How many tiles does this room really need?

1. Units and room

Cut-outs (tub, island, cabinet, or the corner of an L-shaped room; leave blank if none)

2. Tile options

Add the tiles you are choosing between. Each is optimized on its own and ranked by the cost of the boxes (or by tiles bought, if you leave the price blank). Enter each tile's width and length as printed on the box.

3. Laying rules

Bonds to try:

Enter the room and at least one tile, then click Find the best layout.

Result

Tile options compared

Other layouts for this tile (best of each direction and bond)

Cutting list

How it is calculated

Floor: the room rectangle, inset by the wall gap, minus your cut-outs. Lengths are held as whole numbers (hundredths of a millimetre) so every figure can be checked exactly.

Layout search: for each tile option, the tile may run either way, the rows are straight or offset by a half or a third of a tile, and the grid is started at many positions in both directions, including against a wall and centred. Every candidate is turned into whole tiles, cut pieces and awkward pieces where a cut-out bites a tile. The leaders are refined with small shifts.

Offcut reuse: the cut pieces are packed into tiles by a guillotine packer: straight saw cuts only, the saw width allowed for, best-fit placement, and many seeded random orderings. It is repeatable: the same input gives the same plan.

Choosing: layouts with a cut narrower than your limit are set aside whenever a clean layout exists; then the fewest tiles wins, then the fewest cuts, then the widest narrowest cut. If every layout has a sliver you are told, and the one with the fewest is shown.

Checking: a separate checker rebuilds the grid from the chosen layout and confirms that every part of the floor that is not a grout joint is covered exactly once, that no piece touches a cut-out or the walls' gap, that every cut sits inside one purchased tile without overlapping another piece, and that the tile count adds up. A lower bound from the area that must be covered shows how close the plan can be to the best possible.

Not modelled: diagonal and herringbone layouts, tile thickness, uneven or out-of-square walls, doorway thresholds, patterned tile matching, shade variation between boxes, curved cuts, and extra breakage for difficult material. A tile with a cut-out in it counts as one whole tile and is never used for offcuts. Prices are only what you type. Unverified on a real floor: tested on hand-computed rooms and on random rooms checked for coverage, overlap and cutting.

Common questions

How much extra tile should I buy?

The common rule is the floor area divided by the tile area plus 10 percent, and more for diagonal or brick layouts. That rule ignores the room: the real number depends on where the grid starts, how the rows are offset and whether offcuts from one wall can be used at another. The optimizer lays out the actual room, packs the cut pieces into tiles and reports the tiles the layout needs; you add your own spare for breakage and future repairs, which is a separate setting here.

Where should I start laying tile in a room?

Not always in the corner. Starting at a wall leaves one wall with whole tiles and the opposite wall with whatever is left over, which can be a thin sliver that is hard to cut and looks bad. Centring the grid puts equal cuts at both walls. The optimizer tries many starting lines in both directions, rejects layouts with a cut narrower than the limit you set, and picks the one that needs the fewest tiles.

Does brick or offset bond use more tile than a straight grid?

Often a little more, because every second row starts and ends with a part tile. Rectangular tiles and planks are usually laid in a half or one-third offset to avoid long joints lining up and to hide slight bow in the tile. The optimizer compares the bonds you allow, so you can see what the pattern costs in tiles for your room instead of guessing.

How does reusing offcuts save tile?

A piece cut off the end of a row at one wall is often exactly the piece you need at the other wall, or a smaller piece can come out of the leftover. The optimizer treats each cut piece as a rectangle to be cut from a whole tile with straight saw cuts and packs them together, allowing for the saw kerf. You can switch reuse off if your tile has a pattern, a directional finish or breaks too easily to be cut twice.

What is the narrowest cut piece I should allow?

Many installers avoid pieces narrower than about 50 mm (2 inches) or a third of the tile, because thin strips crack when cut and are noticeable along a wall. The limit is yours to set. If every layout leaves a narrower piece, the tool says so and shows the layout with the fewest of them rather than pretending a clean one exists.

How do I handle a tub, an island or an L-shaped room?

Enter the room as its bounding rectangle and add each obstruction as a rectangle: how far from the left wall, how far from the back wall, its width and depth. An L-shaped room is a rectangle with one corner taken out. Tiles that a cut-out takes a bite from are counted as using a whole tile, which is a conservative simplification, and tiles under a cut-out are not counted.

Is this plan guaranteed to be the minimum?

No. The search tries many starting positions, orientations and bonds and the packer tries many orderings, but it is a heuristic and not a proof. It reports a lower bound from the area that must be covered so you can see how close the plan is to the best that could exist. An independent checker re-verifies every plan before it is shown.

Is my room or price information uploaded?

No. Everything runs in your browser from the figures you type, nothing is sent to a server, and there are no accounts. Anonymous feature counts stay in local storage on your device and can be switched off.