At the fast rates
17.2 h
2.5 days on the tools.
Tiling has a published speed, and it changes with the size of the room.
A tiler lays about 11 square metres of 150 mm ceramic in a working day at the average published rate on a room sized area.
Fixing and grouting a 20 square metre bathroom works out at 17.2 to 22.4 hours, which is 2.5 to 3.2 days.
That is tiles going up, not adhesive curing.
The source behind this page prints its rates in three room size bands.
A splashback is slower per square metre than a floor, and the bands say by how much.
What the register publishes
Square metres an hour, data from Methvin tiling production rates exactly as printed, with the last column ours: the average rate multiplied by an assumed 7 hour day.
| Task | Slow | Average | Fast | Per day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 150 x 150 mm ceramic, under 1.5 m2 per room | 0.9 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 7 m² |
| 150 x 150 mm ceramic, 1.5 to 2.5 m2 per room | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 11 m² |
| 150 x 150 mm ceramic, over 2.5 m2 per room | 1.5 | 1.7 | 2.1 | 11 m² |
| 108 x 108 mm ceramic, under 1.5 m2 per room | 1.0 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 9 m² |
| 108 x 108 mm ceramic, 1.5 to 2.5 m2 per room | 1.6 | 1.8 | 2.1 | 12 m² |
| 108 x 108 mm ceramic, over 2.5 m2 per room | 1.7 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 13 m² |
| Grouting, on fixed tiles | 2.2 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 17 m² |
Barslow to fast, exactly as the register publishes themPinthe average rate, which the per day column is built onLonger bara band where how fast you work matters more
Slow, average, fastPUBLISHED, in square metres an hourPer dayOURS: the average rate across an assumed 7 hour daySourceMethvin tiling production rates, updated 1 August 2026
Why three columns and not one
Methvin publishes a slow, an average and a fast rate for each band, and that spread is published rather than modelled, so it is shown here as three columns instead of being averaged into one figure.
The 7 hour working day is our assumption, not a published figure.
The decorating and plastering guides assume the same, so the three pages can be read against each other.
How long a bathroom takes to tile
20 square metres of wall in 150 mm ceramic. Fixing and grouting are costed separately, each at the register's own rate for a room sized area, and only then added together.
At the average rates
19.8 h
2.8 days on the tools.
At the slow rates
22.4 h
3.2 days on the tools.
Read the three figures as a published range, never as a target.
Fixing is 11.8 of those hours at the average rate and grouting the other 8.0, and the two stages cannot run back to back: the adhesive has to cure between them, and how long that takes is a figure this page refuses to invent below.
The days column is our division on the assumed working day, not a published figure.
The same sum for your own wall
- 01Measure what is being tiledThis bathroom carries 20 square metres of wall tile.
- 02Pick the register's band and rateA room sized area sits in the over 2.5 square metre band: 1.7 square metres an hour at the average, so fixing runs 11.8 hours.
- 03Add grouting, then divide by the working dayGrouting at 2.5 square metres an hour adds 8.0 hours. On the 7 hour day this site assumes, the average comes to 2.8 days on the tools.
What that figure is and is not
It is arithmetic on the published tiling rates, not a reported job.
It is also whole tiles on a prepared wall, with the cuts priced separately.
Your next step
You have the bathroom size bands, so the next step is the tiling day rate those hours get multiplied by.
Set your own costs on the Rate Sorted calculator, already on tiler, and it hands back that rate and a quote for the bathroom you can send.
What that costs where you are
Type a town and land on what these job lengths come to at that town's own tiler rate.
All 30 towns, by regionWhy a small room is slower per square metre
According to the same register, the rate depends on how much is tiled per room. There are three published bands.
The splashback
1.0 m²/hr
The under 1.5 square metre band. A 1.2 square metre splashback works out at about 1.7 hours fixed and grouted at the average rates.
Setting out and edges dominate a small area, and the band prices that in.
The room sized area
1.7 m²/hr
The over 2.5 square metre band, 70 per cent faster per square metre than the smallest band at the average rate.
The bigger the uninterrupted area, the more of the day is spent laying tile.
The cuts are priced separately
Cutting and edge tiles are published per tile as extra over, not per square metre, so the rates above are laying whole tiles on a prepared surface.
A wall with many cuts runs slower.
Which two figures this page will not invent
Both are things a reader genuinely wants. Neither exists as a sourced UK figure, so neither is filled in here.
How long the adhesive and grout need
This register says nothing about how long tile adhesive needs before the joints can be grouted, or how long grout needs before a shower is used, and this site holds no sourced UK cure figure for either.
A tiled wall is not finished the hour the last tile goes up.
How much longer it needs, this page will not invent.
The decorating guide can publish paint recoat windows because the makers publish them.
Nobody publishes a tiling equivalent.
What real jobs run to
The decorating guide can put published labour constants beside real job durations reported by a named professional decorator.
No tiling equivalent exists, so every day figure on this page is arithmetic on the constants alone, which is what the work should take rather than what jobs are reported to take.
Common questions
The same answers the structured data on this page gives a search engine, word for word.
How long does it take to tile a bathroom?
Fixing and grouting 20 square metres of 150 mm ceramic wall tile works out at 17.2 to 22.4 hours.
That is 2.5 to 3.2 days on a 7 hour day.
That is our arithmetic on published rates, not a job length anyone has reported.
It covers laying whole tiles and grouting them.
It does not cover cutting, or waiting for adhesive and grout to cure.
How many square metres can a tiler lay in a day?
About 11 square metres of 150 mm ceramic at the average published rate, on a room sized area.
On a splashback sized job the same tiler manages about 7 square metres in the same day, because the register's smallest band runs at 1.0 square metres an hour against 1.7.
Why is a small tiling job slower per square metre?
The register files every ceramic tiling rate under the area tiled per room, in three bands.
A splashback of under 1.5 square metres lays slower per square metre than a full bathroom wall, because the setting out and the edges dominate a small area.
Averaging the bands into one figure would overstate speed on the small jobs, so this page never does.
Take a 1.2 square metre splashback.
It works out at about 1.7 hours fixed and grouted at the average rates, which is far more time per square metre than the bathroom above, because the setting out and the edges cost the same whatever the area.
How long before you can grout, or use the shower?
This register says nothing about how long tile adhesive needs before the joints can be grouted, or how long grout needs before a shower is used, and this site holds no sourced UK cure figure for either.
A tiled wall is not finished the hour the last tile goes up.
How much longer it needs, this page will not invent.
Take the data
Free to cite and free to download, with the source named and dated on every row.
Downloadtiler-task-durations-uk.csv7 production rates in the register's own room size bands.
Cite this pageThe Day Rate Report, how long tiling takes, 18 August 2026, https://thedayrate.co.uk/tiler/how-long-to-tile-a-bathroom/
Embed this figure
The tiling card carries the room size bands, and the link goes to this guide.
<a href="https://thedayrate.co.uk/tiler/how-long-to-tile-a-bathroom/"><img src="https://thedayrate.co.uk/og/how-long-does-tiling-take.png" alt="How long tiling takes, from sourced UK production rates, The Day Rate Report" width="1200" height="630"></a>
The 7 production rates in the register's own room size bands are free to quote, and a credit with a link back is all we ask, under CC BY 4.0.
Production rates are shown exactly as Methvin publishes them, in the area bands the register files them under.
Hours and days are derived: the published rate divided into the area, on an assumed 7 hour working day.
Where a tiling figure does not exist, this page says so.
Now you know the speed.What tilers charge for a day of it, across all 30 modelled towns, against a published guide spread of £140 to £350.Tiler day rates by town →The same rates turned into moneyWhat the labour in a tiled wall or floor comes to per square metre, from these production rates and the tiler day rate.What tiling costs →The trade that comes before the tiler.How long plastering takes, on the same working day assumption, per the same register.How long plastering takes →