How many TacTiles do I need?

TacTiles are one of those great inventions that are so simple but just work. Produced by carpet tile giants Interface, we've been selling TacTiles at DCTUK for over a decade now. 

Simply stick them to the underside of the corner of each carpet tile, securing 4 carpet tiles for each TacTile. Contrary to popular belief, only one side of the TacTile is sticky, the other side (subfloor side) has a grippy (not sticky) texture that hold the carpet tiles in place. 

They are a genius method of installing carpet tiles that is fast and efficient.

The question we get asked the most, however, is not *what* they are, but "how many do I need to order?"

And that answer, well, requires some explaining. If you can't be bothered with the faff of explanations, scroll down to "What is the solution?" to get the answer and my Excel calculator tool.

The main problem is that we can't just create a calculator on our website that gives an exact answer based on the square metreage of the room, unless the room is an exact square.

This is because the number of tactile required depends on the shape of the room.

For example, if I said 8 carpet tiles need 15 TacTiles this would be true. If your room is a 2 x 4 grid of carpet tiles.

But if we create a line of 8 carpet tiles (1 x 8 grid) then the number needed would be 18 TacTiles.

Both rooms are 8m2 but the number of TacTiles required is different. And the larger the space, the greater the difference becomes. So when a customer comes to us and says "I need to buy 200 carpet tiles, how many TacTiles do I need?" we have mostly mumbled our way through these conversations with lots of mmms, errrs, and... "how about buying this lovely spray can adhesive instead?"

After thinking about this problem A LOT and trying to work out a formula that would allow me to create a calculator for our sales team to enter a square metreage that provides the number of tiles required I recently admitted failure and instead turned to be my genius, brain-box of a brother who I thought my know the answer. And he did.

The small piece of good news is that there is a simple formula for square layouts that are the same length on both sides. For example, if we use the below 3 x 3 square grid of carpet tiles:

If we say the number of carpet tiles on each side of the grid is a (so in the above image a=3) then formula would be 4a+(a-1)².

To make this easier for customers I have created a simple TacTile calculator in Excel where the customer can enter the linear metres of the width (which would also be the height) of the room and the calculator will work out exactly how many TacTiles are required.

As mentioned above - this only works if the room is square. And so if the project space is not square then the room needs to be divided up into squares and then the linear metreage of those squares entered into the calculator for precise quantities.

To make it slightly more confusing, but more helpful for customers, on DCTUK.com we sell TacTiles in sheets of 6 because most customers will not need to buy a whole roll of 500 TacTiles. The calculator works out the number of TacTiles required and then lets our customer know how many packs they should order on our website.

The other formula that my brother worked out that might be useful is for the maximum number of TacTiles that would be required for any possible layout, provided all the tiles are connected on at least one side to another carpet tile in that batch. (So this excludes a situation where, for example, the customer bought carpet tiles for two different rooms in the same batch).

If the number of carpet tiles is t, then the formula is 2t+2. So if our customer was supplied with 2t+2 TacTiles, then they would always have enough for the corner of every carpet tile, but they might have some left over, effectively "wasted".

At larger numbers, those wasted TacTiles become a mega problem that can't really be ignored (unless you're the *burying your head* in the sand type).

For example, if a customer orders 625 tiles, then if they are laid out in a square grid they will need 676 TacTiles. But the maximum number of TacTiles for all possible layouts is 1,252. So nearly half the TacTiles will be wasted and in fact as the number of tiles increases, the number of wasted TacTiles gets closer and closer to 50%.

Well, we still highly recommend TacTiles, and if you need help working out how many you need, just get in touch with our friendly UK sales team. But there are some alternatives:

For small areas

• Double sided tape is an easy and secure way of fixing carpet tiles to the floor for small projects.
• Sticky Stuff Tackifier spray adhesive is also great for small areas, or even large areas that are being loose-laid but need a bit of stickiness at the edges of the room. It's our own brand of adhesive and always kept in stock. Plus, it's a tackifier so is not permanent and won't leave a horrible mess when the tiles are lifted up at a later date.
• Bostik Spray adhesive is a spray solution for semi-permanently sticking carpet tiles to the floor - we also keep this in stock in our distribution hub.

For larger areas

• Bostik Fix A320 Tackifier is available in a 5kg or 25kg tub and is perfect for larger installations. Spread the tackifier across the floor and allow to dry. Then simply lay the carpet tiles on top.
• Uzin U2100 Carpet Tile adhesive is sold at DCTUK.com and is a great option. It’s got a super-fast drying between 30-60 minutes, so enough time to watch an episode of Line of Duty before its on to the next DIY task.
• The F.Ball Styccobond F44 is often the fitter's favourite and well known for it's yellow branding. We stock this and can delivery next working day.

If you need any help with TacTiles or the above adhesives, just give our team a shout by calling 0345 222 1541 or jumping on our website Livechat.