Tilers sit between £170 and £350 a day across the guides, and this is the trade where the day rate is least likely to be how you are actually charged. Most tiling is priced by the square metre, because the area is measurable before anyone starts.
Day rate
£170 to £350 a day
Hourly rate
£20 to £40 an hour
All figures are labour only, before materials. Whether VAT comes on top depends on whether the trade is VAT registered, so ask. The band is the widest span across the guides listed, not an average, and not a price anyone is committed to.
Wall and floor tiling, levelling and preparation, waterproofing behind the tiles in wet areas.
These are the published figures, copied as they stand rather than averaged into one number. Read down the column and you can see how far apart they sit.
Checkatrade, How much do tradespeople cost in the UK in 2026
Day: £200 to £350
Hour: £40
Last updated April 2026, checked 13 August 2026.
MyBuilder, How much does tiling cost in 2026
Day: Not given on this page
Hour: £20 to £40
This page prices tiling by the hour and by the area rather than by the day, which is closer to how the work is normally quoted.
No date on the page, 2026 in the title, checked 13 August 2026.
Superscript, What are tradesperson pay rates for 2026
Day: £170 to £260
Hour: £25 to £40
Published 16 February 2026, checked 13 August 2026.
These are three publishers, not three surveys of what people actually paid. Four ranges are identical in the Checkatrade and MyBuilder trade tables, and Superscript names Checkatrade as one of its own inputs. Where the guides agree, that agreement carries less weight than it looks like it does. The day rates overview sets out which ranges overlap and what each publisher says it used.
The tiler is the one case where a guide gives a London figure that holds up against its own regional data. MyBuilder puts London and the South East at £30 to £40 an hour, the Midlands and the North at £20 to £30, and Scotland and Wales at £18 to £35. Compare the same end of each band and London runs between a third and a half above the Midlands and the North.
Source: MyBuilder, How much does tiling cost in 2026 (No date on the page, 2026 in the title), checked 13 August 2026.
No published London uplift survives its own source. MyBuilder claims 20 to 40% above the national average and then prints a regional table on the same page showing London at £233 against Manchester at £196, a gap of about 19%. That is why this site publishes no single London percentage.
Source: MyBuilder, How much is a builder day rate in 2026 (No date on the page, 2026 in the title), checked 13 August 2026.
The full contradiction, with the regional table it rests on, is on the day rates overview. Regional differences across project types are set out in renovation costs by region.
On a day rate the risk that the job runs long sits with you; on a fixed price it sits with the trade. Ask for a fixed price wherever the scope can be written down, and keep the day rate for work where nobody can say what is behind the wall until it is open.
Ask for a square metre price, not a day rate. The area is known before the job starts, so a tiler who prefers a day rate on a straightforward room is moving the risk of a slow week onto you. Agree separately what happens if the substrate turns out to need levelling.
Whichever model you agree, put it in writing before the first morning. The contract checklist lists what a written agreement needs to cover, why quotes differ explains the gaps that make two prices for the same job look nothing alike, and the day rates overview sets out when each model is the honest one.
A day rate is labour and nothing else. Materials, VAT, waste, scaffolding, the other trades on site, the minimum charge on a short visit and a contingency for what nobody priced all sit on top of it, and together they routinely add more than the labour band itself.
Each of those is priced out, with its source, on the day rates overview. The buffer has a page of its own in renovation contingency, and skips are priced in skip hire cost.
A day rate on its own tells you very little, because the number that matters is days multiplied by rate, plus everything above. Price the whole job first, then use the day rate to sense check the labour line inside it.
Most projects need several of these on site, each on their own rate. The day rates overview puts all six side by side.
Rate guides are republished without notice, so every figure here carries the date it was checked. Where a guide contradicts itself, this page shows both numbers rather than picking the flattering one. A written quote from a local trade beats all of it.
Cost guides written about one job print their own trade rates for that job, taken from the guide that priced it, so a figure on a project page here can sit inside the band above or a little outside it. The band on this page is the widest span across three general rate guides; a project page reads the guide that priced that project, which sets its own rates on its own date. Where two pages differ, each says which guide it read and on what date. The rates behind a single job are worked out in DIY savings and in load-bearing wall removal cost.
How this site handles prices and sources is set out in how we price.
Most tiling is priced by the area, and that is the fairer way to buy it, because the square metres are measurable before anyone starts. The MyBuilder tiling guide prices the work by the hour and by the area rather than giving a day rate at all. Published day rates do exist, running £170 to £350, but treat a day rate on a straightforward room as a sign that the risk of a slow week is being handed to you.
MyBuilder puts tilers at £20 to £40 an hour nationally, and Superscript at £25 to £40. Checkatrade gives a single figure of £40 an hour alongside a day rate of £200 to £350.
This is the one trade where a guide gives a London figure that holds up against its own regional data. MyBuilder puts London and the South East at £30 to £40 an hour, the Midlands and the North at £20 to £30, and Scotland and Wales at £18 to £35. Compare the same end of each band and London runs between a third and a half above the Midlands and the North.
Cuts. A small room with a lot of edges, niches, pipe penetrations and a shower tray is slower per square metre than a large plain floor. Preparation counts too: an out of true wall or an uneven floor is levelled before a single tile goes on, and tanking a shower or wet room is a separate operation under the tiles with its own materials. Ask for those to be itemised rather than absorbed into a rate.