Paver & Patio Calculator (Pavers, Base Gravel & Sand)
One footprint, the whole buy list: how many pavers, plus cubic yards of compacted gravel base, 50-lb bags of bedding sand, polymeric joint sand and edge restraint — with optional cost. No login.
How this is calculated
One footprint drives the whole coupled stack. The paver count rounds up with a pattern-aware waste cushion; the gravel base, bedding sand, polymeric joint sand, and edge restraint all derive from the same patio area.
patio area (ft²):
lw mode = length_ft × width_ft
area mode = entered area
paver face area (ft²) = paver_L_in × paver_W_in / 144
total waste = pattern_waste + extra_waste
pavers = ceil( (area / paver_ft²) × (1 + waste) )
base / bedding volume (cu yd) = area × depth_in / 12 / 27
gravel tons (approx) = gravel_cu_yd × density
bedding bags (50-lb) = ceil( bedding_cu_yd × 54 )
(54 = 27 cu ft/cu yd ÷ 0.5 cu ft per bag)
polymeric joint sand (50-lb bags, range):
low = ceil( area / 85 ) high = ceil( area / 20 )
mid = ceil( area / coverage ) (coverage default 40 sq ft/bag)
(85 = best published narrow-joint coverage; 20 = worst wide-joint)
edge restraint (lw mode) = 2 × (length_ft + width_ft)
Pattern waste presets (stacked 2%, running 5%, basketweave 5%, herringbone
10%, diagonal 20%) and the preset paver sizes follow MiniWebtool and Inch
Calculator; the cubic-yard formula follows MiniWebtool / Omnicalculator.
Bedding bags assume a 50-lb bag holds about 0.5 cu ft — the
yield Sakrete publishes on its Leveling Sand data sheet — which works out to
54 × 50-lb bags per cubic yard. That reproduces Sakrete's own
printed table exactly at a 1 in sand depth (50 sq ft → 9 bags, 100 → 17,
200 → 34, 400 → 67). Polymeric joint sand is shown as a range because joint
width moves it about fourfold: the bracket runs from the best published
narrow-joint coverage for a 50-lb bag (about 85 sq ft) to the worst
published wide-joint coverage (about 20 sq ft), with the editable mid in
between. Base depths come from CMHA's construction Tech Note. Tax is
excluded.
A paver patio is four purchases stacked on one footprint, and the three under the pavers are the ones people get wrong. Over well-drained soil the published minimum is 4 in of compacted aggregate base beneath a patio and 6 in beneath a residential driveway, topped by a nominal 1 in screeded bedding layer, then joint sand. The calculator above turns your length and width into all four quantities at once: pavers, cubic yards of base, bags of bedding sand, and a polymeric joint-sand range.
How much gravel base does a paver patio need?
The base thickness numbers come from the Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association, the body ICPI merged into, in its Tech Note on constructing interlocking concrete pavements. Sidewalks, patios and pedestrian areas want a minimum of 4 in (100 mm) after compaction over well-drained soils; residential driveways want at least 6 in (150 mm); colder climates and continually wet or weak soils want it thicker again. Residential streets sit at 8 to 10 in (200 to 250 mm). Whatever the total, it goes down in 4 to 6 in (100 to 150 mm) lifts and each lift gets compacted — a single deep dump of stone is not a base.
Converting a depth into a delivery is one line of arithmetic: square feet times depth in inches, divided by 12, divided by 27.
| Footprint | 4 in patio base | 6 in driveway base |
|---|---|---|
| 100 sq ft | 1.23 cu yd | 1.85 cu yd |
| 150 sq ft | 1.85 cu yd | 2.78 cu yd |
| 200 sq ft | 2.47 cu yd | 3.70 cu yd |
| 300 sq ft | 3.70 cu yd | 5.56 cu yd |
| 400 sq ft | 4.94 cu yd | 7.41 cu yd |
| 600 sq ft | 7.41 cu yd | 11.11 cu yd |
Those are in-place compacted volumes, so order a cushion for compaction loss and spillage. If your yard sells by weight rather than volume, the tool converts with an editable density and the gravel and stone tonnage calculator carries a fuller material list — but the weight on your supplier’s ticket beats any density either page suggests.
How much bedding sand? The answer most calculators get wrong
CMHA is specific here too: bedding sand is spread and screeded to an uncompacted nominal 1 in (25 mm) thickness, and it is never used to fill depressions or to correct an out-of-tolerance base. That much is uncontroversial. The bag count is where calculators diverge, because a 50-lb bag of leveling sand does not hold a cubic foot. Sand runs near 100 lb per cubic foot, so 50 lb fills about half of one — Sakrete states the yield outright on its leveling-sand data sheet (“50 lb bag yields approximately .5 ft³”) and prints the bag counts that follow.
That gives a number worth memorizing: one 50-lb bag per 6 sq ft at 1 in, or 54 bags per cubic yard.
| Footprint at 1 in | Volume | 50-lb bags |
|---|---|---|
| 50 sq ft | 0.15 cu yd | 9 |
| 100 sq ft | 0.31 cu yd | 17 |
| 200 sq ft | 0.62 cu yd | 34 |
| 300 sq ft | 0.93 cu yd | 50 |
| 400 sq ft | 1.23 cu yd | 67 |
The 50, 100, 200 and 400 sq ft rows are Sakrete’s published figures, and this calculator reproduces all four exactly — that agreement is pinned by a unit test, so the constant cannot quietly drift. Past roughly 2 cubic yards the bags stop making sense anyway and bulk is cheaper; the bulk vs bagged material calculator finds the crossover for a given price pair.
One more thing worth naming out loud: the bedding material is coarse concrete sand to the ASTM C33 gradation (CSA A23.1 FA1 in Canada). CMHA’s guide specification bans the usual substitutes by name — not mason sand, not sand meeting ASTM C144, not limestone screenings or stone dust.
Polymeric joint sand is a range, not a number
Joint width moves polymeric coverage about fourfold, so a single “sq ft per bag” figure is false precision. Alliance Gator publishes its Gator Maxx G2 coverage as a grid, per 50-lb bag, on a 2-3/8 in paver:
| Product | Narrow joints 1/8–3/8 in | Wide joints 3/4–1-1/4 in |
|---|---|---|
| Gator Maxx G2 — Beige, Slate Grey, Ivory | 65–85 sq ft | 22–42 sq ft |
| Gator Maxx G2 — Black Diamond | 58–76 sq ft | 20–38 sq ft |
Sakrete’s PermaSand sheet gives a single line instead — 30 to 45 sq ft per 40-lb pail at a 1/4 in joint on a 2 in paver — with the caveat that coverage “varies considerably depending on size, shape and depth of paver.” The calculator brackets the whole published envelope and hands you an editable middle figure, defaulting to 40 sq ft per bag. Overwrite it with the number on your own bag and the mid line becomes the count to buy.
There is a compatibility trap hiding in those charts. CMHA wants joints between pavers held at 1/16 to 3/16 in (2 to 5 mm), which is what the spacer bars molded into most units enforce. Several polymeric products are specified wider than that: Sakrete’s minimum joint width is 1/4 in (6.4 mm), and Gator Maxx G2 asks for a minimum joint depth of 1-1/2 in. A tight, correctly-laid interlocking joint can therefore fall under a product’s own minimum. Check the bag against your joint before you buy a pallet of it.
Driveways: quantities yes, engineering no
Flipping the use case to Driveway moves the default base depth to 6 in and shows a warning, and that is the limit of what it does. Base thickness for anything carrying vehicles is determined by traffic, soil type, subgrade drainage and climate, and CMHA points at local, state or provincial engineering standards for streets rather than at a rule of thumb. This page will size the stone and the sand; it will not tell you the build is adequate for a vehicle load. Get a professional design for that.
That sand-jointed base is also why a paver drive needs re-sanding years later — UK operators pricing the maintenance side of the same surface, cleaning and re-sanding block paving, will find the jointing material driving that job too.
Where this sits in the landscape set
Hardscape jobs rarely stop at the patio. The retaining wall block calculator covers the courses and backfill when the patio needs a level terrace cut into a slope, and the topsoil and soil calculator handles the beds that go back in around the finished edge. Once the material list is settled, the landscaping estimate calculator wraps labor and margin around it, and the rest of the measurement set lives on the lawn and landscape tools hub.
Quantities are not a price. When the takeoff is done and you need the number that goes on the proposal, what to charge to build a paver patio adds excavation, base labor, cutting and margin to the same square footage, and the materials takeoff list carries the pallet, tonnage and sand rows from this page into one sheet the crew and the supplier can both read.
Everything here is an estimating aid. Yields, paver dimensions and coverage vary by supplier and by product, base depths are minimums rather than a design, and the quantities are worth checking against your own delivery tickets before you buy.
Frequently asked questions
How much gravel base do I need under a paver patio?
How many bags of bedding sand do I need for pavers?
How much polymeric sand does a 50-lb bag cover?
What kind of sand goes under pavers?
Can I use this to size a paver driveway base?
Sources
- Tech Note PAV-TEC-002 — Construction of Interlocking Concrete Pavements. Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association. Retrieved .
- Guide Spec PAV-GSP-011-21 — Pavers on Aggregate Base. Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association. Retrieved .
- Leveling Sand (Step 2) technical data sheet — bag yield and coverage table. Sakrete. Retrieved .
- Sakrete PermaSand Polymeric Jointing Sand — technical data sheet (coverage, minimum joint width). Sakrete. Retrieved .
- Gator Maxx G2 — published coverage by joint width. Alliance Gator. Retrieved .
- Paver Calculator. Inch Calculator. Retrieved .
- Paver Sand Calculator. Omni Calculator. Retrieved .
- Paver Calculator. MiniWebtool. Retrieved .