How much does tiling cost?

Tile size and format. Large-format tiles cover ground quickly but are heavy, need a very flat surface and are unforgiving of any deviation. Small mosaics are slow. Standard ceramics in the middle are the cheapest to lay.

Pattern. Straight stack or brick bond is quick. Herringbone, chevron and diagonal layouts generate far more cuts and waste, and are commonly quoted at a premium.

Cuts and obstacles. A plain wall is fast. A wall with a window reveal, pipe penetrations, sockets and a shower niche is mostly cutting, and cutting is the slow part.

Material. Porcelain is harder than ceramic and slower to cut. Natural stone needs sealing, sometimes before as well as after laying.

And the surface underneath, which is the big one — covered below.

Tiles only ever look as flat as what they are stuck to. A tiler working over an uneven wall or a flexing floor cannot produce a good result, which is why good tilers spend real time on preparation and price for it.

Floors need to be rigid. A timber floor that moves will crack grout and eventually tiles; the usual answer is backer board or a decoupling membrane rather than tiling straight onto boards.

Walls need to be flat and sound. Old adhesive left from previous tiles has to come off, and plasterboard in a shower area should be a suitable tile backer board rather than ordinary board.

Wet areas need tanking — a waterproof membrane behind the tiles in showers. Grout is not waterproof, and neither is standard plasterboard. Skipping tanking is a common cause of damp appearing in the room beyond a shower wall a year or two later.

When comparing quotes, ask specifically what preparation each includes. That is usually where the price difference lives.

Order at least ten percent more than the measured area, and fifteen percent for diagonal or herringbone layouts. Cuts, breakages and mis-cuts are normal, not a sign of carelessness.

Buy it all in one batch. Tiles are manufactured in batches with slight colour and size variation between them, and a top-up order weeks later may not match. The batch number is printed on the box — check they all agree.

Keep the spares. A cracked tile in three years is trivial to replace if you have a matching one and effectively impossible if you do not.

Ask the tiler to confirm quantities before you order. It is a two-minute calculation for them and it prevents both a shortfall mid-job and boxes of expensive surplus.

Choose a simple layout. Straight bond in a standard size is dramatically cheaper to lay than herringbone in large format.

Remove old tiles yourself if you are able — it is unskilled, messy work at £10–£25 per m² if someone else does it.

Tile only what needs tiling. Full-height tiling on all four walls of a bathroom costs far more than tiling the wet areas and painting the rest, and often looks better.

Buy the tiles yourself after the tiler has confirmed quantities, so you control the spend on materials.

And get quotes broken into preparation, labour and materials. It is the only way to see whether one price is cheaper or simply omitting the tanking.