What tools do I need to tile a wall?

A notched trowel, a tile cutter or wet saw, a spirit level, a grout float, a sponge, a bucket and a mixing paddle, with tile spacers or levelling clips. Safety glasses, gloves and a dust mask go on the same list: cutting tiles throws sharp chips and dust, and adhesive and grout are hard on the skin.

Do I need to waterproof a wall before tiling it?

Grout and tiles are not waterproof. The wall behind a shower, or over a bath with a shower, is waterproofed before tiling. That is only where water hits the wall, and the waterproofing kit says how much area it covers.

Check first. Where the tiles stop below the ceiling, trim goes along their top edge, and at any external corners. When they go to the ceiling it is for external corners only, such as a window reveal. A round-edged tile can finish an edge without one. Trim is sold in lengths: divide the length by the length sold and round up.

How many boxes of tiles for a 2.4 m by 1.8 m bathroom?

Tiled to 1.2 m, with one door, it is 9.17 m² to tile and 10.082 m² with 10% extra for cuts, so 11 boxes of 1 m². Tiled to the ceiling, with the door and a 0.9 m × 1 m window off, it is 17.75 m² and 20 boxes. The 1 m² box and the 10% are generic examples: use the m² on your box.

What you need to tile a wall: the full list

To tile a wall you need the tiles in whole boxes, tile adhesive and grout, tile spacers or levelling clips, a flat and sound wall to tile on, and a notched trowel, a tile cutter or wet saw, a spirit level, a grout float, a sponge, a bucket and a mixing paddle, with safety glasses, gloves and a dust mask. Tile trim, waterproofing round a shower or over a bath, and sanitary silicone are lines to check first, and adhesive and grout stay there until you enter what a bag covers. A 2.4 m × 1.8 m bathroom tiled to 1.2 m takes 11 boxes at the example figures of 1 m² a box and 10% extra for cuts.

The checklist

These are the lines BuildBatch lists for tiling the walls of a room, with the mark each one starts with. “Check first” means it may need buying, and something the list cannot know decides it.

Item	Starts as	Why it is on the list
Wall tiles, in whole boxes	Need	The area to tile plus an allowance for cuts, counted from what one box covers
Wall tile adhesive	Check first, and Need once you enter what one bag covers	The bag says how many m² it covers for your tile size and trowel
Wall tile grout	Check first, and Need once you enter what one bag covers	The bag says how many m² it covers for your tile size and joint width
A flat, sound wall to tile on	Check first	Tiles go on a flat, sound, dry wall: old wallpaper off, loose plaster made good, gloss paint sanded or scored
Waterproofing (tanking) round a shower or over a bath	Check first	Grout and tiles are not waterproof: the wall behind a shower, or over a bath with a shower, is waterproofed before tiling
Tile trim for the edges and corners	Check first	Along the top edge of the tiles, and any external corners
Tile spacers or levelling clips	Need	To keep the joints even while the adhesive sets
Sanitary silicone sealant	Check first	Where tiles meet a bath, shower tray, basin or worktop, and round the edge of a tiled floor: grout cracks there
Notched trowel, tile cutter or wet saw, spirit level, grout float, sponge, bucket and mixing paddle	Need	To spread the adhesive, cut and set the tiles level, and grout them
Safety glasses, gloves and a dust mask	Need	Cutting tiles throws sharp chips and dust; adhesive and grout are hard on the skin

Any line can be marked Already have or Not needed in the planner.

What decides how much

Tiles. The distance round the room times the height the tiles go up to, less the doors up to that height, plus an allowance for cuts, divided by the m² printed on the box and rounded up. Windows come off only when the tiles go to the ceiling, because BuildBatch does not know where a sill is. It starts with 1 m² a box and 10% extra as labelled examples, and your box’s figures replace them. The sum is in how many tiles do I need?
Adhesive and grout. The area to tile, without the allowance for cuts, divided by what one bag covers and rounded up. BuildBatch has no figure of its own: see how much tile adhesive and grout do I need?
Trim. Where the tiles stop below the ceiling, the line shows the distance round the room, the length of the top edge. Trim is sold in lengths: divide that length by the length sold and round up. Where the tiles go to the ceiling, only external corners need it, and the line gives no length.
Waterproofing. Only where water hits the wall. The kit says how much area it covers.
Silicone. One tube usually does a bathroom. The tube says how far it goes.
Spacers, clips and tools. BuildBatch gives no count for these.

What to check first

The wall comes first. The adhesive says what it will stick to, and whether plaster or plasterboard needs priming first. Heavy tiles may need the wall checked. The tile’s own instructions and the adhesive’s decide the rest.

Older paint can contain lead and textured coatings applied before 2000 can contain asbestos: do not sand or scrape a coating you are not sure about; get advice first.

Grout and tiles are not waterproof, so the part of the wall behind a shower, or over a bath with a shower, is waterproofed before tiling.

Buy all the boxes at once, and where the boxes show a batch or lot number, check that they match: the shade can vary from one batch to the next.

Worked example

A bathroom 2.4 m × 1.8 m and 2.4 m high, with one internal door 762 mm wide and one window 0.9 m × 1 m, tiled to 1.2 m all the way round. No tile has been chosen, so the box is the generic example, 1 m² with 10% extra for cuts. It is not any product’s box.

Wall tiles: 8.4 m round × 1.2 m = 10.08 m², less 0.9144 m² of door, so 9.17 m² to tile and 10.082 m² with the 10%. That is 11 × 1 m² boxes, 11 m², with about 0.918 m² left over. Need.
Wall tile adhesive and wall tile grout: 9.17 m² to cover for each. Check first. Enter that a bag of adhesive covers 4 m² and a bag of grout 6 m², figures typed in as examples, and they become Need: 9.17 ÷ 4 = 2.29, so 3 bags of adhesive, and 9.17 ÷ 6 = 1.53, so 2 bags of grout.
Tile trim: about 8.4 m along the top edge. Check first.
A flat, sound wall to tile on, waterproofing and silicone: Check first.
Tile spacers or levelling clips; the tools; safety glasses, gloves and a dust mask: Need.

That is four lines to buy and six to check first, with none not needed.

The window is not taken off, because the tiles stop below the ceiling and BuildBatch does not measure the window’s sill.

Tile the same room to the ceiling and the figures change. The window comes off with the door, leaving 17.75 m² to tile and 19.526 m² with the 10%, so 20 boxes, with about 0.474 m² left over. The trim line no longer has a length, only external corners. At the same example bags, the adhesive is 17.75 ÷ 4 = 4.44, so 5 bags, and the grout 17.75 ÷ 6 = 2.96, so 3.

Do it with BuildBatch

Open the tile calculator, type the room, add the doors and windows, and say how high the tiles go in “Tiled up to”. Type what one box covers in “One box covers”, and what a bag covers in “Adhesive: one bag covers” and “Grout: one bag covers”. You get the boxes and every other line above, each marked Need or Check first, with the reason it is there.

Painting the ceiling as well? The room refresh planner can put tiled walls and a painted ceiling on one list. For a tiled floor, choose Flooring, then Tiles there.

For other sizes of bathroom, how many tiles for a bathroom? is a table of ten, and the worked example for a 2 × 2.5 m bathroom has the whole list for one of them.

What this guide does not cover

How to tile, which the tile’s and the adhesive’s instructions give. One wall or part of a wall: BuildBatch counts all the way round the room, so for a bath surround or a single wall, work out the area yourself and use the same sums. Which adhesive or grout suits your tile and wall. Installing a shower or a waterproofing system. Removing a coating, or finding the cause of damp.