Tile, mortar bed, membrane, drain and niche takeoff for a tiled shower, plus cost.
Estimates are planning aids, not a professional quote. Double-check quantities and product coverage — and any local code or permit requirements — before you buy.
⚠ Slope the mortar bed at least 1/4" per foot to the drain on every side — code minimum, and the one dimension nothing here substitutes for careful screeding.
⚠ Waterproof the entire wet area to at least 6" above the showerhead, or the full wall height under an overhead rain head — code requires it, not just the tiled area.
| Tile & Stone | $680–$920 |
| Membrane & Fabric | $151–$205 |
| Drainage | $47–$63 |
| Concrete & Footings | $31–$41 |
| Finishing & Sealant | $23–$31 |
| Fasteners & Hardware | $9–$12 |
| Total | $940–$1,272 |
Excludes tools, delivery, tax and permit fees. Labor not included — this is a DIY materials estimate.
These are affiliate links: we may earn a commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the calculator recommends — the shopping list comes from your dimensions, not from what pays.
About this calculator
Enter your shower's footprint, wall height and drain style, and the Shower Tile Calculator returns the full tiled-shower takeoff — wall and floor tile, backer board, the pre-slope mortar bed under the pan, and a liquid or sheet waterproofing membrane sized to your walls and floor. It adds a recessed niche, a built-in bench and a pre-sloped curb when you turn them on, plus the corner banding and epoxy grout a wet enclosure actually needs.
Choose an alcove (three walls) or walk-in (two walls) layout and a center or linear drain, and the wall length, corner count and pre-slope depth all recalculate — a linear drain shortens the mortar-bed cutting but not the slope itself. This page doesn't cover rough plumbing, the shower valve, glass doors or framing; it starts once the drain and studs are roughed in and ends at grouted, sealed tile ready for a door.
Step by step
A step-by-step walkthrough to go with your plan above. Follow the product instructions and any local code or permit requirements as you work.
Measure the shower footprint, wall height and drain location, and pick a wall tile and a small-format mosaic for the floor. The calculator turns those into a full takeoff — tile, backer, mortar bed, membrane, drain and corner band.
Rough in the drain body and dry-fit or frame the curb before anything else goes on the walls. Everything downstream — the slope, the membrane and the tile — keys off these two fixed points.
Screw cement backer board to the studs on a schedule of about every 8 inches, leaving a 1/8 inch gap at the floor for the waterproofing to lap down. Tape and thinset the seams flat before moving on.
Screed deck-mud from the walls down to the drain at a 1/4 inch per foot fall, working around the drain flange so it sits flush. Let it cure fully — rushing this step is a top cause of a shower that leaks into the floor below.
Apply your liquid or sheet membrane over the backer board and cured mortar bed, lapping it into the drain's weep holes and reinforcing every inside corner and the floor-to-wall seam with corner band. Let liquid membrane cure fully between coats before it takes water.
Start with a level ledger line and work up from it, back-buttering large-format tile and keeping joints even with spacers. Save the cut pieces around the curb and niche for last so you can dry-fit them precisely.
Set the mosaic sheets into fresh thinset over the waterproofed pan, following the same fall you screeded into the mortar bed, and press every sheet down evenly so no corner sits proud. Cut sheets, not whole tiles, to wrap the drain.
Grout the field joints once the thinset has cured, then caulk — never grout — every inside corner and change of plane with 100% silicone so the assembly can move without cracking. Let everything cure fully before the first shower.
Equip the job
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Keep planning
Interior & Finishing
Answers
Add up your wall area (tiled wall length times height) and your floor area separately, since shower floors almost always use small-format mosaic sheets that can bend to the slope, not the same large tile as the walls. This calculator does both takeoffs from your footprint and wall height, adds roughly 15% waste on the walls for cuts around the curb and niche and 20% on the mosaic floor, and rounds up to whole tiles or sheets. Order everything from one dye lot — tile shades shift between production runs, so a tile bought later to patch a crack rarely matches.
Yes — the floor of a tiled shower needs a two-layer system: a pre-slope of deck-mud troweled to fall about 1/4 inch per foot toward the drain, waterproofed, then a second mortar bed on top of the membrane that the floor tile actually sets into. Skipping the pre-slope and relying on the tile itself to carry the fall traps water inside the wall cavity instead of directing it to the drain, which is the single most common cause of a failed shower. This calculator sizes the deck-mud bags from your floor area, drain type and curb height.
Both meet code when installed correctly. A liquid membrane goes on in two coats over backer board and the mortar bed, cures for a day or two between coats, and is forgiving on odd angles like a niche or bench. A sheet membrane bonds to the substrate with thinset in overlapping courses and gives a more consistent thickness, but every seam and corner has to be lapped and sealed correctly the first time. First-time DIYers often find liquid membrane more forgiving; either way this calculator sizes gallons or rolls plus the corner band both systems need.
A center drain needs the pre-slope mortar bed to fall evenly from all four sides toward one point in the middle, which means cutting hip-and-valley angles into the mud bed at each corner. A linear drain runs along one wall and only needs a single-plane slope from the three dry walls down to that edge, which is easier to screed correctly but costs more for the drain itself and needs a wall long enough to match a standard channel length. This calculator prices either option and sizes the linear channel to your shower's opening width.
It isn't required by code, but it's the better choice for a wet enclosure. Epoxy grout resists moisture, staining and mildew far better than standard cementitious grout, especially in the tight joints of a mosaic shower floor that stay damp longest, and it never needs sealing. It costs more and sets up faster, which makes it less forgiving to work with in warm weather, so plan on grouting a shower in smaller sections than you would a kitchen floor. This calculator assumes epoxy grout and sizes it separately for the wall tile and the floor mosaic.