Tile profit margin benchmarks
The IRS reports what one-owner businesses filing Schedule C earn, by sector. Tile falls under Specialty trade contractors. For tax year 2023, 2,521,516 returns reported $257.8 billion in receipts, $80.4 billion in cost of sales and $40.5 billion in net income less deficit (the table gives thousands of dollars):
| Benchmark | Value |
|---|---|
| Gross margin | 68.8% |
| Net margin, owner pay included | 15.7% |
| Average receipts per return | $102,220 |
| Average net income per return | $16,054 |
The owner's own draw is not an expense on a Schedule C, so that net margin is mostly the owner's wage, not profit on top of it.
Where the money goes in tile
Tile is labor heavy: layout, prep and setting take most of the hours, and the tile itself is often bought by the customer. Prep work on bad floors and walls is where jobs lose money.
Where tile margin leaks, and how to win it back
- Subfloor and wall prep not priced
- Large format tile priced like standard tile
- Waste factor too low on patterns
- Waterproofing left off the quote
- No minimum on small repairs
Ways tile installers raise margin: price prep as its own line; charge more for large format tile; set a minimum on repairs; sell sealing and regrouting.
Check your tile prices against the costs
The typical national prices from our sourced calculators are a check on whether your prices leave room for margin:
| Service | Typical | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Bathroom floor | $1,275 | $300 to $2,250 a job |
| Kitchen floor | $1,900 | $870 to $3,000 a job |
| Tile floor, installed | $17.50 | $15.00 to $20 a sq ft |
| Kitchen backsplash | $950 | $480 to $1,500 a job |
| Shower walls and floor | $3,050 | $1,800 to $5,000 a job |
| Tub surround | $1,850 | $200 to $3,500 a job |
Work out the margin on each line of your menu, not just the big jobs. The usual tile menu: bathroom floor; kitchen floor; tile floor, installed; kitchen backsplash; shower walls and floor; tub surround; subfloor leveling; waterproofing membrane; cracked tile replacement; regrout and reseal.
Overhead comes out of the margin before profit. In tile it includes general liability insurance, which Insureon's customers who are tile and stone installation contractors pay an average of $72 a month for; commercial auto at $368 a month on the same figures.
Work out your own margin
Put one recent tile job into the calculator above, or switch it to "My margin for the year" to set your year next to the IRS benchmark. A 50% markup is a 33% margin; the markup calculator shows the rest.
Sources
- IRS Statistics of Income: Nonfarm sole proprietorships, Table 2, income statements by industrial sector, tax year 2023, checked October 9, 2026
- IRS: SOI tax stats, nonfarm sole proprietorship statistics, checked October 9, 2026
- Insureon: Insurance cost for tile and stone installation contractors, checked October 9, 2026
- HomeAdvisor, tile installation cost, checked October 9, 2026
- Today's Homeowner, tile floor cost, checked October 9, 2026
- Bob Vila, tile installation cost, checked October 9, 2026
- This Old House, tile floor cost, checked October 9, 2026
- Fixr, shower tiling cost, checked October 9, 2026
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (state and national files), checked October 8, 2026
- US Census Bureau, 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area to county relationship file, checked October 8, 2026
- HomeAdvisor, flooring installation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Bob Vila, flooring installation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Modernize, flooring installation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- This Old House, flooring cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Thumbtack, flooring prices, checked October 8, 2026
Last checked October 9, 2026. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and differ by state and city, so confirm with the agency named before you act.