Paver Calculator

Divide your area by the face area of one paver. A 4 × 8 inch paver covers 32 square inches, which is 0.222 sq ft, so a 200 sq ft patio needs about 900 of them.

Then add a cut allowance. Straight running bond against square edges wastes about 5%. A 45-degree herringbone, or any design with curves or circular features, wastes 10 to 15%, every angled cut leaves an offcut too small to reuse.

The pavers are the part you see; the base is the part that decides whether the patio is still flat in five years. Base depth is set by what will travel across it and by how well the soil drains.

Foot traffic on well-draining soil needs 4 inches of compacted aggregate. Patios over clay want 6. Driveways need 8 to 12, and 12 is right in hard-freeze regions.

Compact the base in 2-inch lifts with a plate compactor. Dumping 6 inches and compacting once leaves the bottom half loose, and it will consolidate under load later, which is what produces a dished patio.

Bedding sand is screeded to exactly 1 inch. Not 2, not 3, and never used to level out a poorly prepared base.

Sand does not compact into a stable layer, it keeps consolidating under load. A thick sand bed is the most common reason a new paver patio develops waves within a season. Get the base flat, then screed a true inch of coarse concrete sand over it.

Joints get polymeric sand, swept in and then activated with a light misting. It hardens enough to lock the pavers and resist weeds and ants, while staying flexible enough to move with frost.