Paver Calculator

Picture a 12 by 12 foot square roped off in the backyard, 144 square feet of dirt that wants to become a patio. Here is how the material list for that one box lands on a receipt, layer by layer, so you can drive to the yard once instead of three times.

Mark the box first

You already know the rectangle runs 12 ft by 12 ft, which is 144 sq ft of surface to cover. If your real shape is an L, a pad with a curved edge, or a walkway off to the side, break it into rectangles and add them up before you type anything in. A patio that measures itself in a hurry is the same patio that runs out of pavers on a Saturday.

Choose the paver size

Three sizes do most residential work. The 12x12 paver covers one full square foot per piece and snaps into a clean grid. The 4x8 brick covers about half a square foot and bends around curves. The 18x18 slab covers roughly 2.25 sq ft each, so you set far fewer pieces but waste more on cuts at the edge. For a plain 12 by 12 patio, the 12x12 stone lines up with the box on every side and leaves the fewest half-pavers.

Count the pavers

Fourteen-four square feet covered by 12x12 pavers lands at 144 pieces on the number. Add 10 percent waste for the half-pavers you cut at the borders and the one or two stones you crack on the first day, and you are ordering about 160 pavers. That is almost exactly one full pallet, because a pallet of 12x12 stone runs around 160 pieces and weighs near 3000 lb. If you had chosen 4x8 brick instead, the same 144 sq ft would need close to 290 pieces, which is nearly two pallets and a lot more cutting.

Dig the base

The part nobody sees is the part that fails projects. Dig out about 7 inches of soil across the whole box. Fill 4 inches of that hole with crushed gravel and compact it in two lifts of 2 inches each. That 4 inch compacted base over 144 sq ft is about 1.8 cu yd of gravel. A patio that sees only feet stops at 4 inches; a driveway that sees cars goes to 6 inches and adds another half yard of stone. Rent the plate compactor for a half day, because hand-tamped gravel settles the first winter.

Screed the sand

On top of the compacted gravel goes 1 inch of coarse bedding sand. This layer is not structural. It is the leveling bed you tap each paver into with a rubber mallet. A 1 inch sand layer over 144 sq ft is under half a cubic yard, which works out to roughly 10 bags if you buy it by the bag rather than by the truckload. Screed it off two straight pipes, lay the pavers, and never walk on the sand bed before the stones are down.

Write the order

Stack the list and it looks like this. About 160 pavers on one pallet, 1.8 cu yd of crushed gravel for the base, 10 bags of bedding sand, a roll of edge restraint along the exposed border, and one bag of polymeric sand to sweep into the joints at the end. Bring home a little extra gravel sand than the number says, because the trench always ends up deeper than you planned.

A patio sits flat for ten years when the 4 inch base is compacted, the 1 inch sand is level, and the paver count covers the waste. Skip any one of those three and you will be digging it back up before the next frost.

12 by 12 ft patio with 12x12 pavers, 4 in base and 1 in sand lands near 160 pavers on about one pallet.