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Get square footage for shower walls, pan, curb and niche in one pass, plus tiles, thinset and waterproofing. A 5 ft tub surround to 8 ft is about 80 sq ft.
With these inputs:
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Tile to order | 145.01 sq ft |
| Wall area | 104 sq ft |
| Shower pan | 15 sq ft |
| Curb | 3.6 sq ft |
| Niche(s) | 3.5 sq ft |
| Thinset (50 lb bags) | 2 bags |
| Waterproofing needed | 119 sq ft |
Buy shower-floor mosaic separately from wall tile — sizes and finishes differ.
<> Wall area is the sum of each tiled wall (width × height). An alcove shower has two side walls plus the back wall; a corner shower has two. Tile to at least 6 ft, but running to the ceiling looks better and costs little more. The curb adds roughly 1.2 sq ft per foot of length once you count the top and both faces. Each standard niche adds about 3.5 sq ft including its sides and sill. Waterproof first. Sheet or liquid membrane over cement board, sloped pan, and a bonded drain. That system — not the tile — keeps water out of your framing. Buy the wall tile and the pan mosaic as two separate orders. A sloped pan needs 2 in or smaller mosaic so the sheet can deform into the slope, and it needs a DCOF of 0.42 or higher to be safe underfoot. Wall tile has no such constraint, which is why a 12x24 wall with a penny-round floor is the most common combination. If you have not measured the walls yet, the step-by-step shower measuring guide walks the whole enclosure, and the thinset calculator sizes your mortar once you know the square footage. Behind the tile, the cement backer board calculator counts sheets and screws for the walls. Shower tile carries the highest waste factor of any job in the house — every wall ends in a cut, and the niche and curb multiply them. Use 15% for a straight layout and 20% if you are running a pattern; the full cost calculator prices the finished job including waterproofing and labor. Building the shower from the studs out? Size the floor first with the shower pan size calculator (code minimums and slope), then the deck mud calculator for the sloped mortar bed. Frame any niche to whole tiles with the shower niche size calculator , and before tiling, the RedGard calculator gives the gallons of liquid membrane for the walls and pan.
An alcove 3 ft x 5 ft shower tiled to 8 ft is about 104 sq ft of wall, plus 15 sq ft for pan, curb and niche — order roughly 135 sq ft with waste.
It is the better result: no dust ledge, taller-looking room, and only slightly more tile. At minimum tile to 6 ft or 6 in above the shower head.
Use 2 in or smaller mosaic on a sloped pan so the sheet can conform to the slope, and choose a tile with a DCOF of 0.42 or higher for slip resistance.
Minimum 6 ft above the drain, but tiling to the ceiling is now standard. The extra 2 ft costs roughly 25 sq ft of tile on a typical alcove and removes the painted strip that always fails first.
15% for a straight stacked or offset layout, 20% for herringbone or diagonal. Showers waste more than floors because every wall terminates in a cut and the niche and curb add more.
Need the whole roof at once? The free roofing calculator works out roof area, squares, shingle bundles, underlayment, drip edge, ridge cap and installed cost from one set of measurements.