Free herringbone and chevron tile calculator. Enter room size, tile dimensions, and layout pattern to get tiles needed, boxes to buy, and total cost — with the correct waste factor for angled cuts already applied.
Built and maintained by Paul Clark, Redmoon Software
Use before ordering tile for a herringbone or chevron floor or backsplash — the built-in waste factor keeps you from running short mid-job.
Straight-lay tile calculators underestimate herringbone and chevron jobs by 8–10 points of waste. This one uses the pattern-specific factor.
A herringbone layout needs about 18% extra tile for angled cuts. Buy 22 boxes — consider one more for future repairs since dye lots vary.
Room area (sq ft) is divided by each tile's area to get a base tile count, then inflated by a waste factor for angled cuts: 18% for herringbone, 20% for chevron, 10% for a straight lay.
Tiles needed is rounded up to a whole tile, then divided by tiles per box and rounded up again so you never come up short mid-install.
Total cost = boxes needed × cost per box.
Herringbone and chevron patterns require angled cuts at every wall edge and border, and many of those cut-off pieces are too small to reuse elsewhere. That pushes the waste factor to around 18–20%, versus roughly 10% for a simple straight or running-bond layout.
Herringbone tiles are cut square and interlock at 90-degree offsets, so only the border tiles need angled cuts. Chevron tiles are pre-mitered at an angle so every tile edge meets its neighbor in a continuous V, which needs slightly more precise, and slightly more wasteful, cutting — hence the higher default waste factor.
Yes. Tile dye lots vary from batch to batch, so a box bought a year later to replace a cracked tile may not match. Buying one extra box now, while everything is from the same run, is cheap insurance against a visible mismatch later.
Input
10×10 ft room, 3×12 in plank tile, herringbone pattern, 8 tiles/box, $35/box.
Output
472 tiles, 59 boxes, $2,065.
Area = 10×10 = 100 sq ft. Tile area = (3×12)/144 = 0.25 sq ft. Tiles needed = ceil((100/0.25) × 1.18) = 472. Boxes = ceil(472/8) = 59. Cost = 59 × $35 = $2,065.
A straight tile layout typically wastes around 10%. Herringbone routinely wastes twice that, and the reason is geometric rather than a matter of skill: every tile meeting a wall is cut at 45 degrees, and the offcut from a diagonal cut is usually the wrong shape to use anywhere else.
Ordering herringbone at straight-lay waste is one of the most common ways a tiling job runs short mid-installation, which is worse than merely inconvenient — dye lots vary, and a second order frequently does not match.
Where the pattern starts determines how the edges fall. A layout centred on the room produces symmetrical cuts at both walls; one started from a wall produces a full run at one side and whatever is left at the other. Symmetry costs more material and looks considerably better.
Tile proportion matters too: a true 2:1 tile herringbones cleanly, while a tile that is nearly but not exactly 2:1 produces a pattern that creeps out of alignment across a run, needing adjustment that consumes more material again.
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