HerronDrawing 001Tile layout planner

Seven packs. Not nine.

Every calculator takes your floor area and adds ten percent. Herron lays the actual planks, works out which offcuts fit back into the room, and counts what is genuinely left to buy. Your exact layout and cut list, in minutes. Tiles, LVT, or wood flooring.

How it finds them

Free for ever. No signup. Nothing gated.

3.00 m4.00 mCUT FROM ROW 20not out of a pack
Straight lay: 70 pieces, 36 cut, 14 from offcuts, 7 packs, 7.1% waste.
Pieces laid 0
From offcuts 0
Cuts 36
Waste 7.1%
Packs to buy 7 not 9

Lay the same room in

3.00 × 4.00 m room · 1200 × 190 mm oak laminate · 8 per pack · Joints step a third of a plank. The recommendation.

The part no calculator does

You cut 25.7% of this floor away.
You buy 7.1%.

Cutting a plank to fit leaves a piece of plank. Most of those pieces fit somewhere else in the same room. The engine works out which, before you have cut anything, and takes them off the order.

56 out of a pack 14 cut from an offcut Vertical rules are where a pack runs out

7 packs, not 9.

2 packs of oak laminate you do not carry home, do not pay for, and do not have left over. On this floor. Yours will be its own number.

  1. It keeps the shape, not the area

    An offcut is a polygon with real edges, not a number of square metres. A 340 by 190 piece is only useful where a 340 by 190 hole is.

  2. It checks the edge before it offers

    Click flooring has a tongue on two sides and a groove on the other two. A piece that fits geometrically but faces the wrong way is not a piece that fits.

  3. It assigns them all at once

    Matching each offcut to the first hole it fits wastes the good ones early. The engine solves the whole assignment, so the best pairing wins rather than the first.

01 The Problem
Installation planning is still done with tape measures, graph paper, and best guesses. The result is predictable — and expensive.
Over-ordering material because waste is estimated by gut feeling, not geometry
Ugly edge rows — thin slivers along walls that mark a job as amateur
Mid-install surprises — cuts that don't fit, patterns that drift, rows that misalign at transitions
Hours of layout planning for every area, repeated from scratch each time
02 What Changes
Herron replaces guesswork with verified plans — so you buy exactly what you need, cut with confidence, and finish without rework.
Before
Estimate 10–15% extra material "just in case" and hope it's enough.
With Herron
Know exactly how many packs, which cuts, and what it costs — down to the piece.
Before
Dry-lay the first rows, measure, adjust, re-measure, hope the pattern holds.
With Herron
Start with a verified row-by-row sequence. Starter row width is pre-checked for balance.
Before
Get halfway through and realise you've got 8mm (0.31 in) slivers along the far wall.
With Herron
Fit check flags thin cuts before you start. Auto-optimise adjusts the layout offset to eliminate slivers.
03 How It Works
01
Define the surface
Input dimensions, angles, and obstacles. Herron builds a digital twin of your floor plan — including alcoves, pillars, and irregular shapes.
02
Choose materials
Enter your tile dimensions, pack size, and price. Choose a laying pattern and set edge gap and offset rules.
03
Generate plan
Herron computes optimal layout, minimizing cuts and waste. Every tile is indexed. Every cut is dimensioned. Starter rows are verified for visual balance.
04
Build with outputs
Step through an interactive cut list, material order, and installation sequence — all in your browser. Share with your crew or use as a shopping list with recommended suppliers.
04 Layout Intelligence
HERRON — PLAN VIEW LIVE PREVIEW
Herron editor showing a herringbone tile layout with numbered pieces and dimension labels
Scale: Fit to viewport Surface: 2,440 x 1,830 mm (96 x 72 in) Tiles: 147 indexed Cuts: 23 custom
05 What You Get
Interactive
Cut Sheet
Every cut indexed by row and position. Dimensions in millimeters (inches). Blade angle noted for non-orthogonal edges. Grouped by cut type for batch processing.
FormatIn-browser
IncludesPiece ID, dims, angle
SortBy row or by size
Calculation
Material Order
Total area computed with configurable waste buffer. Quantity rounded to packing units. Cost calculated per pack with true price per square meter (square foot).
Waste bufferAdjustable 0–20%
Coveragem² (sq ft)
IncludesPacks, cost, waste %
Interactive
Installation Sequence
Interactive step-by-step build order with visual placement guides. Each piece shown in position with cut diagrams and fitting instructions.
FormatIn-browser
IncludesCut diagrams, offcut reuse
Patterns16 supported
08 Is This For You
Herron is a focused tool. Here's where it fits — and where it doesn't.
Built for
  • Contractors running residential and light-commercial installs
  • Homeowners doing their own flooring, tile, or patio work
  • Interior designers who want verified material counts for bids
  • Supplier sales teams generating take-off estimates for customers
Not designed for
  • Structural engineering or load-bearing calculations
  • Full architectural drafting or BIM workflows
  • Roofing, wall cladding, or vertical surface tiling
  • Curved or free-form surface geometry
09 Supported Materials

Works with any rectangular tile or plank.

Enter your tile dimensions and Herron handles the layout. Edge gaps, pattern offsets, and offcut reuse work the same regardless of material type.

Ceramic
Porcelain & Ceramic Tile
Standard, large-format, mosaic
Wood
Hardwood & Engineered
Plank, parquet, herringbone
Vinyl
LVT & LVP
Click-lock, glue-down, loose lay
Stone
Natural Stone & Pavers
Flagstone, travertine, slate, concrete
Laminate
Laminate Flooring
Standard, wide-plank, textured
Exterior
Deck & Patio Tile
Composite, porcelain, interlocking

Guides & articles

How Many Tiles Do I Need?

The ten percent rule often gets it wrong. Here is a more accurate way.

How to Tile a Bathroom Floor

The complete DIY guide from layout plan to last grout line.

Laminate Flooring Calculator

Why knowing your square metres is not enough. Get a real cut list.

Tile Layout Planner

See where every tile and every cut falls before you buy.

Chevron vs Herringbone

The layout differences that change your material order.

Measure the surface.
Herron handles the rest.

No guesswork. No wasted material. No rework.
Start your first project in under two minutes.

Free · No signup · Works in your browser