A paver patio is really five separate orders stacked on top of each other: the gravel base, the bedding sand, the pavers, the joint sand, and the edge restraint. Get the square footage right and each layer falls out of it. This guide runs from paver counts to excavation, cost, and drainage — distilling the 100 questions DIYers and pros ask most into one readable pass.
Everything in a paver estimate keys off one number: the surface area. Pavers come in inches but your patio is measured in feet, so the trick is converting a single paver's face to square feet, then dividing the project area by it.
Project area itself is just geometry: a rectangle is length × width, a circle is π × r² (r = half the diameter), and any odd shape gets split into rectangles, triangles, and circle segments that you area-up separately and add. Metric works identically — divide total m² by one paver's m².
You don't need to redo the division for common sizes — the density is fixed. Pick your paver and multiply by area:
| Paver size | Face area | Pavers / sq ft |
|---|---|---|
| 4″ × 8″ (standard brick) | 32 sq in | 4.5 |
| 6″ × 6″ | 36 sq in | 4.0 |
| 6″ × 9″ | 54 sq in | 2.67 |
| 8″ × 8″ | 64 sq in | 2.25 |
| 12″ × 12″ | 144 sq in | 1.0 |
For metric, a 4×8 paver runs about 48–50 per square meter. Multi-piece combo sets (Bergerac, Dublin) and cobblestone formats are estimated by the pallet's total square footage rather than counting each stone.
A 10 × 10 patio = 100 sq ft × 4.5 = 450 pavers; with 10% waste, order 495. A 12 × 12 = 144 sq ft × 4.5 = 648; with 10% waste, order 713.
The compacted gravel base is the structural foundation — it spreads loads and drains water to prevent freeze-thaw heaving. Depth depends on what rolls over it:
| Use | Gravel base depth |
|---|---|
| Walkways & patios | 4″ |
| Driveways | 6–8″ (up to 12″ in heavy clay) |
The standard material is 3/4″-minus crushed stone (crusher run / ABC / road base), whose mix of angular stone and fines compacts tight. Calculate the volume, then apply two adjustments most people forget:
Loose gravel shrinks 20–25% under a plate compactor, so multiply your raw volume by 1.20–1.25 to still hit target depth after compaction. For maximum drainage you can use clean open-graded stone (like #57) instead, but it needs a landscape-fabric wrap and its own weight math. Our gravel calculator and crushed stone calculator cover the conversions.
Over the gravel goes a uniform 1-inch bedding layer of coarse, sharp washed concrete sand (ASTM C33) — it cushions and seats the pavers. Keep it at exactly one inch; a thicker bed lets pavers track and settle unevenly. Never substitute fine beach, play, or masonry sand (rounded grains wash out), and ICPI advises against stone screenings, which hold water and break down.
Screed it flat by resting 1″ pipes on the gravel and pulling a board across them. A final pass with the plate compactor over the finished pavers drives a little sand up into the joints — that small settling is normal and planned into the base elevation.
Polymeric sand fills the joints between pavers; misted with water, its polymer binders harden to lock stones together and block weeds and insects. Coverage depends on paver size and joint width:
| Paver type | Coverage per bag |
|---|---|
| Standard pavers, tight joints | 50–75 sq ft |
| Large-format pavers | up to 100 sq ft |
| Small bricks | 30–50 sq ft |
| Wide joints (over 1/4″) | 2–3× the sand (use wide-joint formula) |
To size it, divide area by an average coverage and round up — a 400 sq ft patio at 65 sq ft/bag is 400 ÷ 65 = 6.15 → 7 bags. Thinner pavers have shorter joints and need less. Sweep joints to about 1/8″ below the surface before misting; overfilling past the chamfer causes surface crusting. Regular sand works but washes out, and a joint-stabilizing sealer is the liquid alternative. Keep foot traffic off 24 hours and vehicles off 48–72 hours while it cures.
Edge restraint is the border that pins the perimeter so the outer pavers can't creep outward into the lawn. You estimate it by linear feet of exposed edge — sum every outer side that doesn't butt a wall or structure.
Perimeter = 20 + 20 + 15 + 15 = 70 linear feet. In 8-ft sections: 70 ÷ 8 = 8.75 → order 9 pieces. Plus spikes: one every 24″ on straight runs, every 12″ on curves.
Spikes are heavy 10″ steel pins driven through the edging into the base. As an alternative to plastic edging, a troweled concrete curb (a wedge of mix along the perimeter) is estimated by linear feet and bag count.
A waste factor covers stones broken in transit, trimmed at borders, or lost to mistakes. Pattern drives how much to add — anything that forces cuts along a boundary raises it:
| Layout | Waste factor |
|---|---|
| Straight running bond, rectangular | 5–10% |
| Curves, diagonals, winding borders | 12–15% |
| 45° herringbone | 15% |
| Rounded corners | 10–12% (subtract 0.215 × r² per corner) |
Round up to the nearest full pallet or half-cube (a pallet holds ~100–120 sq ft). It covers breakage and guarantees one color run — reordering risks a visibly different factory batch.
Excavation depth is the sum of your layers. For a standard 2-3/8″ paver on a 4″ base with a 1″ sand bed, you dig 7.375″. Then over-dig the footprint 6″ beyond the finished paver edges on all sides so the edge restraints have solid ground to anchor into.
At the bottom of the dig, lay non-woven structural geotextile fabric to keep subgrade soil from migrating up into the clean base — size it as your area plus 10–15% for 12″ seam overlaps and trench walls. Don't substitute thin weed barrier; it tears under compaction. Heavy-load projects add geogrid within the gravel to bridge soft soils. On sloped ground, the low side needs deeper base fill to reach a level setting surface, which bumps your gravel volume.
Total cost is your paver, sand, gravel, and edging quantities times local prices, plus delivery and tax.
| Item | Typical figure |
|---|---|
| Concrete pavers (material) | $3–$8 / sq ft ($10–$25+ for natural stone) |
| Installation labor | $10–$30 / sq ft |
| 300 sq ft patio build | 2–4 days, 3-person crew |
| Pallet (cube) | ~100–120 sq ft |
| Paver sealer | 150–250 sq ft per gallon per coat |
Essential DIY rentals: a commercial plate compactor (hand-tamping can't lock the aggregate, so the patio settles) and a diamond-blade wet saw for clean border cuts. A manual brick splitter handles quick rough cuts on running-bond fields.
Manual math and online calculators differ because tools fold in joint spacing and a baseline waste factor. Before ordering, re-run the area, confirm each layer, and cross-check against the supplier invoice. Two finishing essentials:
A flat patio pools water, so always pitch it away from structures. Efflorescence (a white bloom) is cosmetic and wears off; clean tire and dirt stains with a pH-balanced paver cleaner and a pressure rinse; and old pavers crush into recycled aggregate for future base. Note that calculators assume a clean excavation — large boulders or tree roots displacing material must be judged on site.