What should a tiling quote include?

Guide · Updated 23 September 2026

Say who supplies the tiles — and everything else

On most domestic jobs the customer chooses and buys the tiles, and the quote should say so: the price is for labour and materials except the tiles, with the adhesive, grout, trims and tanking kit itemised as yours. That line does two jobs. It stops the “I thought tiles were included” conversation, and it puts their choice on their side of the line — a large-format porcelain or a natural stone is slower to cut and set than a ceramic metro, and a quote priced before the tile was chosen is entitled to say the rate assumed a standard one.

Add the wastage line

Tiles get cut, cuts go wrong, and boxes run out on a Sunday. Quote the area and the allowance: ten per cent on a straight lay, fifteen or more on a diagonal or a pattern, and say it on the quote so the customer orders to that number, not to the wall. A short order is not a small problem — it is a second delivery charge, a return visit, and sometimes a batch that no longer matches. One line prevents all three, and it is a line that makes you look like the professional in the room.

Prep and tanking are their own lines

The finished wall is the half of the job the customer can see. The other half — stripping the old tiles, boarding where the wall breaks up behind them, levelling a floor, tanking the shower corner — is where the price lives, and burying it inside a rate per square metre makes the honest quote look expensive. Give each its own line: “strip existing wall tiles and make good”, “overboard where the substrate fails”, “tank the shower enclosure”. A wall that crumbles beyond boarding is a plasterer’s job, not a tiler’s — say so in the exclusions, and what that trade’s quote should carry is covered in what a plastering quote should include.

Name the pattern, the trims and the grout

“Herringbone above the bath” is not the price of brick bond — a pattern can add half again to the labour on that wall, so the quote should name it and price it where it applies. The same for the finishing choices the customer has already made in their head: chrome or brushed trim, grout colour, silicone to every internal corner and junction. Naming them fixes the spec — and a changed mind after the adhesive is open becomes a priced variation rather than a favour.

Say what is excluded

The exclusions on tiling are small and endlessly assumed. If it is not your work, say so before the customer decides it was included:

• Removing and refitting the suite — taking out a toilet or basin to tile behind it is a plumber’s hour, unless you have priced it.
• Walls that fail beyond boarding — re-plastering or re-rendering is another trade’s line.
• Moving sockets, switches or pipework caught in the tiled area.
• The tiles themselves, if the customer supplies them — and faults found in the box are a phone call to the shop, not a claim against the fixer.

The money lines: VAT, validity and the deposit

If you trade under the VAT threshold, say it plainly — “not VAT registered — no VAT charged” reads as clarity, not smallness; if you are registered, show the subtotal, the VAT line and the total (showing VAT on a quote covers both). Date the offer — tile ranges get discontinued faster than prices move — and tie any deposit to the materials you must buy before you start, which on a labour-only job may honestly be nothing: how much deposit should you ask for makes the full case.

A structure to copy

Top to bottom, a tiling quote carrying all of the above reads like this:

• Your business name, address, phone, email, and any membership you hold with its number.
• The word Quote, a quote number, the date, and the valid-until date.
• The customer’s name and the address of the work.
• A one-line description of the job.
• The line items: prep and tanking first, then each area with its tile, pattern and quantity — who supplies the tiles written on the line it concerns.
• The wastage allowance the customer should order to.
• Subtotal, VAT (or “not VAT registered — no VAT charged”), total.
• Exclusions.
• Payment terms.

Speak to Quote builds that document from a dictated description: stand in the bathroom, say what is coming off and what is going on, and the line items come back with the prep separated, the pattern named and the VAT right — or absent, and stated — because you set it once. The tilers page shows a worked example: a family bathroom stripped, boarded and tanked, porcelain in herringbone above the bath. If the tile is still being chosen, build it as an estimate and firm it up when it is.