Paver calculator: pavers, base, sand and edging

Enter the size of the patio, walkway, driveway or pool deck and the paver you are laying. You get the full material list a crew actually needs: pavers with the right waste for your pattern, compacted base rock in tons, bedding sand, polymeric sand, edge restraint and fabric. Add your prices and it totals the material cost.

How the quantities are worked out

Pavers. Area times one plus the waste factor, divided by the face area of one paver. A 300 sq ft patio in 6 × 9 pavers on a 45° herringbone needs 330 sq ft, which is 880 pavers. Waste is not optional: every edge on a diagonal pattern is a cut, and you want spares from the same production run for future repairs.

Base rock. Area times compacted depth gives the volume. Crushed base compacts by roughly 15 to 20 percent, so the calculator uses 1.5 tons per cubic yard of finished, compacted base. That is the number that saves a second delivery.

Bedding sand. One inch, screeded, never more. A thicker bed does not level a bad base, it just settles later. Coarse concrete sand (ASTM C33) weighs about 1.35 tons per cubic yard.

Polymeric sand. A 50 lb bag covers about 80 sq ft with tight joints, 50 sq ft with 1/4 in joints, and 30 sq ft with wide joints on tumbled or natural stone pavers.

Edge restraint. Every open edge needs it or the field creeps. It is sold in 8 ft pieces with a 10 in spike about every foot.

How deep should the base be?

Total excavation is base plus one inch of sand plus the paver thickness, usually 2 3/8 in for concrete pavers. A patio on a 4 in base is dug about 7 1/2 in below finished grade.

Waste by pattern