Tiling Quotes — Precise and Professional

How to price tile waste for different patterns

For a standard grid-lay job, add 10% to your tile quantity for waste. For more complex patterns like herringbone, diagonal, or basketweave, increase that to 15-20%. These larger waste factors cover the extra angle cuts, potential breakages, and leave a few spares for the client, which they always appreciate. A $90/sqm porcelain tile from Beaumont Tiles becomes $108/sqm when you factor in 20% waste for a tricky layout. Quoting this correctly separates the pros from the amateurs. QuoteMate's calculator lets you set custom waste percentages per line item.

Quoting subfloor prep and waterproofing correctly

Always quote floor levelling and waterproofing as separate, mandatory line items on wet-area jobs. A perfect tiling job needs a dead-flat substrate and a fully compliant waterproof membrane. Explain to the client that this isn't optional; it's required under Australian Standard AS 3740. A bag of Ardex K 15 levelling compound costs around $50 from a trade supplier and covers about 5sqm at 3mm depth. Skipping this step to save a few bucks on the quote is the fastest way to get a callback for cracked grout or failed waterproofing.

Calculating adhesives, grout, and sealants

A 20kg bag of standard tile adhesive covers about 6-8 square metres, depending on your notch trowel size and the substrate. For large format tiles (over 600x600mm), you'll use more adhesive for better coverage, so adjust your estimate down to 5sqm per bag. Don't forget to price grout and silicone separately. A 1.5kg bag of Mapei grout is about $15 from Bunnings and covers roughly 4-5sqm with standard tiles and 3mm joints. Epoxy grout costs significantly more but is a good upsell for kitchen splashbacks and shower floors due to its stain resistance.

Manage Every Tiler Job From Inquiry to Paid

Quoting is only half the work. QuoteMate tracks every tiling job through a 9-stage pipeline — inquiry, quoted, accepted, scheduled, in progress, completed, paid, closed, or cancelled — with timestamps stamped automatically so you can see where every dollar is sitting and where the bottleneck is. Schedule jobs in two taps with Google Calendar sync, snap and annotate on-site photos against the job (not lost in your camera roll), keep a brain-dump checklist of materials and to-dos for the day, and chase quotes automatically if a customer goes quiet.

See how tilers run jobs in QuoteMate →