Tile Bedding Cement & Sand Calculator

Calculate how much cement and sand for floor tiles per square foot of bedding you need. Use the free Tile Bedding Cement & Sand Calculator below — enter your values and get instant results, right in your browser. Dry bedding per sq ft = 0.1108 cu ft per inch of thickness. Cement bags = area × dry bedding × 1/(1+ratio) × 0.8155 (bags per cu ft of cement). Sand (cu ft) = area × dry bedding × ratio/(1+ratio).

How to use the Tile Bedding Cement & Sand Calculator

Floor tiles sit on a cement-sand bedding, and tile tools only count the tiles — nobody tells you how much mortar goes underneath. Too thin a bed and tiles crack; too much guessing and you over-order sand by the trolley. This calculator estimates the bedding mortar for any floor area at 1, 1.5 or 2 inch thickness with standard 1:4 bedding mortar. Enter the room area once and get the cement bags and sand cubic feet the tile fixer will actually consume.

  1. Measure the floor area in square feet and enter it in the Floor area field.
  2. Select the bedding thickness your tile fixer will use (1 inch is typical on level floors).
  3. Select the mortar ratio — 1:4 is the standard tile bedding mix.
  4. Click Calculate to see cement bags and sand cubic feet.

Formula

Dry bedding per sq ft = 0.1108 cu ft per inch of thickness. Cement bags = area × dry bedding × 1/(1+ratio) × 0.8155 (bags per cu ft of cement). Sand (cu ft) = area × dry bedding × ratio/(1+ratio).

Worked example

Tiling a 200 sq ft room with 1-inch bedding at 1:4: dry bedding = 22.2 cu ft. Cement = 22.2 × 1/5 × 0.8155 = 3.6 bags. Sand = 22.2 × 4/5 = 17.7 cubic feet. Buy 4 bags of cement and 18 cubic feet of sand so the tile fixer never waits for material in the middle of the room.

Frequently asked questions

One inch is standard on a level slab; use 1.5 to 2 inches where the floor needs levelling.

1:4 cement-sand mortar is the standard bedding mix; 1:6 is used only for economy work.

No — this covers the cement-sand bedding. If tiles are fixed with adhesive on a screeded floor, use the adhesive coverage printed on the bag.

Roof Tile Quantity Calculator Roof tile quantity calculator per square foot for clay and concrete roof tiles. Whitewash & Distemper Quantity Calculator Whitewash quantity calculator per square foot — estimate chuna and distemper by wall area. Barbed Wire Fence Rolls & Posts Calculator Barbed wire fence calculator: rolls per acre, wire length and posts from your plot size.