Paver Calculator

Break a patio into its four orders: pavers, base, bedding sand and edge restraint.

Your patio

The area you are paving

Measure the finished surface, not the excavation. The dig is wider than the patio, because the base has to extend past the edge to hold the restraint.
For an L shape or a curve, split it into rectangles, run each one and add the results. A curve is easier to price as the rectangle that contains it.

The paver

Use the measured size rather than the name. A paver sold as 4 by 8 is usually 3.875 by 7.75 inches, which is what leaves room for the joint.
A square paver takes the same number in both fields. Mixed sizes in a pattern are best run as the pattern unit that repeats.
An eighth of an inch is typical for a sand swept joint. It sounds trivial and it is not: across a patio it is worth about a dozen pavers.
Five percent covers a rectangle laid in a running bond. A herringbone pattern, a curved edge or a diagonal layout cuts far more, and ten is the safer number there. 10.00%

What goes underneath

ICPI puts patios and pedestrian areas at a minimum of 4 inches after compaction over well drained soil, and residential driveways at 6. Cold climates or weak soil want another 2 to 4 inches.
ICPI specifies a nominal 1 inch, screeded and left uncompacted. Deeper is the most common way a paver patio fails, because sand consolidates under load and the surface follows it down.
The specification is the compacted thickness, but the yard sells loose material. Crushed aggregate loses roughly a fifth of its volume under a plate compactor, so ordering the finished depth leaves the base short. 20.00%
Densities and prices
Base is sold loose and the compaction allowance above has already been added, so this has to be the loose density rather than the compacted one. Caltrans puts crushed gravel at 2,700 pounds a cubic yard loose, which is 100 per cubic foot, and works to 1.5 tons a cubic yard for aggregate, which is 111. Compacted stone runs 130 to 140, and entering that figure here counts the compaction twice.
Concrete sand runs near 100 pounds per cubic foot dry and more when wet, which is worth knowing when a ton arrives after rain.
Pavers are often priced per square foot on a pallet. Divide the pallet price by the square feet it covers, then by the pavers per square foot shown in the results.
Ask whether the quote includes delivery, because a short load of stone is mostly haulage.
Joint sand is a separate product bought by the bag and is not counted here. Bedding sand is bulk concrete sand.
Pavers to buy
1,006 pavers
Base in tons 4.4 tons
Sand in tons 0.83 tons
Edge restraint 60 ft
Area paved
200 sq ft
Pavers per square foot
4.57

Ordered by volume

Base aggregate 2.96 cu yd
Bedding sand 0.62 cu yd

What it costs

Material cost $809
Cost per square foot $4.04

Every figure here is a planning estimate, not a professional takeoff. Yields, waste factors and code requirements vary by product, supplier and jurisdiction, so confirm quantities against the manufacturer’s data and your local building department before you order.

Generated by Mathterial

A paver patio is four orders, not one. The pavers are the part people count, and the three underneath them are where the job goes wrong: a compacted aggregate base, a screeded bedding course, and an edge restraint round the outside. This paver calculator does all four from the same measurements, including the compaction allowance that most estimates leave out.

What the layers are, and why they are ordered differently

The base is specified as a compacted thickness and sold loose, so the volume you order is larger than the layer you end up with. The bedding sand is the opposite: ICPI, now part of the Concrete Masonry and Hardscapes Association, specifies a nominal 1 inch screeded and left uncompacted, so what you order is what you spread. Treating both the same way is how a patio ends up an inch short of base and an inch deep in sand, which are the two classic failures.

  • Base aggregate. ICPI puts patios and pedestrian areas at 4 inches minimum after compaction over well drained soil, and residential driveways at 6. Cold climates or weak soil want another 2 to 4 inches. How much paver base do I need works through the depths and the ordering in detail.
  • Bedding sand. A nominal 1 inch, screeded, not compacted, and not used to level out a bad base.
  • Pavers. Counted on the face plus one joint, because that is the space each one actually occupies.
  • Edge restraint. The perimeter, in linear feet. Without it the outer row creeps and the joints open.

Why the paver count is not area divided by paver

A 4 by 8 paver measures 3.875 by 7.75 inches, and with an eighth inch joint it occupies 7.875 by 4 inches of ground. That is 0.219 square feet, or 4.57 pavers per square foot. Count the bare face instead and you get 4.8 per square foot, which is about five percent more pavers than the patio has room for. On 200 square feet that is 45 pavers of difference, most of a pallet.

The compaction allowance

Crushed stone loses roughly a fifth of its loose volume under a plate compactor. The specification is the compacted depth, the yard sells you loose material, and the gap between the two is the single most common reason a base finishes thin. The allowance is an input here rather than a constant, because it depends on the stone and how well it is compacted, but zero is the wrong answer.

What it does not count

Joint sand, the polymeric stuff swept into the gaps at the end, is a separate product bought by the bag and is not in these figures. Coverage depends on the joint width and the depth of the paver, and the bag tells you. Bedding sand and joint sand being different things, bought differently, is worth knowing before the delivery arrives.

Paver calculator FAQ

How many pavers do I need per square foot?

A 4 by 8 paver with an eighth inch joint occupies 0.219 square feet, so 4.57 pavers per square foot. A 12 by 12 paver works out at about 0.98 per square foot on the same joint.

How much paver base do I need for a patio?

A 200 square foot patio at the 4 inch compacted minimum takes 80 cubic feet of loose stone once a 20 percent compaction allowance is added, which is 2.96 cubic yards or about 4.4 tons. A residential driveway wants 6 inches rather than 4, which is half as much again, and cold climates or soft soil want another 2 to 4 inches on top of whichever applies.

How much sand do I need under pavers?

One inch, screeded and uncompacted, which on a 200 square foot patio is 16.7 cubic feet, 0.62 cubic yards or about 0.83 tons. Deeper bedding is a common cause of settling rather than a fix for an uneven base.