Tiling Services: cost per m² in 2026 and what it includes

A tiler does more than most people expect. They prepare the substrate (the wall or floor surface the tiles go onto), fix wall and floor tiles, waterproof wet areas and finish the grout joints, flexible joints and edges. You will usually call one in for a bathroom, a toilet, a kitchen splashback, a hallway or a staircase.

How do you recognise good work? A tile in the middle of the wall tells you very little. Look at the corners, at the cuts around the taps, and at the wall under side lighting, when every wave shows. The real test comes years later: a well laid floor does not start to sound hollow when you tap it.

Most of the result is decided before the first tile goes on. It depends on how flat the substrate is, which adhesive the tiler chooses and how they set out the area. Once the job is finished, you cannot change any of this without breaking tiles out.

Tiles of 60 × 120 cm and larger now appear in bathrooms as well as living rooms. They have few joints and make a room feel more open. They are, however, very demanding on the substrate. The bigger the tile, the more clearly it shows every bump in the wall or floor. With large formats, the tiler therefore often levels the whole surface with a skim coat or self-levelling compound.

It helps to know that a large tile is never perfectly flat. It bows slightly during manufacture, usually in the middle of the longer side. If you lay such tiles in a half-bond pattern, the high point of one tile meets the low point of the next and a small step appears at the edge. Tilers call this lippage. For rectangular formats, manufacturers therefore usually recommend an offset of no more than a third of the length. Until the adhesive cures, a levelling system with clips and wedges keeps the edges flush.

Thin porcelain slabs are roughly 6 mm thick. They can be fixed over existing tiles and are also used on furniture and kitchen worktops. So that they do not bend while being moved, they are carried in a frame with suction cups and cut with a special cutter.

Mosaic is the opposite extreme. Small pieces on a mesh backing follow curved surfaces, niches and sloped shower floors well. Expect fixing and grouting to be slow, though, and expect to use a lot of grout.

On the adhesive bag you will find a code based on the European standard EN 12004. It looks technical, but it makes choosing an adhesive for your substrate and tile size quite simple:

• C: cement-based adhesive, the type you will meet most often. Dispersion (ready-mixed) adhesives are marked D, and reaction resin adhesives such as epoxy are marked R.
• 1 and 2: normal and improved adhesive. Class 2 grips more strongly, so it is the right choice for porcelain, large formats and outdoor work.
• T: reduced slip. A tile you press onto the wall stays put instead of sliding down.
• E: extended open time. The spread adhesive stays tacky for longer, so you do not have to rush.
• F: fast-setting. Useful when the next job needs to follow quickly.
• S1 and S2: deformable and highly deformable adhesive. This flexibility matters with underfloor heating, on timber and plasterboard, with large formats and outdoors.

Adhesive is spread with a notched trowel, and the notch size is chosen to suit the tile. On floors, and with large formats on walls too, adhesive also goes on the back of the tile. Tilers call this back-buttering. It is the only way to get a continuous bed with no hollow spots underneath. Checking is easy: the tiler lifts one freshly laid tile and looks at its back.

When you renovate a flat or house, it is not always worth stripping the old tiles. If the existing tiles are firmly stuck, do not sound hollow when tapped and the substrate does not move, new tiles can go straight on top. You save the demolition, a great deal of dust and time. The old surface needs a thorough degreasing, then a bonding primer made for non-absorbent surfaces, and the new tiles go on with a deformable adhesive.

There are catches, though. The floor rises by the thickness of the new tile plus adhesive, which can cause trouble at thresholds and doors. Sometimes a door has to be trimmed. On walls, the new layer stands proud of the door frame and builds up around the taps, which then need extending. Any old tiles that sound hollow in places must come off and the area must be made good.

If the bathroom pipework is being replaced as well, the old tiling usually comes off entirely. Leave bathroom electrics to a qualified electrician: in many countries, work in bathrooms falls under special rules and has to be done or signed off by a competent person. If you live in a block of flats, talk to the building management or owners' association before touching risers or shared pipes. And if you plan to move partition walls or alter other parts of the structure, check with your local building authority first what your local building regulations require for your case.

An experienced tiler does not start fixing straight away. First they set out the area and work out where the cuts will fall. The aim is equal cuts on both sides of a wall and no thin slivers next to the door, window or bath, which always look like a makeshift fix. Where possible, the wall joints line up with the floor joints so they continue into each other at the corner. Tap and waste outlets are placed in the middle of a tile or exactly in a joint.

How wide should the joint be? That depends on the tiles. Rectified tiles have their edges ground to a precise size after firing, so they can be laid with a narrow joint of about 2 mm. Non-rectified tiles vary slightly in size and need a wider joint to even out the differences. Tiles are never laid with no joint at all, because each tile needs a little room for small movements.

The grout colour changes the look more than you might expect. Grout in the same shade as the tile makes the surface look calmer, while a contrasting colour picks out the format and pattern. Light grout on a floor gets dirty quickly, which is why grey is a more common choice for floors.

Tiles suit underfloor heating very well, because they conduct heat well. They should only be laid once the heating has been commissioned and the screed has dried to the moisture level the manufacturer specifies. A deformable adhesive is used so it can cope with the floor moving as it warms up and cools down.

Movement joints in the tiling must sit exactly above the joints in the screed, not somewhere next to them. Further joints go around the edges of the room along the walls and at thresholds, and large areas are split into smaller bays. These joints are not filled with grout but with a flexible sealant or a movement joint profile. Without them, tiles crack or come loose as temperatures change.

The tiling between the base units and the wall cabinets is done after the base units and worktop are fitted, or working from an exact kitchen drawing. The tiles then start just above the worktop and the joint between them is sealed with silicone. If you tile before the kitchen goes in, take the tiles a few centimetres below the planned worktop height. Otherwise an ugly gap may be left once the worktop is in place.

Behind the cooker and hob, grout soaks up grease quickly. A larger format with fewer joints helps, as does epoxy or water-repellent grout. Plan the sockets before tiling so that they sit centred on a tile or on a joint, rather than randomly across a tile edge.

External corners are finished either with a trim or with a mitred edge. A mitre means the tile edge is ground at 45° and the two tiles meet neatly at the corner. It looks cleaner, but it takes more work and leaves no room for error. With glazed tiles whose body is a different colour, a lighter strip may show along the ground edge, so a trim is the more sensible choice for those tiles.

A tiled skirting protects the bottom of the wall from the mop and vacuum cleaner. It can be cut from the same floor tiles or bought ready-made. Holes for sockets, taps and waste pipes are drilled with diamond core bits. Breaking out the edges by hand easily damages the tile.

Only frost-resistant tiles with very low water absorption belong outdoors, and that usually means porcelain. Ordinary ceramic absorbs water, which expands when it freezes and breaks the tile apart. The adhesive also has to be deformable and rated for exterior use.

A balcony or terrace needs waterproofing under the tiles. The surface needs a fall away from the wall of the house and drainage at the edge, for example a drip edge or a channel. Why does this matter so much? Water trapped under the tiles freezes in winter and lifts them off. Larger terraces therefore use drainage systems that carry water away from under the tiles, or slabs on pedestals with open joints. If you live in a block of flats, the balcony and its waterproofing are often part of the shared building. Speak to the building management or owners' association before any work starts.

On steps, safety comes first. Treads need a slip-resistant surface, and the front edge of each step should be finished with a stair nosing trim or a special step tile that will not chip underfoot. All steps must be the same height, because even a difference of one centimetre makes people trip. Ceramic tiles fixed in adhesive are not suitable for driveways or anywhere cars drive. Block paving or stone paving on a gravel bed belongs there.

You can replace a single cracked wall or floor tile without damaging its neighbours. The one condition is that you have a spare from the original delivery.

1. Cover the surrounding tiles with masking tape so they do not get scratched.
2. Rake out the grout around the cracked tile with a grout scraper or an oscillating multi-tool.
3. Drill several holes in the tile or score it across, then break it out with a chisel working from the centre towards the edges, never from the edges inwards.
4. Clean the old adhesive off the bed so the surface is flat and the new tile will not stand proud.
5. Spread deformable adhesive on the substrate and on the back of the new tile, then press the tile in flush with its neighbours.
6. Check it with a spirit level or straightedge laid across the neighbouring tiles, and insert spacers so the joints stay even.
7. Once the adhesive has cured as stated on the packaging, grout the joints and wipe off the excess with a damp sponge.
8. If tiles keep cracking in the same spot, look for a hollow under the tile or movement in the substrate, not a fault in the tile itself.

Whenever you have tiling done, keep a few tiles from the same production batch. Shades vary between batches, and the same tile is often no longer on sale a few years later.

• Check flatness with a 2 m straightedge; steps between neighbouring tiles should be minimal
• Tap the tiles to make sure none sound hollow
• Joints are straight, even in width and fully filled
• Cuts are clean and symmetrical, with no thin slivers by the door or bath
• Corners and joints with the bath, basin and shower tray are sealed with silicone, not grout
• In the shower, water runs to the drain and does not pool anywhere
• Movement joints are filled with flexible sealant or a profile
• The surface is clean of adhesive and grout residue