How Much to Charge for a Tiling Job in 2026

What a tiling quote needs to include

A quote that just says "£900 for the bathroom" leaves the two things most likely to cause an argument later — what's under the tiles, and whether the room's actually waterproof — completely unsaid. Cover these and there's nothing left to renegotiate once the old tiles are off:

1. 1Room dimensions and m², measured on site and split by wall and floor area separately.
2. 2The existing surface, and exactly how it's being removed and disposed of.
3. 3Substrate type, and whether backer board or self-levelling compound is needed before tiling starts.
4. 4Whether the area needs waterproofing (tanking) before tiling, and to what standard (see below).
5. 5The tile's name, brand, size and finish — so there's no argument later about which grey porcelain was agreed.
6. 6Adhesive and grout type (standard, flexible, or epoxy) and grout colour.
7. 7Where movement joints will go, especially perimeters and any underfloor heating.
8. 8Cut wastage allowance — usually 10% for a simple layout, 15%+ for diagonal or pattern-matched tiles.
9. 9Sealing, if the tile is natural stone.
10. 10Guarantee period on workmanship and payment terms including any deposit.

Not every tiling job is the same job

The tile choice is the visible part of the price. Whether the room needs to be waterproof, and whether the substrate can take the movement of a big tiled area, is what actually decides whether the job holds up.

Wall tiling and floor tiling price differently — don't quote them as one number

Wall tiling is generally slower and more fiddly per m² than floor tiling — working overhead, cutting round sockets and fittings, and keeping courses level all add time that a flat floor doesn't. Quoting both at a single blended rate either overprices the floor or underprices the walls, and a customer comparing your quote to another tiler's itemised one will notice which.

The waterproofing rule almost every bathroom quote should now mention

BS 5385-1, the British Standard covering wall and floor tiling, was revised in 2018 to extend waterproofing (tanking) requirements to domestic wet areas — previously this was mainly a commercial-building expectation. The standard is explicit that moisture-sensitive substrates such as plaster, plasterboard and tile backer board should be tanked with a proper waterproof membrane before tiling starts, because tile adhesive and grout are water-resistant, not waterproof, and will let moisture through their porous structure over time. That covers showers, wet rooms, steam rooms and any area with frequent water exposure. Skip it and the usual outcome, months or years later, is damp creeping into the substrate and adjoining rooms, and tiles de-bonding as the moisture gets behind them — a repair that costs far more than the tanking kit would have, and one a customer will reasonably expect the tiler to have caught.

Movement joints are the crack-prevention detail that separates a professional quote from a DIY one

Tiles, adhesive, grout and the substrate underneath all expand and contract at slightly different rates as temperature changes, and neither grout nor adhesive can absorb that movement on its own. BS 5385 sets out where flexible movement joints are required as a result: always at perimeters where tiling meets a wall, bath or shower tray, using a flexible sealant rather than grout, plus intermediate joints roughly every 8–10m in each direction on a standard floor — tightening to around 5m under underfloor heating or strong direct sunlight — and every 3–4.5m on walls, with a joint at every internal corner. Leave them out on a larger tiled area and the classic failure is tiles cracking or "tenting" along a dead-straight line, sometimes months after the job's finished. Naming these on the quote, even briefly, is the kind of detail that tells a customer they're not the ones who'll discover it the hard way.

How to price the work

UK tiling pricing varies by tile type, region and whether the room needs waterproofing, but these ranges are a fair starting point for 2026:

• Floor tiling labour alone typically runs £25–£40/m² across most of the UK, rising to £30–£52/m² in London and the South East.
• Wall tiling labour runs a little higher at £30–£45/m² (£38–£58/m² in London and the South East) to reflect the slower, more fiddly work.
• All-in pricing (materials + labour) typically lands at £45–£130/m² for most jobs, rising to £55–£170/m² in London and the South East — tile choice is what moves this the most.
• The tile itself varies hugely by material: roughly £20–£35/m² for budget ceramic, £75–£100/m² for stone or mosaic, and £150–£200+/m² for marble or patterned tiles.
• Day rates commonly run £200–£350, or around £40–£45/hour for small jobs; a competent tiler typically covers 10–15m² of wall tiling or 8–12m² of floor tiling a day, which is a useful sanity check on your own estimate.
• Waterproof tanking for a shower enclosure or wet room commonly adds £150–£350 in materials and labour depending on the kit and area covered — always its own line, never folded into the tiling rate.
• It's worth setting a minimum job charge — typically £150–£200, or £180–£260 in London — so a single splashback doesn't quietly cost you more in travel and prep time than it earns.

A worked example

A full bathroom retile — 22m² of walls and 6m² of floor, including a shower enclosure that needs tanking to BS 5385-1 — priced the way described above:

£2,920 for a full bathroom retile, covering removal and disposal of the old tiles, backer board and self-levelling prep across both walls and floor, a waterproof tanking membrane through the shower enclosure to BS 5385-1, matched porcelain supplied and fitted on the walls and floor, flexible movement joints at every perimeter and floor-to-wall junction, and all adhesive, grout and trims. Nothing on the final invoice was a surprise, because the tanking and the movement joints were both named — not implied — on the quote the customer signed.

Five details that get tiling quotes accepted faster

• State plainly that the wet area will be tanked to BS 5385. A one-line mention of tanking tells a customer who's had a leak before — or read one horror story online — that you know the current standard, and it's a detail most competing quotes for the same bathroom simply won't include.
• Separate supply from fit. "Material: £X, fitting labour: £Y" lets a customer compare your labour rate against another tiler's without materials clouding the comparison, and makes it painless to swap to a cheaper or pricier tile without re-quoting the whole job.
• Show where the movement joints will go, not just that there'll be some. Naming the perimeter and any floor-to-wall junctions as movement joints on the quote — rather than leaving it implied — heads off the awkward conversation months later when a hairline crack appears somewhere you'd already planned for.
• Price backer board and levelling as their own line, with a photo. A photo of the existing substrate from the survey, next to a clearly priced prep line, turns a cost customers often assume is included into one they can see and understand before they sign.
• State the guarantee and a one-line maintenance note. "12 months on workmanship; re-seal silicone movement joints roughly every 2–3 years" reads as genuinely professional, and it heads off a callback in three years' time from someone who didn't know grout and sealant need occasional attention.

The fastest way to do all of this

One splashback with a flat wall behind it is easy enough to price from memory. A week juggling that splashback, a straightforward hallway floor, and a full bathroom retile where the shower enclosure needs tanking and the customer wants to know exactly where the movement joints will sit, is exactly where a rushed verbal number turns into a dispute over what was and wasn't included.

This is what QuoteRocket is for. Describe the job in plain English — "22m² wall and 6m² floor porcelain retile, shower enclosure to be tanked, movement joints at all perimeters" — and it turns that into a branded, itemised PDF quote in under a minute, with a valid-until date and every line priced separately. Your customer accepts it with one tap on their phone, and an accepted quote becomes an invoice in one click, so you're tiling bathrooms, not chasing paperwork between jobs.

Whichever way you produce the quote, the principle holds: separate wall from floor, price waterproofing and movement joints as their own lines rather than folding them into the tiling rate, and name them on the quote so the customer knows exactly what they're paying for.

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