Three materials, one patio
A paver patio is a sandwich: pavers on top, an inch of bedding sand beneath them, and a compacted crushed-stone base under that — four inches for patios and walkways, more for driveways. This calculator counts all three layers from your area and paver size: the pavers themselves (with a waste allowance for the cuts every edge demands), the base gravel in cubic yards at a 4″ compacted depth, and the bedding sand in cubic yards at 1″.
A 4 × 8 paver covers 0.222 sq ft, so a square foot takes 4.5 of them. Depths are the standard patio build-up; driveways typically want a 6–8″ base — scale the gravel figure accordingly.
Worked example
A 100 sq ft patio in 4 × 8 pavers: 100 × 4.5 = 450 pavers before waste, 495 with the default 10% for cuts and breakage. Underneath go about 1.23 cubic yards of base gravel (4″) and 0.31 cubic yards of bedding sand (1″).
How to use this calculator
- Enter the length and width of the area — or type the square footage directly if you've already measured it.
- Pick your paver size. Patterns like herringbone cut more edges: keep waste at 10% or raise it to 15%.
- Order pavers by the with-waste figure; gravel and sand by the cubic yard (suppliers round to the nearest half yard).
- Cross-check bulk materials with the Cubic Yards and Gravel calculators.
What the count assumes
Pavers are counted tight-laid with no gap; sand-set joints consume joint sand (a 50 lb bag covers roughly 100 sq ft of standard pavers), which is separate from the bedding layer. Edge restraints, a compactor rental and geotextile fabric for soft soils are the usual extras a first patio forgets — none change the three numbers above.