Avoid big headaches and wasted materials: Use a SketchUp drawing to estimate tile layouts

This is a quick overview of ideas for establishing a floor plan layout , and overlaying a tile component for estimating tile jobs. it’s easy enough to figure materials and time for a small rectangular room, but what about for a room with lots of zigs and zags, or even one with curved walls? I’ll show you an easy way to draw even the most complex floor plans, and then i’ll lay a layer of tiles over it to get my takeoff list.

I’ve included a refresher on drawing curves using a “layout plane” method, because drawing curves in open space in Sketchup can be a pain.

Once you have your floor plan, use the Text tool to quickly measure the square footage that will be covered by tile. Next, create a floor tile component for the shape and size of tile you will be working with and add a grout joint with the offset tool for proper spacing of your floor tile.

Duplicate, Replicate, and Position

Once the floor plan geometry and a tile component are created the move/copy tool makes quick work of covering the floor plan with tile.

Identify and Quantify

This 3rd of 3 video clips shows how to use the Entity Info dialog box to determine the number of tile your project should require. 

For confirmation of a tile quantity, calculate the coverage of an individual tile component (including a perimeter of 1/2 of a grout joint) and divide it into the total floor plan area figure.  Some number of tile between the total tile component count and the floor plan area divided by individual tile area will be the quantity of tile needed for your tile job.  The concepts and methods shown here would work well for pavers, brick or virtually any consistent-sized building material.  I’d be interested in knowing other applications any viewers come up with for this or a similar process.

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