Shower tile calculator.
The recesses and returns belong in the order too.
A shower order starts with three wall faces, then changes wherever a recess or seat interrupts them. Enter finished dimensions to see those deductions and additions separately. The wall material and floor material receive their own carton counts. Each selected wall face has a drawing and a source-piece cutting schedule.
02 / Choose a face
03 / Two product orders
- Wall source tiles
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- Wall spare tiles
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- Wall carton surplus
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- Exposed wall-product area
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- Net niche area added
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- Floor footprint
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- Floor source tiles
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- Floor cartons
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- Tile cost at your prices
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The floor is a flat footprint estimate. Drain cuts, slopes and waterproofing are not designed here. The wall order includes all enabled returns, seat, curb and ceiling faces.
The surface inventory
Check the face names before checking the total. A face that disappears behind a solid seat should not remain in the tiled-wall area. A return inside a recess should not disappear from the order.
| Face | Exposed area | Source tiles | Cut tiles |
|---|
Selected face: source-piece schedule
A notch can leave several displayed polygons from one original blank. They retain one identifier and one purchase count. Width and height alone do not describe a notch: select the source piece to see each remaining polygon’s local vertices.
| Source piece | Width | Height | Fragments |
|---|
The recess changes more than the area
A flat wall has two dimensions. A niche has a third: its depth. Removing the opening without adding the recess produces an underestimate, while adding the niche back without removing the opening counts the same rectangle twice. This model performs both operations before adding the four return faces.
Start with an auditable three-wall case
For a 48-inch back wall, two 24-inch side walls and a tiled height of 48 inches, the wall area is (48 + 24 + 24) × 48 ÷ 144 = 32 square feet. With 12-inch square tiles and zero joints, every face fits exactly: 16 back-wall tiles and 8 on each side. Ten pieces per carton require four cartons, containing eight pieces beyond the layout. This is deliberately simple arithmetic, not a recommendation to omit joints.
A 12-inch recess with four-inch depth
Put a 12 × 12-inch opening on a tile boundary in that back wall, with a four-inch recess. One wall tile disappears. The back of the niche needs one tile; each of its four returns needs a strip cut from another blank. The combined order uses 36 source tiles, still four ten-piece cartons at zero reserve. Net exposed area grows by 192 square inches, or 1⅓ square feet, even though the opening and back cancel in the area arithmetic.
Move that opening into the middle of a tile and the surrounding tile may remain as a notched piece. Its purchase count does not disappear just because the opening removed some of its area. The source identifier connects the surviving fragments so they are not each billed as a new tile.
A seat covers surfaces as well as creating them
The bench option represents a solid, full-width seat against the back wall. It hides the lower back wall and a rectangle on each side wall. Its top and front become new tiled faces, and the floor footprint gets shorter. A floating seat, a corner bench or an exposed bench end needs a different inventory; selecting this option for one of those would conceal necessary surfaces.
Keep the floor estimate in its own column
Floor tile often differs from wall tile. Even when their colours match, a carton of one cannot complete an order of the other. The separate fields prevent a large wall offcut or wall-carton surplus from being credited to a floor order. Enter individual pieces here, not the outer size of a mesh-mounted mosaic sheet.
The displayed footprint is horizontal. A real shower base drains along slopes and may need envelope cuts; the tool does not turn that footprint into a sloped cutting schedule. The same limitation applies to the flat projection of a sill, seat or curb cap. Confirm these details in the installation plan.
The reference plane matters
All dimensions refer to finished tiled faces. Stud spacing, backer board, mortar and tile build-up can change the clear dimensions, so a rough opening must be translated before it enters this model. The niche’s vertical position is measured from the lower edge of the tiled field, not necessarily from the room floor. Side depths are equal in this rectangular alcove model.
Read the joints before choosing the pattern
A pattern preview does not approve an installation. CTEF explains offset and lippage conditions; Daltile discusses joints for large tile. Actual tile variation and the chosen product instructions still govern. For a single uninterrupted surface, the general tile cutting tool also provides an exposed-edge trim schedule.
Before ordering shower tile
How do I calculate how much tile I need for my shower?
Inventory each exposed face, then calculate its layout with the tile assigned to it. Add reserve to the wall-product total and round that order to whole cartons. Do the same separately for the floor product. A niche or seat adds small faces that a three-wall area formula misses.
Is 12x24 tile too big for a shower?
The dimensions alone do not settle that. Try the actual tile dimensions on each wall and inspect the remaining edge widths. Large tile on a shower floor also has to accommodate the drain and slopes; a rectangular footprint calculation cannot approve it for that use.
What is the 3/4/5 rule for tiling?
A triangle with sides proportional to 3, 4 and 5 has a right angle between its two shorter sides, because 3² + 4² = 5². It is a way to check squareness. It does not prove that a wall is flat, plumb or suitable for a waterproof installation.
How much tile does a 36x36 shower need?
Height is still missing. Three 36-inch-wide faces tiled 96 inches high have 72 square feet before a niche, bench, ceiling or floor. The 36-by-36 footprint is another 9 square feet. Those are geometric areas, not a tile count or an installation price.
Is this shower calculator free?
Yes. You can change the dimensions, inspect each face and export the wall cutting schedule without an account. The print button uses your browser’s print dialog, including its save-to-PDF option.
Why does the shower square footage increase when I add a niche?
The opening removes one rectangle from the wall, but the back of the recess replaces that rectangle. The two sides, top and sill are additional exposed surfaces. If the niche uses the same material, its net area increase is its depth times twice the sum of opening width and height.
Can square feet per carton replace tiles per carton?
Use the actual piece count when available. A coverage figure may include a nominal joint allowance or describe a mounted sheet, so dividing it by a measured individual tile area can imply the wrong number of pieces. This page keeps the carton count as an explicit input.
Can I take the plan to the store on my phone?
Copy the two product orders or print the estimate. CSV includes the face name and source-piece identifier for each wall tile. Keep the floor footprint quantity labelled as preliminary; it is not a drain or slope cutting schedule.
Does the floor tile formula include a bench?
The rectangular floor footprint is reduced by the full-width bench depth. The bench seat and front are added to the wall-product order. A floating bench or a seat with exposed sides is a different geometry and is not represented by this option.
Can I measure the shower in metres?
Yes. The metric switch converts the dimensions already entered. You can also type a suffix such as 1.2 m or 60 cm into any dimension field. Area results change to square metres; piece and carton counts remain counts.
Will the wall tile joints wrap around the corners?
Not automatically. Each face is centered independently with the same tile orientation and pattern. This exposes its own edge cuts but does not join the pattern through an inside corner. Check the corner relationship before treating the drawing as a setting-out plan.
Where does the wall height measurement start?
Measure the tiled field from its lower boundary to its upper boundary. For a tub surround, that may begin above the tub rather than at the room floor. The niche height uses the same lower reference. Enter finished face dimensions, not rough stud-to-stud measurements.
What must be checked separately
- Rectangular alcoves only: three equal-height faces, matching side depths and independently centered layouts. No wraparound joint alignment.
- One rectangular niche on the back wall. It cannot overlap the solid bench. No shelves within a niche, plumbing penetrations or glass-door fixing holes.
- Bench and curb dimensions describe finished faces. Corners, bevels, movement gaps and build-up corrections are not inferred.
- Zero joints are permitted for geometry checks. The default is not an installation specification.
- No offcut reuse across faces, saw kerf, tile breakage model, grout bags, mortar coverage or waterproofing quantities.
- The source-piece schedule describes polygons. A multi-fragment piece or inside notch may require additional cuts or blanks that depend on your equipment and installation constraints.
- Floor, sill, seat and curb-cap surfaces are flat projections; slopes and drainage are excluded.