Bare area is not a number you can order
Measuring a floor is the easy part. Three things sit between that number and what you actually buy, and most calculators skip at least one of them.
Wastage
Every cut round the edge of a room produces an offcut, and most of those offcuts are the wrong shape to use anywhere else. Add breakages, a tile that chips on the cutter, and the one you drop.
Ten per cent is the trade default for a normal room laid straight.Fifteen for an awkward shape with alcoves, a bay, or a pattern that has to line up. Twenty for diagonal or herringbone, where every single cut is a triangle and almost nothing is reusable.
Boxes, not square metres
Tiles are sold by the box, and box coverage varies enormously between ranges: 1.0, 1.44, 1.8 square metres are all common. Twenty two square metres at 1.44 a box is 15.3 boxes, so you buy sixteen. Not fifteen and a bit.
This is the step where a calculator that stops at square metres leaves you to do the important part in your head at a trade counter.
Batches
Ceramic and porcelain are fired in batches, and the colour shifts slightly from one to the next. It is not a fault, it is how the material works, and it is why the batch or shade number is printed on every box.
Buy the whole job in one order and check the numbers match before you open anything. A box from a different batch, opened halfway across a floor, shows as a band of slightly different colour that you will never stop seeing.
Keep the spares, properly
Keep at least a few, ideally a full box, somewhere dry and findable. Ranges get discontinued constantly. A cracked tile two years from now is either an invisible repair from your own spares or a visible patch in whatever is closest.
Two things worth doing before you fix anything
Check the room is square. Almost none are. Measure both diagonals: if they are not the same, the room is out, and laying to a wall will leave a tapering cut down the far side. Set out from a centre line instead and split the difference between both ends.
Dry lay a row in both directions. It takes ten minutes and it tells you where the cuts land. If you end up with a 15mm sliver against the most visible wall, shifting the whole grid by half a tile fixes it, and that is a decision to make before the adhesive is out of the tub rather than after.
Adhesive and grout
This works out the tiles. As a rough guide for the rest: a 20kg bag of adhesive covers about 5 square metres at a 6mm notch on a flat floor, less on anything uneven, and considerably less on a wall. Grout depends entirely on tile size and joint width, and the bag tells you.
Buy one more bag of adhesive than you think. Running out mid-floor with a tub of half-used adhesive going off is worse than having a spare bag.
Common questions
How many tiles do I need?
Measure the area, add wastage for cuts, then divide by what one box covers and round up. A 20 square metre floor with 10 per cent wastage needs 22 square metres of tile, which at 1.44 per box is 16 boxes.
How much wastage should I allow for tiles?
Ten per cent for a normal square room laid straight. Fifteen for an awkward shape with alcoves or a pattern to match. Twenty for diagonal or herringbone, because every cut is a triangle and none of the offcuts are reusable.
Should I round up or down when buying tiles?
Always up, and never to the nearest. You cannot buy two thirds of a box, and running short on the last row means a second delivery, a second delivery charge, and a real chance the batch has changed colour.
Why do tiles from a second box look slightly different?
Ceramic and porcelain are fired in batches and the colour shifts a little between them. The batch or shade number is printed on the box. Buy it all in one order, check the numbers match, and keep the spares.
How many spare tiles should I keep?
A full box if you can. A cracked tile in two years is unreplaceable once the range is discontinued, and a new box from a different batch will not match the floor around it.