Tool 1 of the Get Paid Kit · For tilers

Tiler hourly rate calculator

This free calculator works out the hourly rate a self-employed tiler should charge for their time, starting from the income you need, then builds the per-square-metre price clients actually pay out of the hours a room really holds. Clients rarely buy “an hour of tiling”; they buy the finished bathroom by the square metre — but metres do not tile themselves, and the hour underneath the metre is the thing you actually sell: setting out, fixing, cutting around every pipe and socket, grouting and sealing. With the honest presets below the rate lands near $83 an hour, $661 for a full day — and the metre price built from it: an eighteen-square-metre bathroom at about sixteen hours of labour is $1,322 — roughly $73 a square metre — with a kitchen splashback at about four hours, $331. Tiles, adhesive and grout are materials, billed as their own line; the rate prices your skill and your hours.

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The pricing reality for tilers

A room is bought by the metre and earned by the hour. Inside the metre price sit the setting out, the substrate checks, the fixing, the cuts — always more cuts than the showroom room has — the grouting, the sealing and the clean-down. A metre rate copied from the tiler across town carries all of that whether it covers it or not. Price the hour first, count the hours a room honestly takes, and the metre price becomes arithmetic instead of folklore.

The metre is an honest unit with a dishonest edge: it assumes every metre is alike. The metre behind the bath, drilled four times and cut twice, is not the metre in the middle of the floor. That is why the hour stays underneath — small, awkward areas like splashbacks and niches price better by the hour or the part-day, and the big open floors by the metre, both built from the same rate.

The numbers below are starting presets, not a survey: a $52,000 target income, $12,900 a year of expenses — vehicle and fuel leads, with tools like the wet saw, cutters and lasers, a workshop or storage share, consumables like blades, spacers and levelling clips, liability insurance, marketing and admin, waste disposal, and workwear — a 25% tax estimate, four weeks of vacation, a 40-hour week and 60% billable time. With those starting numbers the calculator lands near $83 an hour.

Your numbers — tiler presets

Your recommended rate

$0 / hour
$0Day rate (8 hours)
0Billable hours per year
Income + expenses needed$0
Grossed up for tax$0
With profit margin$0
Working weeks0
Total working hours0
Billable hours0

Your rate is saved on this device only, so the Proposal Generator can show it when you price a project.

Easy to miss

Costs tilers forget to put in the rate

  • The cuts and the breakages. Every job loses tiles to cuts, drilling and the odd breakage, and porcelain eats blades and diamond wheels as it goes. Those wheels and blades are a cost of every billable hour and belong in the expenses line; the tile wastage belongs in the quote as a stated allowance, agreed before the first box is opened.
  • The waiting. Tiling runs on other trades' readiness and on drying times: the screed not yet cured, the plumber a day late, the adhesive that must set before grouting. Return visits and short days are part of the trade's real hours — quotes that price only laying time quietly donate them.
  • The prep nobody photographs. Substrate checks, priming, tanking in wet areas, levelling a floor that is not level — this is the difference between tiles that stay put and tiles that do not, and it happens before the first tile is laid. Hours spent on prep are tiling hours, and the price should say so.
  • The measuring trips. Measuring a room, checking its levels, pricing a job you do not win — skilled time spent in traffic. Some tilers fold a measure into the job price; everyone else must let the billable percentage carry it.
  • The heavy kit. Wet saws, mixers, lasers and levels are the business. Their servicing, repairs and eventual replacement are paid for by the rate or not at all — there is no third option. A rate that ignores depreciation is borrowing from next year's breakdown.
The maths

How this calculator works

Start with the hours you can genuinely sell. Take 52 weeks, subtract your vacation weeks, multiply by your hours per week, then multiply by your billable percentage. With the tiler presets — four weeks off, 40 hours a week, 60% billable — that is 1,152 billable hours a year: the setting out, fixing, cutting and grouting clients can pay for, once quoting, travel and waiting on other trades have taken theirs.

Next, work out what those hours must bring in. Add your desired income and your annual business expenses together — $64,900 on the presets — gross the total up for tax by dividing by one minus your tax rate — at a 25% estimate, divide by 0.75 to get $86,533 — then add your profit margin to reach $95,187 and divide by your billable hours. That final number, $83, is the rate below which the year stops adding up.

Now translate the hour into the price clients actually buy: the square metre. An eighteen-square-metre bathroom — walls and floor — takes about sixteen hours across two to three days once setting out, cuts, grouting and sealing are counted honestly: $1,322 of labour, which works out at roughly $73 a square metre. A big open floor runs faster per metre; a kitchen splashback takes about four hours for $331, which is exactly why small, cut-heavy areas price by the hour or the part-day instead. Tiles, adhesive, grout and trims sit on their own invoice line — with a stated wastage allowance — agreed before the work starts.

Disclaimer: This is a planning estimate, not tax advice. Tax rates, deductions and allowances vary by country, state and business structure. Enter the rate you expect to pay, and check significant decisions with a qualified accountant.
Next: build a proposal with this rate Use the general rate calculator
Questions

Tiler rate questions

Quote the metre where the metre is honest — big, open, regular areas — and build the metre price from your hours: the hours the room honestly takes, at your rate, divided by its area. Quote hours or a part-day where the metre lies: splashbacks, niches, steps and repair patches are mostly cuts and edges. Clients buy the square metre; you must earn the hour — and the two presentations should never produce two different totals for the same room.
Either arrangement works; ambiguity does not. If the client supplies the tiles, say in writing who carries breakages, shortages and the second trip when a box runs out mid-wall. If you supply, materials go on their own invoice line with a stated wastage allowance — cuts and breakages are a fact of the trade, not a surprise. Adhesive and grout are consumables of the job: priced in the materials line or in the expenses, but priced somewhere.
For an established solo tiler with steady work, yes, as a starting point: measuring, quoting, travel, waiting on substrates and other trades, invoicing and the hunt for the next job take the rest. In your first year, or in a quiet market, set it lower and let the rate rise to tell you the truth — the calculator is not being unkind, it is showing what the year needs. As the diary fills, the same expenses spread over more billable hours and the rate can ease, or the income can grow.

Rates differ by trade — the same maths runs with different presets for graphic designer rates, freelance writer rates, web developer rates, marketing consultant rates, photographer rates, video editor rates, virtual assistant rates, social media manager rates, bookkeeper rates, translator rates, business coach rates, illustrator rates, copywriter rates, UX designer rates, SEO consultant rates, data analyst rates, motion designer rates, technical writer rates, podcast editor rates, email marketer rates, life coach rates, proofreader rates, event planner rates, voice actor rates, online tutor rates, personal trainer rates, interior designer rates, music producer rates, grant writer rates, UX researcher rates, book editor rates, transcriptionist rates, presentation designer rates, brand strategist rates, video producer rates, art director rates, WordPress developer rates, mobile app developer rates, 3D artist rates, game developer rates, Shopify developer rates, online business manager rates, podcast producer rates, data entry specialist rates, UX writer rates, copy editor rates, wedding photographer rates, resume writer rates, data scientist rates, instructional designer rates, business analyst rates, email designer rates, interpreter rates, audiobook narrator rates, landscape designer rates, wedding planner rates, wedding videographer rates, personal chef rates, dog trainer rates, music teacher rates, florist rates, cake baker rates, tour guide rates, pet groomer rates, house painter rates, handyman rates, locksmith rates, home organizer rates, pressure washer rates, carpet cleaner rates, chimney sweep rates, pool cleaner rates, window cleaner rates, tattoo artist rates, massage therapist rates, barber rates, makeup artist rates, hairstylist rates, nail technician rates, tailor rates, house cleaner rates, electrician rates, plumber rates, pest control technician rates, ppc specialist rates, content strategist rates, wedding DJ rates, dog walker rates, audio engineer rates, caterer rates, mover rates, appliance repair technician rates, nanny rates, piano tuner rates, garage door technician rates, bicycle mechanic rates, house sitter rates, upholsterer rates, jeweller rates, cobbler rates, blacksmith rates, sign writer rates, farrier rates, mobile car detailer rates, genealogist rates, saddler rates, arborist rates, travel agent rates, watch repairer rates, doula rates, sleep consultant rates, home stager rates, wedding officiant rates, college admissions consultant rates, mobile notary rates, personal shopper rates, welder rates, carpenter rates, glazier rates, plasterer rates, roofer rates, bricklayer rates, HVAC technician rates, dressmaker rates, concrete finisher rates, drywall installer rates, flooring installer rates, gardener rates, fence installer rates, gutter installer rates, solar installer rates, stonemason rates, deck builder rates, insulation installer rates, cabinet maker rates, paving installer rates, furniture restorer rates, blind installer rates, driving instructor rates, picture framer rates, aerial installer rates, car mechanic rates, clock repairer rates, oven cleaner rates, smart home installer rates, alarm installer rates, drain cleaner rates, curtain installer rates, irrigation installer rates, shutter installer rates, artificial grass installer rates, fireplace installer rates, bathtub refinisher rates, snow removal professional rates, landscape lighting installer rates, radon mitigation specialist rates, home inspector rates, mold remediation specialist rates, window tint installer rates, paintless dent repair technician rates, home energy auditor rates, knife sharpener rates and mobile tyre fitter rates, or start from the general freelance hourly rate calculator.