Paver Patio Material Calculator
Calculate every material for a paver patio or walkway — how many pavers (with pattern waste) plus the gravel base and bedding sand in cubic yards and tons.
Planning a paver patio or walkway? This gives you the whole materials list — how many pavers (with waste for cuts), plus the gravel base and bedding sand underneath, in cubic yards and tons. Enter the project below.
Patio / walkway area
The surface you're paving, in square feet — length × width. For an L-shape or a path with sections, add the pieces together.
Paver size
Pick a common size or choose Custom to enter your own.
Laying pattern
How the pavers are laid. Patterns with more angled cuts at the edges waste more, so they raise the default allowance.
Waste allowance
Extra pavers for cuts, breakage, and future repairs. The pattern sets a sensible default; raise it for a curved or cut-heavy layout.
Gravel base depth
Compacted crushed-stone base under the pavers. About 4 inches for patios and walkways (foot traffic); 6–8 inches for driveways and anything bearing vehicles.
Bedding sand depth
The leveling sand layer the pavers sit on — typically about 1 inch.
Pavers to Buy
560
for 200 sq ft + 5% waste
Before you order
Buy all your pavers in one order from the same shade lot — color varies between production batches — and keep a few spares for future repairs. Your 4-inch base is sized for foot traffic (patio/walkway); step up to 6+ inches for a driveway. Note that polymeric joint sand and edge restraints are separate materials this estimate doesn't include.
Paver counts include your waste allowance and round up. Base gravel and bedding sand include about a 10% overage for compaction and leveling, with weights based on roughly 1.4 tons per cubic yard for crushed stone and 1.35 for sand — bulk material is usually sold by the cubic yard or ton. This doesn't include the polymeric joint sand swept between pavers, plastic edge restraints, or geotextile fabric. Compacted base and sand depths are set by use and local practice; confirm requirements for driveways.
💡About this calculator▼
A paver patio isn't one material, it's three stacked layers — and shorting any of them means a return trip to the yard or, worse, a patio that heaves and sinks. This calculator builds the whole shopping list at once: the pavers on top, the bedding sand they sit in, and the compacted gravel base that does the real work underneath.
Enter your patio or walkway area and paver size, pick your laying pattern, and set how deep your base and sand layers are. You'll get the number of pavers to buy — including waste for cuts and breakage — plus the gravel base and bedding sand in both cubic yards and tons, since bulk material is sold either way.
The base layer is where most DIY paver projects succeed or fail, so the calculator sizes it for you and reminds you when it needs to be deeper (a patio and a driveway are not the same job). It also flags the easy-to-forget details — buying pavers from a single shade lot, and the joint sand and edging that finish the install.
The calculator works out each of the three layers separately, then reports them together.
For pavers, it divides your area by the area of a single paver to get the base count, then adds a waste allowance for the cuts and breakage every job produces. The laying pattern drives that waste: a simple running bond wastes the least (about 5%), while herringbone and diagonal or circular layouts create more angled edge cuts and waste more (roughly 10–15%). You can adjust the percentage for a curvy or especially cut-heavy design. The count rounds up to whole pavers.
For the gravel base and bedding sand, it multiplies your area by each layer's depth to get a volume, then adds about a 10% overage. That overage matters: gravel compacts as you tamp it, so you need to start with more loose material than the finished depth, and sand is always over-ordered a little for leveling. It converts each volume to cubic yards (dividing by 27) and to tons, using typical densities of about 1.4 tons per cubic yard for crushed-stone base and 1.35 for sand — so you can order whichever way your supplier sells.
The base depth is the one input worth getting right: about 4 inches of compacted base is standard for patios and walkways, while driveways and anything carrying vehicle weight need 6 to 8 inches. The exact formulas and a worked example are below.
📐How it's calculated▼
The estimate sizes three layers — pavers, gravel base, and bedding sand.
Pavers: Paver area (sq ft) = (Length × Width) ÷ 144 Pavers = (Area ÷ Paver area) × (1 + Waste % ÷ 100), rounded up
Gravel base & bedding sand (each): Volume (cu ft) = Area × (Depth ÷ 12) × 1.10 (the 10% is compaction + leveling overage) Cubic yards = Volume ÷ 27 Tons = Cubic yards × density (≈ 1.4 for gravel, 1.35 for sand)
Example: A 200 sq ft patio, 6 × 9 in pavers, running bond (5% waste), 4 in base, 1 in sand
→ Paver area: (6 × 9) ÷ 144 = 0.375 sq ft
→ Pavers: (200 ÷ 0.375) × 1.05 = 560
→ Base gravel: 200 × (4 ÷ 12) × 1.10 = 73.3 cu ft → 2.7 cu yd (~3.8 tons)
→ Bedding sand: 200 × (1 ÷ 12) × 1.10 = 18.3 cu ft → 0.7 cu yd (~0.9 tons)
So a 200-square-foot patio needs about 560 pavers, just under 3 yards of base gravel, and around three-quarters of a yard of sand.
📎Source: Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute (ICPI) — Installation Guidelines
🔍Finding your inputs▼
Patio / walkway area: The surface you're paving, in square feet (length × width). Break an L-shaped patio or a path with turns into rectangles and add them. Measure the actual paved surface; you'll cut pavers to fit the edges, and the waste allowance covers those cuts.
Paver size: Pick a common size or enter a custom one in inches. This drives the paver count directly. Use the real paver dimensions — a "6×9" Holland paver is the most common, but brick pavers (4×8) and large-format slabs (12×12, 12×24) all behave differently per square foot.
Laying pattern: How the pavers are arranged. Running bond (offset rows) is the simplest and most efficient. Herringbone is stronger and popular for driveways but needs more cuts. Diagonal and circular layouts look great but waste the most material at the edges. The pattern sets a default waste percentage you can override.
Waste allowance: Extra pavers beyond the bare area, for cuts, breakage, and a few spares for future repairs. The default follows your pattern (about 5/10/15%); raise it for curves, lots of obstacles, or a small cut-heavy area. Keeping leftover pavers from the same batch is the only reliable way to match a broken one later.
Gravel base depth: The compacted crushed-stone layer under everything — and the most important one for a patio that lasts. Use about 4 inches for patios and walkways that only see foot traffic, and 6 to 8 inches for driveways or anywhere vehicles drive or park. This is the compacted (finished) depth; the calculator adds material for compaction automatically.
Bedding sand depth: The thin leveling layer of coarse sand the pavers are set into, screeded smooth before laying. About 1 inch is standard — resist going thicker, since a deep sand layer lets pavers shift and rut over time.
⚠️Special situations▼
I'm building a driveway, not a patio
A driveway carries vehicle weight, so the base does far more work. Set the gravel base depth to 6–8 inches (some codes and soils want more), compacted in lifts, rather than the 4 inches that suffices for a patio. Herringbone is the preferred pattern for driveways because it interlocks and resists the twisting force of tires better than running bond. Everything else works the same, but don't shortcut the base — a thin base under a driveway is the classic cause of ruts and sunken pavers.
My patio is curved or has a circular design
Curves and circular kits generate a lot of edge cuts, so raise the waste allowance — 15% or more is reasonable for a heavily curved or circular layout, versus 5% for a straight running bond. For the area itself, approximate a curved patio as the rectangle that encloses it, or break it into a rectangle plus a half-circle and add them. It's better to slightly over-order pavers from the same batch than to run short on an intricate design where matching later is hard.
How deep should my gravel base be?
About 4 inches of compacted crushed stone is the standard for patios, walkways, and other foot-traffic surfaces. Go to 6 inches for a driveway, and 8 or more for heavy vehicles or poor, clay-heavy soil that drains badly. Always compact the base in 2–3 inch lifts rather than all at once, and slope it slightly (about 1 inch per 4 feet) for drainage. The calculator already adds material for compaction, but if your soil is soft you may want geotextile fabric and a deeper base.
What about the sand between the pavers?
That's joint sand, and it's different from the bedding sand this calculator sizes. Bedding sand is the 1-inch leveling layer the pavers sit on; joint sand (ideally polymeric sand) is swept into the gaps after laying to lock the pavers together and discourage weeds and ants. Joint-sand coverage depends on your joint width and paver thickness, but as a rough guide a bag covers somewhere around 50–100 square feet. Budget for it separately — it's a small cost that makes a big difference in how the patio holds up.
Do I need edge restraints?
Yes — almost always. Without a restraint around the perimeter, the outer pavers gradually spread outward and the whole field loosens and shifts. Plastic paver edging spiked into the base is the common solution, and concrete edging or a soldier course set in mortar also works. It's inexpensive and easy to forget, but skipping it undoes the careful base work over a season or two. This calculator doesn't include edging; measure your perimeter (in linear feet) and buy restraint to match.
❓Common questions▼
How many pavers do I need?
Divide your patio area by the area of one paver, then add waste for cuts. A 6×9-inch Holland paver covers 0.375 square feet, so a 200-square-foot patio needs about 534 pavers, or roughly 560 with a 5% running-bond waste allowance. Patterns with more cuts — herringbone, diagonal, circular — need 10–15%. Enter your area, paver size, and pattern above and the calculator counts them, plus the base gravel and sand underneath.
How much gravel and sand do I need under pavers?
Multiply your area by the layer depth, convert to cubic yards (divide cubic feet by 27), and add about 10% for compaction. A typical patio uses 4 inches of compacted gravel base and 1 inch of bedding sand — for 200 square feet, that's roughly 2.7 cubic yards of base gravel and 0.7 of sand. Driveways need a deeper base (6–8 inches). The calculator gives both layers in cubic yards and tons so you can order however your supplier sells.
How thick should the base be for a paver patio vs a driveway?
About 4 inches of compacted crushed-stone base is standard for patios and walkways that only carry foot traffic. Driveways and any surface bearing vehicle weight need 6 to 8 inches, compacted in layers, and more in soft or clay soil. The base is the single most important part of a lasting paver installation — most failures (rutting, sinking, heaving) trace back to a base that was too thin or poorly compacted, not to the pavers themselves.
Should I buy extra pavers?
Yes — order a little beyond the calculated amount, all in one purchase. Cuts and breakage consume some, and the leftovers become irreplaceable spares: paver color is batched by production lot, so a pallet bought later can be a noticeably different shade and won't match a repair. A 5% allowance covers a simple running bond; bump it to 10–15% for herringbone, diagonal, or curved layouts with many cuts.
What is the difference between bedding sand and joint sand?
Bedding sand is the roughly 1-inch layer of coarse sand the pavers are set into and leveled on — that's what this calculator sizes. Joint sand is swept into the gaps between pavers after they're laid; polymeric joint sand is best, since it hardens to lock the pavers and resist weeds and ants. They're different products bought separately. Don't substitute one for the other — fine bedding sand in the joints washes out, and joint sand doesn't screed well as a base.