The day rate is most useful for small jobs and for sanity-checking a larger quote against the number of days proposed.
The figure
MyJobQuote's June 2026 guide puts a tiler's day rate at £150 to £200.
That is a national figure and London sits above it. We are not going to quote a precise London number, because no source we can verify publishes one for tiling specifically. Treat the national range as a floor rather than an expectation, and judge a South London quote against the per-square-metre figures and the time the job should take instead.
When a day rate applies
Small, self-contained jobs. MyJobQuote's own breakdown is effectively day-rate pricing: a splashback above a sink at half a day and £75 to £100, tiling around a bath at a day and a half for £225 to £300, a medium bathroom floor at one day for £150 to £200.
Those numbers map almost exactly onto the day rate multiplied by the days. For anything larger, per-square-metre pricing takes over because the relationship between area and time becomes reliable.
Using it to check a quote
Take the quote, subtract the materials, and divide the labour by the days the tiler expects to be on site.
MyJobQuote's timings give you the yardstick: a medium bathroom fully tiled, walls and floor, is four days at £600 to £800. Walls only is three days at £450 to £600. If a quote implies £400 a day for straightforward ceramic work, ask what makes it complex. If it implies £120, ask what has been left out.
What a day rate does not cover
Materials, obviously, but also the things that quietly become extra days.
Removing old tiles is charged separately, at around £30 an hour. Making good the wall afterwards is separate again. Levelling a floor or boarding out a wall is preparation, not tiling.
In this part of London that preparation matters more than most places. Victorian and Edwardian walls are rarely flat and the floors are rarely level, and a tiler who has quoted for tiling a flat wall will need more days once they find they are also levelling it.
Getting a quote you can compare
Ask for the labour and materials split, the number of days, and what preparation is included. Ask specifically whether tile removal, wall levelling and, for a shower, tanking are in the price.
Ask who is supplying the tiles. Some tilers supply at trade prices, which can be cheaper than retail, but you want to know which figure you are looking at.
And ask what happens if the wall turns out to need replastering once the old tiles come off. In an older property that is a realistic outcome rather than a remote one, and it is better priced in advance than negotiated with a stripped bathroom.
On very small jobs
Expect a minimum charge. A tiler will not travel across South London, unload, and set up for an hour's work at an hourly rate. If you have several small tiling jobs, book them together.