pocket
Order too few and you're doing a merchant run mid-job, possibly for a different batch. Order too many and someone's paying for boxes in a garage. Standard allowances:
| Layout | Wastage allowance |
|---|---|
| Straight set, simple room | ~10% |
| Lots of cuts / small room / many obstacles | ~12–15% |
| Diagonal or herringbone | ~15–20% |
| Patterned tiles needing alignment | 15%+ |
| Large-format porcelain (breakage on cuts) | 10–15% |
Two rules that save arguments. Batch numbers — all from the same batch, ordered at once, or the shade shifts halfway up the wall. And who orders: if the customer supplies the tiles, put in writing that wastage, breakages and shortfalls are theirs, and that you fit only.
Cost the sundries honestly
Sundries are where tiling quotes leak. On a bathroom they can easily run to a meaningful chunk of the materials bill:
- Adhesive (and the right one — flexible, rapid-set, white for glass or marble)
- Grout and silicone
- Tile backer board, screws and washers, jointing tape
- Tanking kit, primer
- Trims and edge profiles
- Levelling system clips and wedges
- Matting or decoupling membrane where needed
- Blades, discs, buckets, protection
Price these as a line, not as "sundries, few quid." Then mark materials up — 10–20% is normal, because you're carrying the cost, the trips and the returns.
Build the number
- Measure properly. Wall areas by elevation, floors by room, minus openings you're genuinely not tiling. Note every internal and external corner, every trim run, every obstacle.
- Apply the right rate to the right area — plain walls at your baseline, the herringbone feature panel at the loaded rate.
- Add prep as its own priced scope.
- Materials at cost + wastage + markup.
- Add fixed items — strip-out and disposal, skip or tip runs, protection, delivery.
- Add drying and waiting time. Levelling compound, tanking, adhesive cure before grouting. You can sometimes work around it, but often you can't, and an unpaid half-day is still a half-day.
- Contingency, 5–10%, higher on older properties.
Present one fixed price with a clear scope. Then a short list of what would change it.
The four questions that change a tiling price
Ask these at survey, every time:
"What's behind the existing tiles?" Plaster, board, or something previously bodged. You often can't know, so say what you're assuming.
"Are the walls square and flat?" Hold a level on them at survey. Twenty minutes now versus two unpriced days later.
"Who's supplying the tiles, and are they here?" Customer-supplied tiles that arrive late, short, or in two batches will cost you days. Get a delivery date before you book the work in.
"What's happening to the floor level?" New floor tiles change thresholds and door clearances. Someone has to plane the door, and it should be priced, not assumed.
Quoting the awkward bits
Some things are worth listing as their own priced items rather than dissolving into a rate:
- Bath and shower tray sealing and silicone
- Niches and recesses (slow, fiddly, disproportionate)
- Window reveals
- Mitred external corners versus trims — the mitre looks better and takes far longer, so let the customer choose and pay
- Removing and refitting sanitaryware to tile behind it
- Tiling to an existing tiled area (matching, levels, edge)
Each is a real half-day somewhere. Listed, they read as thoroughness; unlisted, they read as your problem.
A worked shape
Bathroom re-tile, full-height on two walls plus floor, existing tiles coming off, 300×600 walls straight set, standard floor porcelain:
- Strip-out and disposal: fixed item
- Substrate: allowance for re-boarding the shower wall, provisional for the rest
- Tanking to the wet area: fixed item
- Wall tiling: measured area × baseline rate
- Floor tiling: measured area × floor rate (more cuts)
- Materials: tiles (customer-supplied — fit only), adhesive, grout, boards, tanking, trims, sundries at cost + 15%
- Contingency: 8%
- Deposit: a third on acceptance; balance on completion
- Stated assumptions: walls sound once stripped, tiles on site before start, doors not included
That's a quote a customer can say yes to and you can build to.
Send it fast
Tiling work is often the last decision in a bathroom project, which means the customer is already behind schedule and wants an answer today. The tiler who sends a tidy quote that evening beats the one who "gets it over next week" more often than the cheaper one wins. If you're pricing a full bathroom rather than tiling alone, how to price a bathroom refit covers the whole scope.
Measuring is the easy part; writing it up at 9pm isn't. QuoteSnap turns a spoken description — rooms, areas, prep, assumptions — into a branded, itemised quote with your exclusions and terms already on it, before you leave the drive. Try it free for 14 days.