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LATICRETE Grout Calculator

How much SPECTRALOCK, PERMACOLOR Select, 1500 or 1600 to buy for your tile — worked from LATICRETE's own published coverage tables rather than a generic pounds-per-square-foot rule.6 products, 180 chart cells, every one of them cited and linked below.

sq ft
in
in
in
in
in

Defaults to tile thickness. Use less if thinset fills part of the joint.

%

Trade overage for cleanup and uneven joints — not a TDS constant. The 10% default is a labeled convention; add more for quarry tile.

Buy

1

25 lb unit

LATICRETE PERMACOLOR Select / PERMACOLOR Grout (25 lb unit)

The working

Area 100 sq ft × (1 + 10% waste) = 110.0 sq ft

Tile 12″ × 12″ × 0.375″, joint 0.125″ wide × 0.375″ deep

Coverage (published chart): 383.0 sq ft per 25 lb unit

110.0 ÷ 383.0 → 1 25 lb unit (rounded up)

Planning estimate only. Check the result against current product instructions, local requirements, and your own takeoff. See the calculator disclaimer.

The LATICRETE lineup, and which chart applies

LATICRETE splits its grout range four ways, and each branch has its own coverage table. The cement side is PERMACOLOR Select and PERMACOLOR Grout, sanded, sharing a chart with the older 1500 Sanded Grout. Beside it sits PERMACOLOR Select NS — the unsanded version for polished marble and soft glass — and 1600 Unsanded for joints of 1/8″ and under. The epoxy side is SPECTRALOCK PRO Premium. They do not share numbers: at 12″ tile with a 1/8″ joint, a 25 lb unit of PERMACOLOR Select goes about 383 sq ft while a full unit of SPECTRALOCK goes about 159.

That gap is not a quality difference, it is a packaging one — a full SPECTRALOCK unit is 0.8 US gal of mixed epoxy, and 25 lb of cement grout makes a lot more joint volume than that. It is exactly why comparing brands or lines by bag weight tells you nothing useful, and why this tool keeps a separate published table per product instead of one blended rate.

PERMACOLOR Select is a base, not a finished grout

The bag on the shelf is PERMACOLOR Select Grout Base. It is mixed with water and one pigment packet from a separate PERMACOLOR Select Color Kit — that is how one base supports dozens of colors. For estimating this changes nothing about the coverage number, but it changes your shopping list: counting bags of base and forgetting the color kits is the most common way a LATICRETE order comes up short of usable grout.

It also explains the two charts. LATICRETE publishes coverage for the 25 lb unit and, separately, for a 10 lb base bag. Both presets are here. The 25 lb chart puts 1×1 mosaic at a 1/8″ joint at 51 sq ft; the 10 lb chart says 21. Read the wrong one and your order is off by a factor of about two and a half in the direction that leaves you standing in a half-grouted bathroom.

Where these numbers come from

SPECTRALOCK is the interesting one. Its product data sheet, DS-681, gives packaging and working time but no coverage table — it says to refer to the chart on Data Sheet 254.3. Plenty of calculators stop there and fit a density curve instead. DS 254.3 is a real document: the LATICRETE Grout and Sealant Color Card, and it carries the full table, stated per full unit. Pairing the two — the chart from the card, the unit volume from DS-681 — gives a sourced number with nothing invented in between.

When your tile size and joint width land exactly on a published cell, the calculator uses that cell and says so. When they fall between cells, it fits the standard joint-volume formula to that product's own chart and warns you that it is interpolating. Outside a calibrated zone — roughly faces under 3 inches, or joints over 3/8″ — it stops rather than extrapolating, because that is where published charts and geometry diverge most.

What is deliberately missing

LATICRETE READY-TO-USE Grout is on the same coverage card and is not a preset here. Its table gives only three tile sizes, which is too thin to fit a reliable curve to — the fallback lands around 7% off between the published cells, against a 3% bar for every other product in this tool. The chart cells themselves are fine; the gaps between them are not. A preset that is wrong where you cannot see it is worse than an honest omission.

SPECTRALOCK 2000 IG is also on the card but carries no table at all — LATICRETE points to its estimator instead. Same rule applies: no table, no preset.

LATICRETE published coverage charts

The tables the calculator reads, reproduced so you can check any answer by hand. Every figure is approximate square feet per the stated unit, at nominal tile size, before waste.

PERMACOLOR Selectper 10 lb bag (base)

PERMACOLOR Select coverage in square feet per 10 lb bag (base) by tile size and joint width
Tile1/16″1/8″3/16″1/4″1/2″
1 × 1 × 1/4″412115117
2 × 2 × 1/4″8141282111
3 × 6 × 0.3125″12965443317
4.5 × 4.5 × 0.3125″14573493719
6 × 24 × 3/8″257129866533
12 × 24 × 3/8″42821414310854
24 × 24 × 3/8″64232121416181
12 × 36 × 3/8″48224116012161

PERMACOLOR Select / PERMACOLOR Grout (25 lb unit)per 25 lb unit

PERMACOLOR Select / PERMACOLOR Grout (25 lb unit) coverage in square feet per 25 lb unit by tile size and joint width
Tile1/16″1/8″1/4″3/8″1/2″
1 × 1 × 1/4″9851272016
2 × 2 × 1/4″19498513527
4.25 × 4.25 × 0.3125″326164835643
6 × 6 × 1/2″287144734937
12 × 12 × 3/8″76438319312997
13 × 13 × 3/8″828415208140105
16 × 16 × 3/8″1018510256171129
18 × 18 × 3/8″1145574288193145

1500 Sanded Groutper 25 lb bag

1500 Sanded Grout coverage in square feet per 25 lb bag by tile size and joint width
Tile1/16″1/8″1/4″3/8″
1 × 1 × 1/4″98512720
2 × 2 × 1/4″194985135
4.25 × 4.25 × 0.3125″3261648356
6 × 6 × 1/2″2871447349
12 × 12 × 3/8″764383193129
13 × 13 × 3/8″828415208140
16 × 16 × 3/8″1018510256171
18 × 18 × 3/8″1145574288193

PERMACOLOR Select NS (unsanded)per 8 lb carton

PERMACOLOR Select NS (unsanded) coverage in square feet per 8 lb carton by tile size and joint width
Tile1/16″1/8″3/16″1/4″
1 × 1 × 1/4″3417129
2 × 2 × 1/4″66342317
4.25 × 4.25 × 0.3125″111563728
6 × 6 × 0.3125″156795340
12 × 12 × 3/8″2611318766
24 × 24 × 3/8″520261173131

SPECTRALOCK PRO Premium (epoxy)per Full unit — 0.8 US gal (3.0 L)

SPECTRALOCK PRO Premium (epoxy) coverage in square feet per Full unit — 0.8 US gal (3.0 L) by tile size and joint width
Tile1/16″1/8″1/4″3/8″1/2″
1 × 1 × 1/4″41211187
2 × 2 × 1/4″8041211511
4.25 × 4.25 × 0.3125″13568352318
6 × 6 × 1/2″11960302015
12 × 12 × 3/8″317159805440
13 × 13 × 3/8″344172875844
16 × 16 × 3/8″4232121067154
18 × 18 × 3/8″4752381198060

1600 Unsanded Groutper 8 lb bag

1600 Unsanded Grout coverage in square feet per 8 lb bag by tile size and joint width
Tile1/16″1/8″
4.25 × 4.25 × 0.3125″14472
6 × 6 × 0.3125″202102

1500 Sanded Grout shares the PERMACOLOR table but is footnoted on the card as not recommended for a 1/2″ joint, so that column is omitted above. PERMACOLOR Select NS is marked walls-only at its two widest joints. If you are cross-shopping, the MAPEI grout calculator covers Ultracolor Plus FA, Keracolor and Kerapoxy CQ on the same published-chart basis, and the full grout calculator adds TEC, ARDEX and CUSTOM Building Products.

Sources

Grouped by manufacturer or publisher, then by document. Expand a group for the cited document, its verified-on date, and every value taken from it — all of it stays in the HTML either way.

LATICRETE(6 documents, 6 values)
Trade conventions(3 documents, 3 values)

Frequently asked questions

How much SPECTRALOCK PRO Premium do I need?

For 12″ × 12″ × 3/8″ tile with a 1/8″ joint, one full unit covers about 159 sq ft per LATICRETE's published chart. The trap is the word "full": SPECTRALOCK ships as a Mini (0.2 US gal), a Full unit (0.8 US gal) and a Commercial unit (3.2 US gal), and the coverage chart is stated per full unit only. Buy Minis against a full-unit number and you will be four units short.

Why does LATICRETE publish two different PERMACOLOR Select charts?

Because the grout base comes in more than one bag size and each has its own chart. The 25 lb unit covers 51 sq ft of 1×1 mosaic at a 1/8″ joint; the 10 lb base bag covers 21 sq ft of the same tile. Both presets are in the tool — pick the one that matches the bag in your hand, because reading the 25 lb chart with a 10 lb bag over-estimates coverage by roughly two and a half times.

What is the difference between PERMACOLOR Select and PERMACOLOR Select NS?

NS is the unsanded version, for delicate surfaces like polished marble and soft glass that sand would scratch. It is a different product with a different chart and a different package — an 8 lb carton against the sanded line's 25 lb unit — and it tops out at a narrower joint. Its coverage table is a separate one on the same LATICRETE card, and the two are not interchangeable.

Is PERMACOLOR Select the same as 1500 Sanded Grout?

For estimating purposes LATICRETE prints one shared coverage table for PERMACOLOR Select, PERMACOLOR Grout and 1500 Sanded Grout, all per 25 lb unit — so the numbers match. The one difference on the card is a footnote: 1500 Sanded is not recommended for a 1/2″ joint, so that column is dropped from the 1500 preset here rather than reproduced for a joint the manufacturer excludes.

How much waste should I add to a LATICRETE grout order?

LATICRETE's own guidance is on the coverage card and repeated on the product data sheets: add 10% for waste, spillage and clean-up, and another 10–15% when grouting unglazed quarry tile. That is the default here, and it is adjustable. Note it is a handling allowance, not part of the coverage figure.

Does this use LATICRETE’s official coverage numbers?

Yes, and every one of them is linked. The tables come from the LATICRETE Grout and Sealant Color Card (DS 254.3-0618), with package sizes corroborated against the individual product data sheets — DS-681-0920 for SPECTRALOCK PRO Premium and DS-116-0821 for PERMACOLOR Select NS. 180 published chart cells across 6 products, each cited in the sources block with the date it was checked.