Last updated October 31, 2026

How much to charge for tile work in 2026

The hourly rate a one-truck tile setter needs to charge, built from what tile setters actually earn, a price list for 14 common jobs with the arithmetic shown, what moves the number, and the mistakes that cost the most.

Short answer: a one-truck tile business that pays its owner what the median tile setter earns, carries normal overhead, and keeps a 20 percent margin needs about $70 an hour. To pay yourself like the top quarter of tile setters, charge about $80. Top ten percent, $95. Below $65 you are subsidizing the customer with your own wages. Every number on this page is built from published wage data and a model you can see, and the price list further down uses the $80 rate.

Tile is the slowest flooring trade per square foot and the one where craftsmanship is most visible, so it prices by the square foot at three to four times the rate of plank flooring. A tile setter's hours go into prep, layout and the cuts, and a shower is a waterproofing job before it is a tile job. The customer sees the tile; the setter is selling what is behind it.

The pricing trap in tile is the size and pattern of the tile itself. Large-format tile needs a flatter floor and a bigger trowel and sets slower per piece but faster per foot; mosaics set slowly per foot no matter what; herringbone and diagonals add 20 to 40 percent to the hours. The customer picks the tile and the bid has to price the hours that choice creates.

What tile setters earn, and what that means for your rate

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 35,850 people working as tile and stone setters in its May 2025 survey and published what they are paid. That is the wage an employer pays an employee, which is the floor for what an owner-operator should pay themselves. A rate is built on top of it: the hidden cost of an hour of labor, the overhead of running a truck, the hours you cannot bill, and a margin. The model here uses a 22% labor load for payroll taxes, workers comp and the liability share, $26,000 a year of overhead for the truck, insurance, phone, software, tools and licenses, 1,100 billable hours a year, and a 20% margin. Change any input and the rate moves; the hourly rate calculator runs it with your numbers.

If you pay yourself like the	BLS wage	Loaded	Overhead per hour	Rate to charge
Bottom quarter	$22	$27	$24	$65
Median	$27	$33	$24	$70
Top quarter	$34	$41	$24	$80
Top ten percent	$41	$51	$24	$95

Rate = (wage × 1.22 + $26,000 ÷ 1,100) ÷ (1 − 0.2), rounded to $5. Wages: BLS OEWS May 2025, tile and stone setters, national.

Overhead of $26,000 covers a van, wet saws, mixers, leveling systems, a moisture meter and insurance. Tile itself is almost always the customer's selection and goes on the bid as an allowance or a customer-supplied line; thinset, grout, backer and waterproofing are the setter's materials. The rate is per setter; a helper on demo and mixing is a second line.

A tile price list, with the math

Flat prices for the jobs tile setters quote most, built the same way every time: hours at the $80 rate, plus materials at cost with a 30 percent markup, rounded to $5. The hours and material costs are example inputs for a typical job in a typical market, stated so you can swap in your own. A job with a crew of two doubles the labor line. Per-foot prices are labor and setting materials for standard 12x24 or smaller tile in a straight pattern on a sound, flat substrate. Tile is separate. Patterns, large format and mosaics add per the lines below.

Job	Labor	Materials at cost	Price	What it assumes
Floor tile, ceramic or porcelain, per sq ft	0.09 h	$2	$10	Thinset, grout, straight lay
Backer board or uncoupling membrane, per sq ft	0.025 h	$1	$5	Over wood subfloor
Shower walls, per sq ft	0.14 h	$2	$15	Includes waterproofing membrane on walls
Shower pan, mud and membrane, each	10 h	$220	$1,085	Sloped mud bed, liner or sheet membrane, drain
Prefab shower pan, set and tile curb, each	4 h	$60	$400	Customer-supplied pan
Tub surround, three walls to 6 ft, per sq ft	0.12 h	$2	$10	Backer and waterproofing
Kitchen backsplash, per sq ft	0.17 h	$2	$15	Cuts around outlets; mosaics higher
Large-format tile, 24x48 and up, add per sq ft	0.02 h	$0	$0	Leveling clips, flatter substrate
Mosaic or tile under 4 in., add per sq ft	0.08 h	$0	$5	Sheet-mounted
Herringbone or diagonal pattern, add per sq ft	0.03 h	$0	$5	Extra cuts and layout
Demo existing tile, per sq ft	0.04 h	$0	$5	Floor or wall; haul-away extra
Shower niche, each	2.5 h	$55	$270	Framed, waterproofed, tiled
Bullnose or Schluter edge, per linear foot	0.08 h	$3	$10	Trim profile
Regrout a shower	5 h	$40	$450	Rake and regrout, caulk corners

Price = hours × $80 + materials × 1.3. Trip or diagnostic fees, permits and disposal are extra lines.

This is a sample. The free price book builder prices the full tile book, 34 jobs, with your own wage, overhead and margin, and gives you the PDF for the truck and the spreadsheet that keeps the formulas.

What moves the price

Tile size and pattern. Large format, mosaics, herringbone and diagonals each change the hours per foot. Price the tile the customer chose, not the tile you would have chosen.
Waterproofing. A shower is a membrane and a sloped pan with a test before tile. Name the system on the bid; it is what separates your price from the one that leaks in year three.
Substrate. Tile over a bouncy floor cracks. Backer or membrane, leveling, and sometimes a second layer of subfloor are lines, with a per-sheet line for what you find at demo.
Bathrooms are small. A 40 square foot bathroom floor is a full day with the cuts, which is why per-foot prices go up as rooms get small and why a minimum charge exists.
Demo and plumbing. Pulling a toilet and vanity, resetting them, and the plumber for the shower valve are lines or they are someone else's job, stated.

Hourly, flat rate, or by the unit

Per square foot for setting, with the surfaces separated, floor, walls, backsplash, and the adders for pattern, size and mosaics as lines. Pans, niches, edges and demo as their own units. Tile as an allowance with a stated per-foot amount, or customer-supplied with a line that says you install what is delivered and the customer buys 15 percent extra.

A minimum charge for any tile job, commonly $500 to $800, because the setup and the cuts make a tiny job a full day. Never hourly on tile: the customer cannot judge speed, and slow careful work looks the same as slow work.

A worked tile bid

A hall bathroom: 40 square feet of floor tile over backer, a tub surround of 75 square feet, a niche, and Schluter edge on 14 linear feet. Floor: 40 at 0.09 hours and $1.60, backer 40 at 0.025 and $1.40. Surround: 75 at 0.12 and $2. Niche: 2.5 hours, $55. Edge: 14 at 0.08 and $3. Demo of old tile floor and surround, 115 at 0.04. About 26 hours at the top-quarter rate from the table, three to four days for one setter. Tile as a $700 allowance at $6 a foot. Toilet pull and reset as a line. Half down.

Most markets see $3,500 to $6,000 in labor and setting materials for this bathroom before tile, and the itemized bid shows where every dollar is. The sample tile estimate shows a finished one and the tile calculator counts the boxes.

The pricing mistakes that cost the most

Pricing a mosaic backsplash by the square foot of a 12x24 floor. Three times the hours.
No waterproofing line, so the cheaper bid looks the same as yours on paper.
Taking a 30 square foot powder room at the per-foot price with no minimum.
Not telling the customer to buy 15 percent extra and being blamed when the box runs out mid-wall.

Writing the price into a bid that gets signed

The number is half the job. The other half is a bid the customer can say yes to from their phone: the scope in lines, one price, the deposit and payment terms, the warranty, a date it expires, and a signature. The free tile estimate template is laid out that way in PDF, Word and Excel, and How to bid tile jobs covers the scope lines that keep you out of arguments. If you want the typing done for you, BidWriter Pro turns your notes into a clean bid your customer signs on their phone, with the deposit paid by card. $29 a month, 30 days free.

Sources and method

Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Tile and stone setters, national percentile hourly wages and employment.
Rate model: labor load 1.22, overhead $26,000 a year, 1,100 billable hours, 20% margin. Hours and material costs in the price list are example inputs, not survey data. Prices are examples, not advice for your market.

Questions contractors ask

How much do tile setters charge per square foot in 2026?

For labor and setting materials, $7 to $14 a square foot for floors and $12 to $25 for showers is common, before tile, with mosaics and patterns higher. Built from BLS wages, a one-truck tile setter needs about $70 an hour at the median wage and $80 to earn like the top quarter.

How much should I charge to tile a shower?

Walls at about 0.14 hours per square foot plus a mud pan at about ten hours, waterproofing included, plus niches and edges: $2,500 to $5,000 in labor and setting materials for a standard tub-size shower before tile is common.

Should the customer supply the tile?

Either way, but the bid says which. If they supply it, no markup and a line that they buy 15 percent extra and you are not responsible for defects. If you supply it, an allowance with a stated amount per square foot.

What minimum charge should a tile setter have?

$500 to $800, because setup, layout and cuts make even a tiny floor a full day.

How much should I charge for a backsplash?

Per square foot, about 0.17 hours plus materials for standard tile, commonly $18 to $35 a square foot in labor, more for mosaics and glass, with outlet cuts and edge profiles as the difference.

Write a tile bid from your notes

Type the job the way you would text it. It comes back as a finished estimate in about five seconds, in your words. No account.

Type a job the way you would text it

Only what you type goes on the estimate. Nothing gets added.

No account needed to try it.

30 days free, then $29 a month. No card to start.

Free, no account: estimate checker, job price calculator, markup vs margin, hourly rate, and 84 sample estimates.