How much does a tiler cost in New Zealand?

Tilers in New Zealand charge roughly $50 to $80 an hour, though nearly all tiling is quoted per square metre laid. A typical job comes to about $1,800, from around $500 for a splashback or a small floor to $5,000 or more for a fully waterproofed bathroom.

Updated September 2026

TYPICAL HOURLY RATE

$50 to $80 an hour

Hourly applies to repairs and small patches. Laying is priced per square metre and varies with the surface, the tile and the pattern. Waterproofing, substrate preparation, adhesive and grout are usually separate lines, and the tiles themselves are yours to buy.

A TYPICAL JOB

$1,800

Most land between $500 and $5,000

The low end is a splashback or a small dry floor. The typical figure is a bathroom floor and walls. The top of the range is a large or fully waterproofed wet area with a tiled shower.

Both figures are national and GST inclusive. Neither is a quote: what you pay depends on your job, and the only way to know it is to have someone price that job.

WHAT CHANGES THE PRICE

Why two quotes for the same job differ

Preparing the surface

Tiles need a flat, sound, level base. Levelling a floor, replacing damaged substrate or removing old tiles and adhesive can cost as much as the tiling, and it is the work most often left out of a cheap quote.

Waterproofing

A tiled shower or a wet-area floor must be waterproofed to standard before tiling, and it is not optional. It is a separate skill, sometimes a separate certificate, and a failure here is the most expensive mistake in the whole job.

The tile itself

Large-format tiles need a flatter substrate and more people to place. Mosaics are slow. Natural stone needs sealing. Rectified porcelain has less tolerance for error. All of these change the rate per square metre.

The pattern and the cuts

A straight lay is fast. Herringbone, diagonals, niches, hobs and anything with many edges to cut takes far longer per square metre, and the tile wastage allowance goes up with it.

HOW TO PAY LESS

Three things that actually reduce the bill

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Choose a straightforward tile in a standard size and a straight lay. The pattern costs more than the tile.

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Buy the tiles yourself with the wastage allowance the tiler specifies. Running out mid-job means a second delivery and, if the batch has changed, a visible difference.

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Fix the substrate properly the first time. Tiles laid over a moving or uneven floor crack, and the repair is the whole job again.

COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT COST

Is tiling priced per square metre or per hour?

Per square metre for laying, with different rates for floors, walls and wet areas, and hourly for repairs and preparation that cannot be measured up front. Ask for the quote in that form: a single total hides whether the substrate work and the waterproofing are in there.

Does the tiler do the waterproofing?

Often, but not always, and it should be explicit in the quote. Waterproofing a wet area has to meet the standard and is the difference between a bathroom that lasts and a leak into the framing. If your tiler does not do it, someone has to before they start.

How much extra tile should I buy?

Ask your tiler for the allowance rather than guessing — it depends on the pattern and the room shape, and is larger for diagonal or herringbone layouts than for a straight lay. Buy it all in one batch: colours vary between production runs, and a later top-up rarely matches.

Why does a bathroom cost more per square metre than a hallway floor?

Because the rate follows the cutting and the detail, not the area. A shower has a niche, a hob, a fall to the waste and a waterproof membrane under all of it, and every edge is a cut. A square metre of bathroom can take several times as long as a square metre of open floor, which is why the smaller room is routinely the larger bill.

WHERE THESE NUMBERS COME FROM

The hourly rate is the range NovaPay uses across the site for this trade, and the typical job figure is the mid-market New Zealand price its assistant works from when it helps somebody set a budget. Both are the same numbers the product uses when you are inside it, published here rather than kept behind a sign-in.

What they are not: a survey, an average of anyone’s invoices, or what businesses on NovaPay charge. There is no dataset here large enough to claim any of those, so this page does not claim them. It also publishes no per-job price list, because a list like that would be exactly that claim in a more convincing format.

Treat the figures as an order of magnitude for planning. The real number for your job is a quote from somebody who has understood it.

GET A REAL NUMBER

Find out what yours costs

Describe the job once. NovaPay asks local tilers on your behalf and brings the quotes back to one place, priced for your job rather than as a rate card. Free for customers, and every quote waits for your OK.

Tell us the job

More about hiring tilers on NovaPay

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