Last updated October 28, 2026

How to bid tile jobs

What a tile bid has to say, a worked shower rebuild price, the customer-supplied tile and overage lines that save you, and the deposit terms tile setters use.

Tile is priced by the square foot and almost nothing about a tile job is decided by the square foot. The size of the tile, the pattern, the waterproofing, the prep, and whether the customer bought the tile all move the price more than the area does. A tile bid that shows those as lines gets paid for them. One that shows a per-foot number gets compared to the cheapest per-foot number in town.

What a tile bid has to answer

The area and the tile: square feet, tile size, and the pattern. Twelve-by-twenty-four on a straight lay is one price. Two-inch hex in a herringbone is another.
Who supplies the tile, and if it is the customer, how much overage they need to buy and that short or broken boxes are theirs to replace.
Prep and waterproofing: demo of the old surface, backer board or a waterproofing system in a shower, leveling on a floor, each as a line.
Grout, caulk, and sealer: included, and which grout.
Niches, benches, trim pieces, and edge profiles, each counted.

How to price it

Example numbers for a tub-to-shower rebuild, about 90 square feet of 12-by-24 porcelain on the walls, a mosaic floor, one niche, with a waterproofing system, in a typical market. Yours will differ.

Demo of the old surround to the studs and disposal: $550.
Backer and waterproofing system with pan, curb, and corners: $750 in material with markup.
Tile labor, walls: $14 to $22 a foot for 12-by-24. At $17, $1,530.
Tile labor, mosaic floor: 15 feet at $28, $420.
Niche, curb cap, and edge profile: $450.
Grout, caulk, sealer, thinset: $300.
Tile on the customer, at their cost; or on the bid at cost plus markup.
Total: about $4,000 with the customer supplying the tile. $5,400 is a common landing with a plumbing valve rough-in coordinated and the margin for a rebuild that finds rot behind the old tub.

Floors price by the foot with a multiplier for small tile and pattern, plus leveling. Backsplashes price by the foot with a minimum, because a small backsplash is still a full day with outlets and a finished edge.

Where tile bids go wrong

The customer bought exactly enough tile. The job stopped on day three for two more boxes in a dye lot that no longer exists.
The pattern was changed to herringbone after the bid, with no line saying pattern changes the price.
Waterproofing was assumed by the customer and a cheap bid left it out, so the two bids could not be compared.
The niche was added on site "while you are at it," and never priced.

A finished tile bid, line by line

Three sample tile estimates: shower rebuild, tile floor install, and kitchen backsplash. The tile proposal template is the blank version with the customer-supplied tile line already on it.

Deposit and payment terms

Half at signing on a shower or a floor, which covers the waterproofing and setting material and holds the dates on a multi-day job. A backsplash or a small repair is paid on completion. When you supply the tile, the deposit should at least cover the tile order, because tile is a special order and does not go back. Write the overage percentage on the bid whichever way the tile is bought.

Getting more tile jobs

Tile customers are choosing on photos and on confidence. A bid that names the tile size, the pattern, the waterproofing, and the overage reads as the setter who has done this a hundred times, and that bid closes at a higher price than the per-foot number. Send it with a photo of your last shower on it. Follow up at three days and a week. Ask for the review after the grout cures and send a photo of the finished niche with the request.

BidWriter Pro writes the bid from your notes with the tile, pattern, waterproofing, and overage on it, with photos of past work, signed and deposited from the customer's phone. $29 a month, 30 days free.

Questions contractors ask

How much should I charge per square foot for tile?

Large-format straight lay commonly runs $12 to $22 a foot for labor, with small tile, mosaics, and patterns well above that, plus prep, waterproofing, and trim as separate lines. Build it from your day rate and your pace on that tile, then check it against the per-foot number.

How much overage should the customer buy?

Ten percent on straight lay, 15 to 20 on patterns and small rooms. Write the percentage on the bid and say that short or broken boxes are the customer's to replace when they supply the tile.

Should waterproofing be its own line on a shower bid?

Yes, with the system named. It is the line that explains why your bid is higher than the one that left it out.

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.