Type it or tap the mic on your keyboard and say it. Tile size to the sixteenth (say "strong" or "shy"), grout, tiles per box, pattern, burn an inch or a foot. Or just use the cards below.
Most people hold the tape right on the line. Burning an inch is more accurate, but it's easy to forget. Pick what you do; every number follows, and the app keeps reminding you.
Measure the real tile. A "12 inch" tile is usually 11¾.
How many tiles in each box you chalk out? Grout joints are figured in.
Tiles line up in rows and columns. Chalk a line every box.
Snap one line each way across the room, off your two straightest walls. Square them with 3-4-5 (Square page). Where they cross is your X.
No more math on the back of a tile box. Tell SnapLine your tile and grout and it hands you every chalk-line number on the tape before you start, floors and walls, so you can think about the room and the cuts instead of the arithmetic. $4.99 once. Works on every phone and tablet, nothing to install, yours for good.
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We email a 6-digit code to the address you bought with. One signed-in device at a time.
Hold the tape once on the X and mark every number without moving it. Strong means one line past, shy means one line short. Snap a line at each mark.
For a closet or a spot with no grid, just a mark on the floor. One tile plus its joint, and what a few in a row come to.
Say the wall height and width, tile height and width, grout, and a border if there is one. Or use the cards below.
Grout joint and tape setting come from the Grid page. Measure the wall in a couple of spots and use the smallest.
A cut under 2" looks bad and breaks. If the app can't avoid one, it tells you.
Hold the tape on the curb once. Each number is the bottom edge of a course. Snap the level line first and check it with a level; everything else stacks off it.
Buy once on the Grid page and the wall cuts and course lines unlock here too.
Pick the biggest one that fits the room. Bigger is more accurate. The numbers are what your tape reads, with your burn already figured in. A and B are your two square lines; the crossing is your X.
The first six are 3-4-5 doubled, tripled and so on. 5-12-13 and 8-15-17 are for long, narrow rooms. 7-9-11 is just 6-8-10 with a foot burned.
Burn a foot when you square up. The hook has play in it, and a foot is hard to forget. The ladder below is already figured for it.
Keep the line along your longest, straightest wall. Move the other one.
Off the straightest wall. Measure out the same distance at both ends, snap it.
Crossing A, roughly square, off the other straight wall.
From the crossing, mark the first number down A and the second down B. If you burn an inch or a foot, the app adds it for you.
Hold your burned mark on the line that stays, read across to the mark on the line you're moving. It must read the third number plus your burn. Long, swing the mark toward the other line. Short, swing it away. Re-snap and check again.
Only if you want a count. Layout doesn't need the room size.
Straight lay 10% waste. Brick and stagger 12%. Diagonal 15%. Bump it up for small rooms with a lot of edges.
About three and a half minutes. The whole method, start to finish.
Save any of these to your phone and keep them on the job.
Put a long level or a string along each wall. Pick the two that are straightest and closest to square with each other. Those are your reference walls.
Measure off wall 1 the same distance at both ends, somewhere in the room, and snap it wall to wall.
Same off wall 2, crossing the first. Square it with 3-4-5 on the Square page. Burn a foot for this, always; the hook has play in it. Where they cross is your X.
Tile + grout, times tiles per box. The Grid page does the math in 16ths and lists every mark on the tape.
Hook on the X, mark every number from the list out to the wall, then turn around and do the other way. Same on the other square line. Now the whole floor is boxes.
First tile in the corner of the X, two edges on the lines. Fill a box at a time, tiles tight to the chalk. The lines keep you true across the whole floor. Never let the last tile steer you.
Full tiles first, let them set, then the border. Skinny cuts go under the cabinets or on the wall nobody looks at.
Each row slides over half a tile. Box lines still every box; start every other row on a half.
Slide a third, not a half. Long tiles bow in the middle; a half offset puts a high point next to a low point and you get lippage.
Snap your two control lines, then snap 45° lines through the crossing. Grid off the 45° lines. The app gives you the spacing measured along the 45° line.
Coming next. They need their own box math; the app will lay them out the same way.
Two quick choices. The app figures every number for them, and you can change them in the menu any time.