Tiling Cost 2026: £25 to £95 per m² Labour, UK Rates

Tiling cost in the UK sits between about £25 and £95 per square metre for labour in 2026, and the spread inside that range is not random. It tracks the tile format, the material and how much of the tiler’s day goes on cutting rather than fixing. Add the tiles themselves and a typical bathroom retile lands somewhere between £1,300 and £1,900 nationally, or £1,800 to £2,600 inside a London postcode.

This page breaks the number down the way a quote is actually built: labour per square metre, day rates, materials, preparation, and the line items that separate an honest price from a cheap one. If you are pricing a job in Bromley or south east London, the London uplift in the tables below applies to you.

What tiling costs per square metre in 2026

Most tilers price by the square metre once a job goes beyond about 10 square metres. The rate is labour only. It does not include the tiles, the adhesive, the grout or any work to make the surface fit to tile.

Range chart of UK tiler labour rates per square metre in 2026 by tiling type — Labour-only rates per square metre by tiling type, with the average marked. Chart by Bromley Tilers. | Chart by Bromley Tilers. Source: Pricing Penguin UK tiling cost guide, 2026.

Standard wall tiling (ceramic, 300mm x 600mm): £25 to £50 per m², averaging around £35.
Standard floor tiling (ceramic or porcelain): £30 to £60 per m², averaging around £45.
Large-format tiles (600mm x 600mm and up): £40 to £70 per m².
Natural stone (slate, travertine, marble): £45 to £90 per m².
Mosaic and detailed patterns: £50 to £95 per m².

Floor tiling costs more per square metre than wall tiling for two reasons that have nothing to do with the tiles: sub-floors usually need levelling, and floor tiles are heavier to handle. Large-format and natural stone push the rate up again because they need a levelling system, stronger adhesive and slower, more careful cutting. A herringbone or chevron layout is not a design surcharge, it is real extra time. Every course generates two cuts instead of none.

London and the south east run roughly 20% to 30% above these figures. The Midlands sit around 5% below, and the north west, Yorkshire and Scotland around 10% to 15% below.

Tiler day rates and when they apply

For anything under about 10 square metres, a per-metre rate makes no sense to either side, so most tilers quote a day rate instead. Expect £180 to £280 a day, with £150 to £200 quoted at the lower end of the market. A small kitchen splashback is a day-rate job almost every time.

Output is the number that turns a day rate into a total. A tiler working on straightforward wall tiling covers roughly 5 to 8 square metres a day. On floors it is closer to 4 to 6. Mosaics and large-format tiles are slower than both. So a bathroom with 5 square metres of wall and 4 square metres of floor is a two to three day job, plus a curing day before grouting. Add a day if old tiles have to come off first.

That curing day matters when you are comparing quotes. A tiler who says they will strip, tile and grout a bathroom in two days is either working around the adhesive’s cure time or not allowing for it, and the second option shows up later as hollow tiles and cracked grout.

What the tiles themselves add

Supply costs vary more than labour does. As a rough guide per square metre:

Ceramic wall tiles: £10 to £40 depending on quality.
Porcelain floor tiles: £15 to £60.
Large-format porcelain (600mm x 1200mm and up): £25 to £90.
Natural stone such as slate or travertine: £30 to £100.
Marble: £50 to £200.
Mosaic sheets: £20 to £80.

Order about 10% more than the room area. Cuts, breakages and the odd tile with a flaw in the glaze all come out of that margin, and a batch ordered three weeks later rarely matches the first one exactly.

Adhesive and grout add roughly £5 to £10 per square metre. Bought by the bag, standard cement-based adhesive runs about £12 to £20, ready-mixed £12 to £25, flexible S1 £20 to £35 and white rapid-set £22 to £38. The type is not optional: porcelain and large-format tiles need a flexible adhesive, and natural stone and glass usually need a white rapid-set so the adhesive colour does not show through the tile.

What a whole room costs

Putting labour and mid-range materials together, these are the totals to expect. Wall tiling, supply and fit:

Kitchen splashback (2 to 3 m²): £120 to £330 for budget to mid-range tiles.
Full kitchen wall (6 to 10 m²): £360 to £1,100.
Bathroom wall, half height around a bath (7 to 10 m²): £420 to £1,100.
Shower room, walls tiled out (6 to 8 m²): £360 to £880.
Wet room walls (8 to 12 m²): £480 to £1,320.

Floor tiling, supply and fit with mid-range tiles at about £25 per m²:

8 m² (a small bathroom or cloakroom): £400 to £500, about a day.
12 m² (a typical bathroom or small kitchen): £500 to £600.
20 m² (an average kitchen diner): £700 to £800.
30 m² (an open plan area): £900 to £1,000, one to two days.

A full bathroom retile, taken as roughly 5 square metres of wall and 4 of floor with mid-range tiles, comes to £1,300 to £1,900 nationally for labour and tiles combined. In London the same job is £1,800 to £2,600. Neither figure includes sanitaryware, plumbing or making good.

The costs that get left out of cheap quotes

Preparation is where quotes diverge, because it is invisible in the finished job and easy to leave out of a price.

Removing old tiles and adhesive. Budget an extra £150 to £200 a day. Old adhesive beds on a plastered wall are slow to take off without pulling the plaster with them.
Levelling or skimming. A wall out of plumb or a floor with a dip in it will telegraph through the finished tiling. Self-levelling compound on a floor and a skim on a wall both add a day and a drying period.
Tanking in wet areas. A tanking kit for a shower or wet room is £150 to £250 in materials, and £200 to £400 fitted. This is not optional in a wet room, and a quote that does not mention it is not comparable with one that does.
Underfloor heating. Electric mats run about £50 to £80 per square metre on top of the tiling.
Waste removal. Tile rubble is heavy. A skip or a grab collection is a real line item, not a rounding error.

Why two quotes for the same job differ by hundreds

Assuming both tilers have measured the same room, three things usually explain a large gap.

The first is VAT. A tiler whose turnover is under the £90,000 VAT registration threshold is not VAT registered and adds no VAT to the bill. A larger firm that is registered adds 20% for identical work. That alone can account for the whole difference on a mid-sized job, and it says nothing about the standard of the tiling.

The second is preparation. One quote strips the old tiles, skims the wall and tanks the shower. The other tiles over what is there. They are different jobs at the same address.

The third is the spec. Flexible S1 adhesive costs more than a bag of standard cement-based, a decoupling matting layer costs more than nothing, and a tile trim costs more than a bead of silicone in the corner. Underquoting almost always shows up in the parts you cannot see once the grout is in.

How to compare tiling quotes properly

Ask for the quote itemised rather than as a single figure. A quote that splits labour, tiles, adhesive, grout, silicone, tanking and waste removal can be compared line by line with another one. A round number cannot, and it leaves you exposed if the spec changes halfway through.

Get three quotes on the same written specification, including tile size, format, layout and whether the old tiles are coming off. If one comes in well under the regional range above, ask which of the preparation items it covers before you assume you have found a bargain.

Tiling is not a licensed trade in the UK, so there is no register you must be on to call yourself a tiler. The Tile Association keeps a directory of members and runs the practical assessments behind its accreditations, which is a reasonable starting filter alongside references and photographs of finished work. If you want a local price rather than a national average, Bromley Tilers covers Bromley and the surrounding south east London boroughs.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a tiler charge per square metre in 2026?

Between £25 and £50 per square metre for standard wall tiling and £30 to £60 for standard floor tiling, labour only. Large-format tiles are £40 to £70, natural stone £45 to £90, and mosaic or detailed patterns £50 to £95. Add 20% to 30% for London postcodes.

How much does it cost to retile a bathroom?

A standard retile of roughly 5 square metres of wall and 4 of floor with mid-range tiles costs £1,300 to £1,900 nationally for labour and tiles combined, and £1,800 to £2,600 in London. That excludes sanitaryware, plumbing and any repair to the surfaces underneath.

Is it cheaper to pay a day rate or a price per square metre?

For small jobs under about 10 square metres, a day rate of £180 to £280 is usually the better deal and is what most tilers will offer. Above that, a per-square-metre price protects you, because the tiler carries the risk if the job runs slow rather than you paying for the extra days.

Does tiling over existing tiles save money?

It saves the £150 to £200 a day that removal would cost, and it can be sound if the existing tiles are firmly bonded, flat and free of movement. It also raises the finished surface, which affects door clearances on floors and trims around windows on walls, and it hides any problem in the substrate rather than fixing it.

Why does a tiler charge more for large-format tiles?

They are heavier to lift into place, they need a levelling system to keep the edges flush, they show up any unevenness in the wall or floor beneath them, and a single bad cut wastes a large and expensive tile. The rate reflects the slower working pace, not a premium for the look.

How long should I allow before grouting?

Follow the adhesive manufacturer’s stated cure time rather than a rule of thumb. In practice most jobs allow a full day between fixing and grouting, which is why a two-day bathroom quote is worth questioning.

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