Tender & Estimating Software for Tilers

A tiling takeoff is the measured area and count of every tiled surface shown on the plans, broken down so each can be priced with materials, wastage and labour. A complete takeoff typically covers:

• Floor tile areas — bathrooms, kitchens, laundries, living areas and alfresco spaces, measured in square metres by room.
• Wall tile areas — shower recesses, splashbacks, feature walls and full-height wet areas, including upturns and skirting.
• Waterproofing — membrane area to floors and wall upturns in wet areas, measured to the relevant Australian Standard.
• Screeds and falls — bedding and screeding to floor wastes, and any levelling compound needed on the substrate.
• Trims, movement joints and grout — edge trims, expansion joints, and the grout and adhesive quantities for each area.

My Trade Hub’s estimation engine reads your architectural plans and finishes schedule and performs the measured takeoff automatically — calculating floor and wall tile areas room by room, and flagging waterproofing and screed requirements — instead of you scaling them off the drawings by hand.

Because the takeoff is automated rather than manual, it is 60-75% faster than estimating the same job by hand, so you can turn a set of plans into priced quantities the same day you receive them rather than setting aside a weekend.

The output is a structured, itemised list of tiling quantities — not a black-box total — so you can review every line, room by room, before it goes anywhere near a client.

Once the areas are measured, pricing a tiling job means applying a materials rate and a labour rate to every floor and wall area, then adding overheads and margin on top — the takeoff only gets you halfway to a number you can stand behind.

Labour is usually the larger cost on tiling work, and it varies with tile size and lay pattern — a large-format, low-lippage floor or a herringbone feature wall takes considerably longer to lay than a simple grid pattern — plus substrate condition and how much cutting and setout the room demands.

On top of materials and labour, add your overheads and margin, and factor in a realistic wastage allowance — higher for diagonal or herringbone lay and for tiles cut around fixtures — plus waterproofing and screeding as separate priced items.

With the tiling areas measured and priced, the next step is turning that pricing into a document a client or head contractor can actually act on — a clear, professional quote for direct work, or a complete tender submission for competitive commercial jobs.

My Trade Hub turns the priced takeoff straight into a client-ready quote or tender, with your branding and terms attached, so you are not re-keying the same numbers into a separate Word document or spreadsheet.

Because the slow part — the takeoff — is already done, producing the quote itself takes minutes, which means you can turn quotes around the same day a set of plans or a finishes schedule lands in your inbox.

Most tiling contractors move between two very different pricing situations, and knowing which one you are in changes how you should price the job.

A straightforward quote — a bathroom renovation, a kitchen splashback, an alfresco floor — is usually priced directly for the homeowner or head contractor as a fixed price with a short list of inclusions and exclusions. A commercial or multi-residential tender is more formal: you are usually pricing against an architect’s finishes schedule and specification, sometimes with a Bill of Quantities, alongside other tiling subcontractors.

The estimating principle is the same in both cases — measure the areas accurately, then price them — but a tender demands more supporting documentation and a tighter, more competitive rate, since you are one of several contractors bidding the identical scope.

Most tiling under-quotes come down to a short list of recurring mistakes, all of which are avoidable with a consistent takeoff process.

• Under-allowing for wastage on diagonal, herringbone or large-format lay, where cutting losses run well above a standard grid pattern.
• Missing wall upturns and waterproofing to wet areas, which are compulsory but easy to leave off a quick floor-area measurement.
• Not accounting for substrate preparation — levelling compound or screeding — on an uneven or out-of-level floor.
• Forgetting movement joints and trims, which add up across a large area and are often specified but not drawn explicitly.
• Pricing from an outdated finishes schedule, so the tile selection or area in the quote no longer matches the current drawings.

On most residential and small commercial jobs, the tiler who will do the work also prices it — reading the plans, measuring the areas and building the quote themselves, since a separate estimator is rarely justified for a job of that size.

On larger commercial and multi-residential projects, a dedicated estimator or contracts manager inside the tiling contracting business usually prepares the tender, often working from a head contractor’s program and an architect’s finishes schedule rather than site knowledge alone.

Either way, the same bottleneck applies: someone has to manually measure every floor and wall area off a drawing before a single rate can be applied, which is exactly the step My Trade Hub automates.