Tiling a 2.4 × 1.8 m bathroom: the complete order list
One real room, every item you actually have to buy, and where each number comes from. The tiles are the easy part — it is the fourteen other things that send people back to the merchant.
The room
- 2.4 m long × 1.8 m wide, 2.4 m floor to ceiling
- Bath 1.7 × 0.75 m across the far end, panelled, tile stopping at the panel
- WC and basin down one long wall
- Shower over the bath
- Floor tiled throughout; the bath end wall and both returns tiled to the ceiling
- Existing floor is a reasonably flat screed; walls are plasterboard
Step 1 — the floor
Floor area is 2.4 × 1.8 = 4.32 m². The bath occupies 1.7 × 0.75 = 1.275 m² and the tile stops at the panel, so the net area is 3.05 m².
Tiles are 600 × 600 × 10 mm porcelain, laid in a straight grid with a 3 mm joint. The tile calculator gives the allowance as three separate additions:
- 10% for a straight grid
- +2% because the room has a WC and a basin to cut around
- +4% because 3.05 m² is a small room, where a single ruined cut is a large share of the order
Total 16%, so you are buying 3.53 m². Each tile occupies 603 × 603 mm including its joint, which is 0.3636 m², so that is 10 tiles. At 4 per box you buy 3 boxes — 12 tiles, and 3 spare after the 9 that actually go down.
Those 3 spare tiles are the point. Three 600 mm porcelain tiles is about the cheapest insurance in the whole job. Store them flat and dry. A single cracked tile with no match means lifting the entire floor.
Step 2 — the walls
Three wall surfaces get tiled: the bath end wall at 1.8 m wide, and the two returns at 0.75 m each. Total run 3.3 m × 2.4 m high = 7.92 m².
Wall tiles are 300 × 600 × 9 mm, brick bond with a 50% offset and a 2 mm joint:
- 11% for brick bond — alternate rows start with a cut half tile
- +5% because there is a shower niche, a mixer and a bath edge to cut around
- +2% small-room addition at 7.92 m²
18% total, so 9.35 m² to buy. At 0.1818 m² per tile including joints that is 52 tiles; at 8 per box, 7 boxes = 56 tiles. 44 go on the wall.
Step 3 — adhesive and grout
Adhesive follows the trowel notch, and the notch follows the tile's equivalent side — the square root of its area:
- Floor: √(600×600) = 600 mm → 12 mm notch → 6.0 kg/m². Over 3.05 m² with 10% mixing waste = 20 kg
- Walls: √(300×600) = 424 mm → 10 mm notch → 5.0 kg/m². Over 7.92 m² with 10% = 44 kg
64 kg total, so 4 × 20 kg bags. Note the wall tile takes a smaller notch than the floor tile despite sharing a 600 mm long edge — that is the difference between a plank format and a large square, and getting it wrong here would have cost you a whole extra bag.
Grout comes out of the geometry, not a chart. Floor: 10 mm thick, 3 mm joint → 0.159 kg/m² → 0.53 kg. Walls: 9 mm thick, 2 mm joint → 0.143 kg/m² → 1.25 kg. With waste, one 5 kg bag covers the entire room with plenty over. Grout is the item people wildly over-buy.
Step 4 — everything else
This is where the job actually gets ordered wrong. None of it appears in a tile calculator, all of it stops work if it is missing.
| Item | Qty | Why this much |
|---|---|---|
| Floor tiles, 600×600 | 3 boxes | 10 needed, sold in 4s |
| Wall tiles, 300×600 | 7 boxes | 52 needed, sold in 8s |
| Tile adhesive, 20 kg | 4 bags | 64 kg across floor and walls |
| Grout, 5 kg | 1 bag | 1.8 kg needed; smallest sensible bag |
| Tile backer board, 1200×600×12.5 | 6 boards | 4.32 m² behind the shower. Plasterboard is not acceptable behind a shower, moisture-resistant or not. |
| Tanking kit | 1 (7 m²) | Shower zone plus the floor. Non-negotiable in a wet area. |
| Primer / substrate sealer | 1 × 5 L | Screed floor and board joints before adhesive |
| Levelling compound, 20 kg | 1 bag | Only if the floor is out by more than 3 mm over 2 m — check before you buy |
| Tile spacers, 2 mm and 3 mm | 200 of each | ~2 per tile across 62 tiles |
| Silicone, 310 ml | 3 cartridges | ~20 m of internal corners and bath junctions at 6–8 m per tube |
| External corner trim, 2.5 m | 2 lengths | Two external corners, 2.4 m each |
| Notched trowels, 10 mm and 12 mm | 1 each | Both notch sizes are needed — a single trowel cannot do both |
| Grout float, sponge, buckets | 1 set | Two buckets: one for washing, one for clean water |
| Tile cutter or wet saw | 1 | A manual cutter will not reliably score 600 mm porcelain. Hire a wet saw. |
What people forget
- Backer board behind the shower. Moisture-resistant plasterboard is for splash zones, not for behind a shower. Use a cement or foam tile backer, and tank it.
- Silicone, not grout, at every internal corner. Wall-to-wall, wall-to-floor and everything meeting the bath. Those junctions move; grout there cracks within a year. Every time.
- Two trowels. The floor and wall tiles need different notch depths, and you cannot switch a trowel mid-job by filing it down.
- A wet saw. Cutting 600 mm porcelain, plus the L-shaped cuts around a WC pedestal and the circular cuts for the mixer, is beyond a score-and-snap cutter.
- The order in which it goes down. Walls before floor, or floor before walls with the floor protected. Decide before you start — it changes where the cut tiles end up.
What this costs in time, not money
Two full days of tiling for someone competent, spread over four days because of curing:
- Day 1 — strip out, fix backer board, level the floor if needed. Leave overnight.
- Day 2 — prime and tank. Tanking needs its full cure time before tiling; read the tub, do not guess.
- Day 3 — tile walls, then floor. Leave overnight; you cannot grout adhesive that has not set.
- Day 4 — grout, clean off, silicone. Silicone needs 24 hours before the shower is used.
The room is out of use for roughly five days, which is the number worth planning around if it is the only bathroom.
Run your own version
Every figure above came from the calculators with the room's real dimensions typed in:
- Tile calculator — run it twice, once for the floor and once for the walls
- Waste factor table — where the 16% and 18% come from
- Adhesive and grout coverage — the notch and the grout formula
- How to measure a room properly — do this before anything else
Last reviewed 2026-09-18. Quantities are for the room described. Your room will differ — run the numbers rather than copying the totals.