Paver Calculator
Pavers, base and bedding sand for a patio — with the cutting waste your pattern actually costs.
Updated
From the bag. Leave at 0 to skip the bag count.
Pavers to buy
681pavers
144 sq ft at 4.50 per sq ft, plus cutting waste
- Area
- 144 sq ft
- Pavers before waste
- 648
- Extra for cuts
- +33
- Compacted base
- 2.04 yd³
- Base by weight
- 2.86 tons
- Bedding sand
- 0.44 yd³
- Bedding by weight
- 0.62 tons
The base figure is material for the depth you set, not a recommendation. CMHA gives 4 to 6 in. for walks and 6 to 8 in. for driveways over well-drained soils — clay, poor drainage and frost all change it, and your supplier and building department decide, not this panel. Base volume already includes 15% for compaction; bedding sand is screeded, so it does not.
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In short
How many pavers do I need?
Divide the area by one paver, then add waste for cuts. A 12 by 12 ft patio is 144 sq ft, and 4 by 8 in pavers lay 4.5 to the square foot — 648 before waste, 681 buying at the 5 percent a running bond costs. The same patio in 45-degree herringbone takes 746.
Pattern moves the paver count and nothing else. The base and the bedding sand under them do not care how you lay the top.
How to use the paver calculator
Enter the patio size, the paver off the shelf and the pattern, and the panel returns the paver count with cutting waste already in it, plus the base and bedding sand underneath. On the defaults that is 681 pavers over 2.04 cubic yards of base.
681
Pavers to buy
648 for the area, 33 for cuts
4.50
Pavers per sq ft
a 4 by 8 in paver is 32 sq in
2.04 yd³
Compacted base
2.86 tons at 1.4 t/yd³
The pattern is a material decision, not just a look
A running bond cuts pavers only along two edges. Herringbone cuts them along all four, and a 45-degree herringbone cuts every one of them at an angle, which is why the allowance climbs. On the same 144 sq ft the difference is 65 pavers between the cheapest pattern and the dearest.
Read it: The area needs 648 pavers. Everything above that is the pattern paying for its own edges.
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Paver size changes the count, never the area
The square footage does not move when you change paver, but the number of pieces does — dramatically. The same patio is 681 small pavers or 152 slabs, and that is 529 fewer things to place, level and cut.
Ordering the base separately?
The gravel calculator does the same volume arithmetic for any depth and density, and quotes it in the cubic yards and tons a quarry actually sells by.
Open the gravel calculator →Do
- Measure the paved surface, then dig the base wider than it on every side.
- Buy the whole order at once so every paver comes from the same production run.
- Keep the leftovers; a cracked paver three years on has no matching replacement otherwise.
- Take the base depth from your supplier or building department, who can see your soil.
- Screed the bedding sand to a consistent depth rather than using it to fix a bad base.
Don't
- Read the base figure here as a recommendation for your site. It is material for the depth you typed.
- Use bedding sand to level out an uneven base — CMHA says plainly not to, and it will rut.
- Order pattern waste as an afterthought; a 45-degree layout needs it before delivery, not after.
- Assume the compaction allowance covers a soft subgrade. It covers compaction, nothing else.
- Skip the joint sand figure because the bag was not to hand — the panel will count it once you enter the coverage.
Pavers per square foot by nominal size, with the count for the 12 by 12 ft default patio before and after a 5 percent running-bond allowance. Face area is the nominal size, not the laid size — a sand joint takes up the difference.
| Nominal size | Face area | Pavers per sq ft | 144 sq ft, no waste | Buying at 5% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 × 8 in | 32 sq in | 4.50 | 648 | 681 |
| 6 × 6 in | 36 sq in | 4.00 | 576 | 605 |
| 6 × 9 in | 54 sq in | 2.67 | 384 | 404 |
| 8 × 8 in | 64 sq in | 2.25 | 324 | 341 |
| 12 × 12 in | 144 sq in | 1.00 | 144 | 152 |
The two layers under the pavers, and why only one is compacted
A paver patio is three layers, and the arithmetic differs for each. The pavers are counted, the base is compacted, and the bedding sand between them is screeded and left alone. Confusing the last two is the most common ordering mistake.
“Minimum aggregate base thickness for walks should be 4 to 6 in. (100 to 150 mm), driveways 6 to 8 in. (150 to 200 mm)”
Those are minimums, and the conditions matter more than the numbers. They assume well-drained soil. Clay holds water, frost lifts what water leaves behind, and a driveway carries loads a patio never sees. Which of those apply to your garden is not a question a calculator can answer.
- 4 in. base — walks minimum
- 2.04 yd³ · 2.86 tons
- 6 in. base
- 3.07 yd³ · 4.29 tons
- 8 in. base — driveways maximum
- 4.09 yd³ · 5.72 tons
- 1 in. bedding sand, screeded
- 0.44 yd³ · 0.62 tons
Base volumes carry a 15 percent compaction allowance, because you buy loose material and finish at a compacted depth. Bedding sand does not, since it is screeded and left uncompacted until the pavers go on.
How many pavers cover a square foot
A paver is sold by its nominal face size in inches, and the count per square foot is just 144 divided by that face area. The ratio is worth knowing because it is the fastest sanity check on any quote or delivery.
- 4 × 8 in — 4.50 per sq ft
- 681 pavers
- 6 × 6 in — 4.00 per sq ft
- 605 pavers
- 6 × 9 in — 2.67 per sq ft
- 404 pavers
- 8 × 8 in — 2.25 per sq ft
- 341 pavers
- 12 × 12 in — 1.00 per sq ft
- 152 pavers
- Between smallest and largest
- 529 fewer pieces
All five cover the same ground and all five carry the same 5 percent running-bond waste. Only the number of pieces, and the hours of setting them, changes.
The 12 by 12 in slab is the one to hold in your head: one per square foot, so the count and the square footage are the same number. Every other size is that ratio scaled by the face area.
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Full guide
How Many Pavers Do I Need? Pavers, Base, Bedding and Joint Sand
Four quantities come out of one measurement, and the paver count is the easy one — the base is where a patio is usually ordered short.
Read the full guide →The formula, worked line by line
Three independent calculations share one area. The pavers come from the face size and the pattern, the base from the depth and a compaction allowance, and the bedding from the depth alone.
Only the paver line carries waste. Cutting a paver wastes a paver; it does not waste the gravel underneath, which is why adding a diagonal pattern changes one number on the panel and leaves the other four alone.
area = length × width
paver sq ft = (width in × length in) ÷ 144
per sq ft = 1 ÷ paver sq ft
order area = area × (1 + waste ÷ 100)
pavers = ceil(order area ÷ paver sq ft)
base yd³ = area × (base in ÷ 12) × 1.15 ÷ 27
bedding yd³ = area × (bedding in ÷ 12) ÷ 27
tons = yd³ × density- Area
- 12 × 12 = 144 sq ft
- Paver face
- 4 × 8 = 32 sq in = 0.2222 sq ft
- Pavers per sq ft
- 144 ÷ 32 = 4.50
- Order area at 5%
- 144 × 1.05 = 151.2 sq ft
- Pavers
- 151.2 ÷ 0.2222 = 680.4 → 681
- Base at 4 in.
- 144 × 0.333 × 1.15 ÷ 27 = 2.04 yd³
- Buy
- 681 pavers, 2.86 tons of base
The 1.15 on the base line is compaction: you order loose stone and finish at a compacted depth, so the delivery is larger than the hole. The bedding line has no such factor because screeded sand is not compacted before the pavers go down.
Every count rounds up to a whole paver and every bag rounds up to a whole bag, because suppliers do not sell fractions and a short order stops the job. The volumes are left unrounded so you can compare them against a quote.
Joint sand is only counted when you enter the coverage from the bag. It swings with joint width and paver thickness, and there is no single honest figure for it, so the tool asks rather than assumes.
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Questions people ask
How many pavers do I need for a 12x12 patio?
A 12 by 12 ft patio is 144 square feet. With the common 4 by 8 in paver, which lays 4.5 to the square foot, that is 648 pavers for the bare area and 681 to buy once you add the 5 percent a running bond wastes on cuts. In 45-degree herringbone the same patio takes 746. Change the paver to a 12 by 12 in slab and the count drops to 152, because one slab covers one square foot exactly.
Covered in depth in How Many Pavers Do I Need? Pavers, Base, Bedding and Joint Sand →
How many pavers are in a square foot?
Divide 144 by the face area of the paver in square inches. A 4 by 8 in paver is 32 sq in, so 144 ÷ 32 = 4.5 per square foot. A 6 by 6 is 4, a 6 by 9 is 2.67, an 8 by 8 is 2.25, and a 12 by 12 is exactly 1. Those are nominal sizes — the sand joint between pavers takes up the small difference between nominal and laid, which is why the ratio holds in practice.
How deep should the base be under pavers?
CMHA gives minimum aggregate base thickness as 4 to 6 in. for walks and 6 to 8 in. for driveways, and those figures assume well-drained soil. Clay, poor drainage and frost depth all push it deeper, and a driveway carries loads a patio never does. This calculator takes the depth as an input and returns the material for it; what your site actually needs is a question for your supplier and your building department, not a website.
How much waste should I add for pavers?
It depends on how many edge pavers get cut. About 5 percent for a running bond on a rectangular field, 10 percent for 90-degree herringbone, and 15 percent for a 45-degree herringbone where every border paver is cut at an angle. On a 144 sq ft patio that is 33, 65 and 98 extra pavers respectively. Curved edges and obstacles push it higher still, so treat those as floors rather than allowances.
Do I need bedding sand and base gravel, or just one?
Both, and they do different jobs. The compacted aggregate base carries the load and is the layer whose depth matters; the bedding sand is a thin screeded course, 1 to 1.5 in., that the pavers set into. CMHA is explicit that bedding sand must not be used to level out an uneven base — a thick patch compacts more than the sand around it and the dip reappears through the surface within a season.
Sources
Where the constants and formulas on this page come from. Each line names the figure it backs.
The 4 to 6 in. minimum aggregate base for walks, 6 to 8 in. for driveways, the 1 to 1.5 in. screeded bedding course, and that bedding sand must not compensate for an uneven base.
Tech Spec 10 — Application Guide for Interlocking Concrete Pavements — Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association, August 2026
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