How Much Is a Tiling Business Worth in Australia?

A tiling business in Australia is typically worth between 1.5 and 3 times its annual seller's discretionary earnings (SDE) — which usually means a sale price somewhere between $150,000 and $600,000 for a well-run owner-operated business with solid recurring revenue. Larger, staffed businesses with commercial contracts can reach multiples above 3x, though that's the exception rather than the rule for trade businesses of this type.

If you're trying to value a tiling business you're looking to buy (or sell), the number on the listing is rarely the number that matters. What matters is how the earnings are calculated, who actually does the work, and whether the customer base will survive a change of hands.

This article covers how tiling business valuations work in practice, the ATO benchmarks that give you a reality check on the numbers, and the factors that push a tiling business toward the top or bottom of the valuation range.

What Drives the Value of a Tiling Business?

The single biggest driver of a tiling business's value is how dependent it is on the owner doing the work. A business where the owner is the head tiler, the estimator, the customer contact, and the person who chases invoices is not really a business — it's a job with a fancy name on the van. These sell (if they sell at all) at the low end: 1 to 1.5 times SDE.

A business where the owner manages a team of tilers and has recurring relationships with builders, property managers, or commercial fit-out companies is worth considerably more — typically 2.5 to 3.5 times SDE. The buyer is purchasing a system that generates income, not a set of skills they'd need to replicate themselves.

Three things consistently push tiling business valuations higher:

Recurring commercial contracts. A tiling business with a builder or property developer on retainer — supplying tiling for new builds or apartment fit-outs — is far more valuable than one that lives project-to-project. Predictable revenue commands a premium because it survives the handover.

Trained staff who stay. If the business has two or three experienced tilers on the payroll who aren't going anywhere, the buyer is getting a functioning workforce. If the only skilled tiler is the owner, the buyer needs to either learn to tile or hire someone, which changes the maths entirely.

Clean, verifiable financials. The ATO's small business benchmarks for tiling show that most businesses in the $150,000 to $600,000 annual turnover range have total expenses running at around 62% of revenue. If a seller's books show expenses well below that with no explanation, buyers (and their accountants) will discount the stated profit heavily.

What Tiling Businesses Actually Earn: ATO Benchmarks

Before you can value a tiling business, you need to understand what's a normal earnings profile for the industry. The ATO publishes benchmarks specifically for floor and wall tiling services, which gives buyers a useful sanity check.

For businesses with turnover between $150,000 and $600,000 — the range most individual tiling businesses fall into — the ATO benchmark shows average total expenses at around 62% of revenue. That leaves 38% as gross margin before the owner takes a wage.

A tiling business turning over $350,000 a year might realistically show:

Revenue: $350,000
Materials and subcontractors: $140,000 (40%)
Other business expenses (vehicle, insurance, tools, admin): $77,000 (22%)
Profit before owner's wage: $133,000

If the owner takes a $90,000 wage, the net profit is $43,000. But SDE — the number buyers care about — adds back the owner's wage, making it $133,000. At 2x SDE, that's a $266,000 business. At 2.5x, it's $332,500.

For businesses under $150,000 in turnover (typically a sole operator running one van), margins tighten because the fixed overhead percentage rises. These businesses often sell at or close to the value of their equipment and goodwill combined.

The tiling and carpeting services sector in Australia is a $8 billion industry, which means there are buyers and sellers in this space regularly — you're not operating in a thin market.

EBITDA Multiples for Tiling Businesses

For the purposes of buying a small tiling business, most deals are structured around SDE rather than EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation). SDE adds back the owner's wages and other personal expenses run through the business, giving a cleaner picture of what the business earns before a new owner pays themselves.

That said, if the business is large enough to have a working manager (someone running it who isn't the owner), EBITDA becomes the relevant measure — and EBITDA multiples for trade businesses in Australia typically sit between 2.5 and 4.5 for businesses with genuine management depth.

A useful rule of thumb: a tiling business selling for more than 3x SDE had better have recurring commercial contracts, a stable team, and at least one year of clean financials verified by an accountant. If someone's asking 4x for a sole-operator tiling business, they're optimistic (which is a polite way of putting it).

Seller's Discretionary Earnings: The Number That Actually Matters

SDE is not the number on the tax return. It's the tax-return number adjusted for add-backs — expenses that were legitimate business costs under the current owner but won't exist under a new one. Understanding seller's discretionary earnings is essential before you can assess whether a tiling business is priced fairly.

Common add-backs in a tiling business include:

Owner's salary (they'll leave; you'll pay yourself instead)
Personal vehicle expenses run through the business
Family members on payroll who weren't doing real work
One-off costs that aren't expected to recur (a van replacement, a legal dispute)
Depreciation on equipment that's already paid off

A broker told me recently about a tiling business listing where the seller's stated profit was $45,000, but after normalising for a $95,000 add-back in owner wages and a $15,000 vehicle expense, the SDE was closer to $155,000. Same business, very different valuation.

That's why you can't just take the listed profit at face value. You need the last two or three years of tax returns, the business activity statements, and a competent accountant to work through the add-backs before you form a view on price. The tiling business valuation checklist walks through exactly what to request.

What Buyers Are Actually Paying: Market Evidence

Listing prices from Australian business brokers give you a rough anchor. At the time of writing, tiling and flooring businesses listed for sale in Australia range from around $25,000 (for a micro-business with a van and a client list) to $450,000 or more for businesses with commercial contracts and a team.

The gap is wide because the underlying businesses are genuinely different. A sole operator who tiles bathrooms for $1,000 a day is not the same asset as a business with three tilers running commercial fit-outs for a national builder.

When buying a business from a retiring owner, tiling businesses often come to market with more goodwill than the numbers justify — because the owner spent thirty years building relationships that walk out the door when they do. Price accordingly.

Red Flags That Kill Value in a Tiling Business

Before you accept a seller's stated SDE, check these:

Owner on the tools every day. If the owner is the primary tiler and all customers know them personally, you're buying goodwill that may not transfer. Reduce the multiple significantly — and build a handover period into any deal structure.

Heavy reliance on one or two builders. A tiling business that does 70% of its work for one developer is not worth 3x SDE. If that developer switches suppliers or slows their pipeline, the business changes shape fast. This is the customer concentration risk problem in trade form.

Cash-heavy revenue. If the claimed revenue relies partly on cash jobs that don't appear in the BAS, a buyer takes on two risks: they can't verify the number, and they inherit a business that may attract ATO scrutiny. The ATO benchmarks for tiling are precise enough that a business with dramatically different ratios tends to get flagged.

Equipment at end of life. Tiling equipment — tile saws, grinders, levelling systems — ages. If the business is running on old gear, factor in replacement costs before accepting the asking price. An asset-light tiling business is more attractive; one that needs $40,000 in new equipment within six months is not.

No documented processes. Every good tiling business has a way of quoting, scheduling, ordering materials, and handling defects. If that process exists only in the owner's head, the business is fragile. This is covered in more depth in Module 4 of the Playbook.

How to Value a Tiling Business: The Short Version

Learning how to value a small business in Australia takes time, but for a tiling business the framework is straightforward:

Get the last two or three years of tax returns and BAS statements
Calculate SDE by adding back the owner's wage and personal expenses
Assess the quality of earnings — are they recurring? Diverse? Verifiable?
Apply a multiple based on the business's risk profile (1.5x for high owner-dependency, up to 3x for staffed businesses with commercial contracts)
Check the result against what's actually listed for sale in the market

If you want the full framework with a step-by-step worksheet, grab the free Tiling Business Valuation Checklist — it covers every line item you need to work through before making an offer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do tilers make good money in Australia? A sole-operator tiler billing at $80 to $150 per square metre can generate $200,000 to $350,000 in revenue annually, keeping $80,000 to $150,000 after expenses. Running a team of tilers can push that considerably higher.

How much does a tiler charge per hour in Australia? Most commercial tilers charge $45 to $150 per square metre for labour, or roughly $80 to $120 per hour for time-and-materials work. Rates vary significantly between cities and complexity of job.

How many square metres can a tiler do in a day? A competent tiler can lay 15 to 30 square metres per day depending on tile format, substrate preparation, and layout complexity. Large-format tiles are slower; small mosaics are slower still.

How much should I pay a tiler per day? As a business owner engaging a subcontractor tiler in Australia, expect to pay $400 to $900 per day depending on experience and state. A lead tiler in Sydney or Melbourne commands closer to $900 to $1,200 per day.

Is a tiling business a good investment in Australia? It depends heavily on the structure. A staffed tiling business with commercial contracts and diversified customers can be an excellent acquisition — predictable, cash-generative, and difficult for clients to switch away from easily. A sole-operator business is a riskier buy. See my full breakdown of whether a tiling business is a good investment.

The tiling industry is large enough to have genuine acquisition opportunities, and small enough that you won't be competing with private equity. Most buyers in this space are individuals with trade or construction backgrounds — which means if you come to the table with clean due diligence and a clear offer structure, you can often move quickly.

The main thing is getting the valuation right before you get emotionally attached to a business. The seller always thinks their business is worth more than it is (which is human nature, and you'd probably do the same). Your job as a buyer is to work through the numbers methodically and anchor to SDE, not hope.

For more on the mechanics of the deal itself, subscribe to The Leveraged Worker newsletter — I cover deals, mistakes, and the parts of business acquisition that the courses don't teach.