How much does it costs to tile a bathroom? Part 1. Cheap tiles

This article is primarily for those of you who are thinking of making house renovations, and want to come up with an estimate of how much might these renovations cost. Therefore, we are going to use some basic concepts and simplify things a bit. For those of you who are professionals, please try to be understanding.

The tile is imported from various countries; it is produced from diverse materials, and has different qualities.  Naturally, given such variety the price can vary quite a bit.  In order not to get lost in this jungle, let’s take a look at what could a bathroom renovation cost. Let’s start with the most cost-effective option.

So, if for your bathroom renovations you would like to spend a bare minimum, you should look for domestic tile or tile from Belarus.  The key here is in the absence of customs payments and low transportation costs, since tile is a rather heavy material and it is expensive to haul it from one country to another. And, of course, electricity and labor costs are lower (even though some factories complain that the salary is lower, but with all of our taxes. TC and welfare requirements, it comes out to be almost the same as in the west).

The prices below represent an approximate average, since every factory is constantly changing the collections and different dealers use different prices to sell tile.  Almost every factory is going to have a couple of collections that are less or more expensive than the prices indicated below.

Most popular Russian tile. Price

Rimini Collection, produced by VCP, price 400 r. per meter	Shahtinskaya tile. Bernardo collection. Price 300r. per meter	Uralstoneware tile, Leopard collection. Price 435 r. per meter	Nefrit Keramika tile. Price 460 r. per meter. Kyrazh 2 collection.

There are about 20 factories that produce wall tile in Russia. Here are some of the most popular ones

Kirov Stroyfarfor manufactures a rather cost-effective tile. The price is from 130 rubles per sq. meter

Shahtinskaya tile - is about 350-450 rubles per sq. meter

Dedovskaya tile (also known as Sokol tile) – is about 300-500 rubles per square meter

Dmitrovskaya tile – is around 230-350 rubles per sq. meter

Nefrit – Keramika – will cost about 250-550 rubles per sq. meter

Uralceramics – the price is from 400 to 550 rubles per sq. meter

Azori tile – will cost you from 450- to 550 rubles per sq. meter

Tile produced by Volgograd ceramic tile plant (VCP) goes from 260 to 450 rubles per sq. meter

Belarus tile. Price

Sakura collection from Keramin factory. Price is from 420 r per sq. m	Keramin tile for 250 roubles	Travertino collection. Berezaceramics tile, price 315 r per sq. m

Keramin produces tile both in Belarus and in Russia. They produce a rather wide variety of collections with prices varying from 230 to 620 rubles per sq. meter

Berezaceramics is going to cost you 350-450 rubles per sq. meter

Russian tile produced using foreign technologies. Price

Several major foreign factories opened production in Russia. The equipment is imported and foreign technologies are used, however, both people and materials are, naturally, domestic. The price of such tile comes out to be lower than that of the imported tile, since quite a bit of money is saved on transportation costs, yet the design of such tile is a little more sophisticated than domestic one.

Cersanit tile. Price 405 roubles per meter. Dacia Rosa collection	Collection Edem from Lasselberger factory. Price is 440 roubles per meter	Baker Street tile. Kerama Marazzi factory. Price is 600 r per meter	Varan tile from Kerama Marazzi factory. Price is 620 r per meter

Lasselsberger, an Austrian – Czech manufacturer, opened a factory in Ufa. Their tile costs 350-500 rubles per sq. meter

Polish Cersanit opened production in a Moscow region on the grounds of Fryanovki ceramic factory. The price is 360-600 rubles per sq. meter

The Italian Marazzi Group has acquired control of Russian factory Kerama, which resulted in a birth of Kerama Marazzi. Hundreds of stores around the country, together with superb marketing, make Kerama Marazzi a leader of our market and, most definitely, a most promoted brand.  The price for Kerama Marazzi tile varies greatly depending on the collection and is in the range from 400 to 1000 rubles per square meter (most of the collections are in the range of 500 - 800 rubles per square meter).

Calculating the cost of tile for the bathroom. Economy version

In order to calculate the cost of tile for your bathroom you will need to

Take the area of the bathroom (sum of the walls’ areas) and multiply it by the price per square meter. For instance, if your bathroom is 2x2 meters with the ceiling being 2.5 meters high and the door being 2x0.8 meters, the total footage is going to be 2x2.5x 4 - 2x0.8 = 18.4 meters.  With the prices being 350 rubles per meter, the total sum is going to be 6 440 rubles.

• - Add a percentage for the trim: 7-10 percent. If you are really trying to save money, you might not add any extra percentage and just buy it later. 6 4440+ 7% = 6 890 rubles.
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  You can add borders if you’d like.  The price for the borders from the above mentioned factories is in the range of 50-350 rubles per border (there are certainly more expensive ones out there, but we are only considering cost-effective versions).  In order to calculate the amount of borders, you need to divide the length of the wall by the length of the border. For instance, with the horizontal stacking that is parallel to the floor of one row of borders at a particular height, if the border is 20 cm long, for a two-meter long wall, it will take 2:0.2 = 10 borders. Therefore, our bathroom that is 2x2 meters is going to take 10x4-3 (these are the borders that we are not placing where the door is) = 37 borders. With the price of 150 rubles per border. The total cost is going to be 5 550 rubles.

• Add the cost of the floor tiles (with some extra). The area of the floor times the price per meter. We have another article that talks about the cost of the floor tile, but for a rough estimate of the price for a cost-effective floor tile we are going to take 400 rubles per meter.  The total sum is going to be 2x2x400=1 600 rubles. With some extra it is going to be 1 600+7% = 1 712 rubles.
• Optionally, you can add inserts. Insert – is the tile of the same size as the background tile, but with richer décor.  You can place them wherever you like – most often people put it above the bathtub. The cost of the inserts for a cost-effective tile can vary greatly as well, but majority is in the range of 90-300 rubles per piece. If you would like 10 pieces you are going to have to pay 10x150 = 1 500 rubles.

• Add up the total cost based on what you want to use in the design of your bathroom. In our case, the bare minimum is going to consist of the price for the wall tile + price for the floor tile = 6 440+1 600 = 8 040. This is the price without any extras or any decors. The price with the extras: 6 890+1 712 = 8 602. The price with all decors and borders: 8 602+5 550 +1 500=15 652 rubles.

Thus, the average cost-effective version of the bathroom renovation, is going to be anywhere between 8 and 15 thousand rubles for the tile expense.  Naturally, the bathroom sizes are highly individual and you can pick a slightly more or less expensive tile in this category.

Do not forget that you still need to pay for the cost of grout, the cost of tile adhesives, leveling materials for the walls (if necessary), and the labor (if you do not lay tile yourself).