SettingsSettings for this calculationUS
Waste is set to 5% by hand. Pick a tier above to replace it, or keep your own figure.
The wall or floor the mosaic is going on.
Mosaic areas are usually small and awkward — a shower recess, a splashback, a border — so measure each piece and add them rather than taking a room figure. A 1.2 m wide splashback 500 mm high is 0.6 m², and the difference between ordering six sheets and seven matters at that size.
The sheet at its stated size, not the mesh measured.
Check the sheet's stated size rather than measuring the mesh: sheets are usually cut slightly under the nominal size so that the gap between two laid sheets matches the joints inside them. A sheet sold as 300 mm often measures about 295.
The other side of the sheet.
Most are square, but linear and herringbone mosaics come on rectangular sheets, and brick-bond sheets have a stagger built into the mesh that has to line up from sheet to sheet.
One small tile plus one joint, measured across several and divided.
This is only used to report the grout joint length, which is the figure that catches people out. Measure it across several tesserae and divide: counting twelve pitches across a 300 mm sheet is more accurate than measuring one.
How they are sold — often 10 or 11 sheets, about a square metre.
Boxes are normally made up to roughly a square metre, so 300 mm sheets come eleven to a box. The box is usually the smallest quantity available, which means the rounding to a whole box is generally a bigger jump than the waste allowance.
Lower than tiling, because the offcut is still usable.
A sheet is cut along the mesh with a knife, so what comes off is a strip that goes on the next run rather than rubbish. Five per cent covers breakage and the odd tessera that has to come off a sheet. Raise it for a mosaic with a pattern that has to line up, where partial sheets cannot always be used where they fall.
Mosaic sheets needed
72 sheets
7 box(es). The joint length is the figure to carry into the grout order — mosaic has several times the joint of a large tile.
- Sheets before the allowance
- 68 sheets
- Allowance at 5%
- 4 sheets
- Boxes of 11
- 7 boxes
- One sheet covers
- 0.96 ft²
- Grout joint length
- 1,560 ft
They open the calculator with your figures already in it
Mosaic Sheet Calculator: 72 sheets — shown in imperial, US market. The link sets both, so the result they see is the one on your screen.
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How this was calculated
Formula source(s)
- Area coverage: sheets are the area divided by one sheet's own area, rounded up, with an allowance for breakage and cutting
- A mesh-backed sheet is cut between the tesserae with a knife rather than through the tile, so the offcut stays usable and the waste allowance is about 5% rather than a tile's 10 to 15%
- Joint length: with a tessera pitch of (tessera + joint), joints run both ways at that pitch, giving 2 ÷ pitch of joint per unit area — 80 m per square metre at a 25 mm pitch, against 3.3 m for 600 mm tiles
Inputs used
- Area to cover
- 65 sq ft
- Sheet length
- 11.75 in
- Sheet width
- 11.75 in
- Tessera pitch
- 1 in
- Sheets per box
- 11
- Waste allowance
- 5
Intermediate steps
- Sheets before the allowance
- 68 sheets
- Allowance at 5%
- 4 sheets
- Boxes of 11
- 7 boxes
- One sheet covers
- 0.96 ft²
- Grout joint length
- 1,560 ft
Confidence note: 7 box(es). The joint length is the figure to carry into the grout order — mosaic has several times the joint of a large tile.
What this calculation does not cover
- Sheets are sold by the box and the box is usually the minimum order, so the box count is what to buy. Rounding a 6 m² job — some 65 sq ft — up to whole boxes adds more than the waste allowance does.
- The joint length is reported so the grout order is not a surprise. It is not a grout quantity — that needs the joint width and depth as well, which is what the grout calculator asks for.
- Patterned, graded and herringbone mosaics cannot always take a partial sheet where it falls, so their real waste is higher than the 5% a plain sheet earns. So is a shade-graded mosaic, where sheets from different boxes should be mixed as they are laid.
- Mosaic goes on a substrate that has to be flat, because a mesh sheet follows whatever is under it rather than bridging it. Nothing here covers the levelling, the tanking in a wet area, or the adhesive.
Estimated cost — your price
This site holds no price list for this material — local prices vary too much to publish honestly. Enter your supplier's price and the result is costed with it.
Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Presented in US customary units and US trade terminology. Where a formula follows a published standard, that standard and its edition are cited beside it on this page; where none governs, the page says so. Local amendments override model codes — verify against the code in force where you build.
Sources checked 2026-09-23 · v1.0.0
Regulatory standards & verification citations3
- Area coverage: sheets are the area divided by one sheet's own area, rounded up, with an allowance for breakage and cutting
- A mesh-backed sheet is cut between the tesserae with a knife rather than through the tile, so the offcut stays usable and the waste allowance is about 5% rather than a tile's 10 to 15%
- Joint length: with a tessera pitch of (tessera + joint), joints run both ways at that pitch, giving 2 ÷ pitch of joint per unit area — 80 m per square metre at a 25 mm pitch, against 3.3 m for 600 mm tiles
Cite this page
Your workspace
Most jobs need more than one number. Add the calculators you need next and they open right here, underneath this one — your figures stay on screen and nothing is lost to a page change.
Tools and safety for this job
To lay floor tile, tile a wall and cut ceramic and porcelain tile. Generic types, no brands, no prices.
Protection this work requires
- Cutting or grinding concrete, masonry, screed, tile or fibre-cement board releases respirable silica: cut wet or extract at the tool, and wear a P2/N95 respirator at minimum — a nuisance dust mask does not filter it.
- Wet cement and lime burn skin and eyes painlessly until the damage is done: waterproof gloves to EN 374, safety glasses whenever the mix can splash, and never kneel in wet mix in permeable trousers.
- Saws, grinders and breakers run above 85 dB, where hearing damage accumulates and does not recover: defenders or plugs for every cut, not just the long ones.
- Boards, blocks and bagged material cause most lasting back injuries on small sites: two people or a lifter for full sheets, and never a bag on one shoulder up a ladder.
Show the 12 tools this job needsHide tools
Essential
Chalk line
Manual tile cutter
Mixing bucket or tub
Notched trowel
Spirit level
Tape measure
Recommended
Paddle mixer
Rubber mallet
Tile nippers
Wet tile saw
Optional
Hole saw set
Laser level
Also needed as materials: chalk refill, diamond tile blades.
what each tiling tool is for, and the spec that decides which to buy where one does.