Quote check
Check a floor tiling quote
- 4Lines the job needs
- 2Measurements
- QuestionsNever a verdict

How the quote is read
Each line of a floor tiling quote is matched to the line of the job it names, or marked as something the Tile a floor takeoff does not measure — labour, removal, hire, fees, or anything else.
The job’s own figures come from 2 measurements — floor length, floor width — run through the same calculators as the takeoff, so the two give the same figure for the same job.
Reading a floor tiling quote
Floor tiling is often quoted per area laid, with the tiles supplied separately, so the first thing to settle is which of the lines here the quote actually covers.
The tile count depends on the lay pattern — a diagonal or herringbone lay cuts far more at the walls — and the adhesive on the trowel notch, which a larger tile needs deeper. The adhesive here is two lines, the bed under the backer board and the bed under the tile, so hold a quote's single adhesive figure against the two together. Levelling the floor is the item most often priced later, once the old covering is up.
Three steps
- Give your measurements. The page opens on a typical job so it has something to show.
- Paste the quote's lines as they came, or add them one at a time. Leave the prices in — they are taken out, never read.
- Read the report: what is left out, what is added, what sits outside the range, and one list of questions to send.
Your quote
The floor tiling quote you were given
Paste from an email, or open or drop a PDF, Excel, CSV or text file, or a photo of the quote. Amounts of money are taken out before anything is read — this page compares quantities, never prices.
Nothing you paste or open leaves this device.
The reading
What the quote says, against the job
Floor tiling · Floor length 13 ft · Floor width 10 ftFloor length 4 m · Floor width 3 m
What it leaves out
Every line the job needs that nothing on the quote reads as, with the quantity your measurements produce.
What it adds
Lines this job's takeoff does not measure — labour, removal, hire, fees, anything else — each named for what it is.
What sits outside the range
Quantities above or below the computed range, by how much, in the quote's unit or converted and shown.
What to ask
One list of questions, in the quote's order, ready to copy and send. Questions, never a verdict.
Paste the quote above, or add its lines one at a time. The reading appears here as each line is read.
Outside what this takeoff measures
6Nothing in the reading measures these. Whether the quote covers each is worth asking in its own right: a scope missing from a quote tends to become a cost after work has started. Why each is left out is on the takeoff.
- The substrate
- Movement joints, perimeter expansion gaps, edge trims and thresholds
- Tanking
- Underfloor heating, which changes the adhesive, the movement allowance and often the tile
- Grout, which is set by tile size and joint width rather than by floor area
- Sealers and cleaners, and the tile's own suitability for the traffic and the slip rating the room needs
The reference
Every line the reading looks for
For Floor length 13 ft · Floor width 10 ftFloor length 4 m · Floor width 3 m. Each is the calculator linked under it, run with those measurements; a range is that calculator at both ends of one choice, not a margin for error.
Tile Backer Board
14–15 boards
14 at 5% cutting waste, 15 at 15%.
Open the Tile Backer Board CalculatorThinset bed under the backer board
2–3 bags
Adhesive is mixed by the bag, and whatever goes off in the bucket is not used. 2 net, 3 with 15% added.
Open the Thinset & Tile Adhesive CalculatorFloor & Wall Tile
36–39 tiles
Lay pattern: 36 for Straight / stack bond, 39 for Diagonal.
Open the Floor & Wall Tile CalculatorThinset for the tile
3–4 bags
Adhesive is mixed by the bag, and whatever goes off in the bucket is not used. 3 net, 4 with 15% added.
Open the Thinset & Tile Adhesive Calculator
Tile Backer Board
14–15 boards
14 at 5% cutting waste, 15 at 15%.
Open the Tile Backer Board CalculatorThinset bed under the backer board
2–3 bags
Adhesive is mixed by the bag, and whatever goes off in the bucket is not used. 2 net, 3 with 15% added.
Open the Thinset & Tile Adhesive CalculatorFloor & Wall Tile
37–40 tiles
Lay pattern: 37 for Straight / stack bond, 40 for Diagonal.
Open the Floor & Wall Tile CalculatorThinset for the tile
3–4 bags
Adhesive is mixed by the bag, and whatever goes off in the bucket is not used. 3 net, 4 with 15% added.
Open the Thinset & Tile Adhesive Calculator
How the ranges are taken
Where the choice is cutting waste, the ends are the site’s own allowances: 5%, the tight buffer of a crew with a planned set-out, and 15%, the wider one a first-timer orders. Where the calculator decides between patterns or materials, the ends are the options it offers. Where it adds nothing for loss, the range runs from the net quantity to 15% over it.
A minimum — the fewest hangers a spacing allows, the least airflow a room needs — has no upper end. A single figure carries an allowance the material itself needs, such as a lap, and names it.
What a reading like this cannot see
- It does not know your prices, your market, or what the work ought to cost.
- It does not know the building — the access, the condition of what is there, or what has to happen first.
- It cannot check a lump sum, because there is no quantity in one.
- A line it reads as missing may be priced under another name. A quantity outside the range is not evidence of anything. Each is a reason to ask a question.
- Two quotes are not comparable until their scopes are.
- It is not advice, and it is no substitute for a second quote.
The full takeoff
Every quantity for this job, with its working
The Tile a floor takeoff runs the same calculators on the same measurements and shows what sits under each line here.
Base, allowance, order
Each line's quantity before and after its allowance, and what to buy.
Every allowance editable
Change a waste figure and the order follows, with its source named.
Into a project
Add the whole job to a workspace with your own prices.
Frequently asked questions
- What quantities does a floor tiling job need?
- It depends on the measurements, so this page asks for yours. At the size it opens on — Floor length 4 m · Floor width 3 m — the lines come to: Tile Backer Board, 14–15 boards; Thinset bed under the backer board, 2–3 bags; Floor & Wall Tile, 37–40 tiles; Thinset for the tile, 3–4 bags. In imperial units — Floor length 13 ft · Floor width 10 ft — they come to: Tile Backer Board, 14–15 boards; Thinset bed under the backer board, 2–3 bags; Floor & Wall Tile, 36–39 tiles; Thinset for the tile, 3–4 bags.
- Which line on a floor tiling quote varies the most?
- The Thinset bed under the backer board: 2–3 bags for a job measured Floor length 4 m · Floor width 3 m, depending on how much is allowed for loss over the net figure, up to 15%.
- What does a floor tiling quote often leave out?
- The reading names every line of the job that nothing on the quote reads as — any of the 4 lines the takeoff measures. The takeoff also lists 6 things it does not measure, shown under the reading, and each is worth asking about: a scope missing from a quote tends to become a cost after work has started.
- Can I paste the quote exactly as it came?
- Yes — from an email, a PDF or a spreadsheet, one item to a line. Amounts of money are taken out before anything is read, headings and totals are skipped, and each line is shown with what it was read as, so a misreading is one correction. Quantities in the other unit system are converted and the conversion is shown; a count of boxes is never compared with a count of tiles.
- Does this check the price as well?
- No. It reads quantities, never prices, and this site publishes none: an installed price moves with the market, the season, the access and the specification, so a figure for what the work ought to cost would give you confidence in a number nobody can defend. A quantity against your own measurements is checkable, and every figure here links to the calculator that produced it.