How many pavers do I need?

Pattern decides your waste, not the patio

The paver count itself is simple arithmetic. Work out the patio area in square feet, work out how much area one paver covers, divide one by the other. A 9 by 6 inch paver covers 54 square inches, which is 0.375 ft², so a 120 ft² patio needs 320 of them before any allowance.

What actually moves the number is the pattern. A running bond or stack bond only cuts pavers along two edges, and a 10% allowance covers it comfortably. Herringbone meets every edge at 45 degrees, so the entire perimeter becomes cut pieces and the offcuts are mostly unusable — plan on 15%. Circular and fan patterns can push past 20%.

The bedding sand figure here is the 1 inch setting layer that goes directly under the pavers, screeded flat. It is not the base. Under that you need 4 to 6 inches of compacted crushed stone for a patio and 8 to 12 inches for anything a car drives on — that is a separate calculation, and our gravel calculator handles it.

One practical note: buy the whole job in one delivery. Pavers are cured in batches and the colour shifts between them, in the same way tile does between dye lots. A pallet bought three weeks later will not match, and on a patio that difference is impossible to hide.

A worked example: a herringbone patio

A 12 × 16 foot patio is 192 ft². In a herringbone pattern with classic 4 × 8 inch brick pavers (0.222 ft² each) and 15% waste, that is 994 pavers. The same patio in running bond with 10% waste would need 951.

The pavers are the visible part. Under them, for a patio:

• Base: 4 to 6 inches of compacted crushed stone. At 6 inches, that is 96 cubic feet, about 3.56 cubic yards or 5.0 tons. The gravel calculator does this part.
• Bedding sand: a 1-inch screeded layer, 16 cubic feet or about 0.6 cubic yards here.
• Edge restraint: plastic, aluminum or concrete edging around every edge that is not against a wall, which here is up to 56 feet.
• Joint sand: polymeric sand swept into the joints. Coverage depends on the joint width and paver size, so use the chart on the bag.

Pavers per 100 square feet

Mistakes that make pavers sink or shift

• Thin or uncompacted base. Nearly every sunken paver patio traces back to the base. Compact it in 2-inch layers until it does not move under your feet.
• Using sand as the base. Sand is only the thin bedding layer. On its own, it washes out and the pavers sink.
• No slope. Build the patio with a slight slope away from the house, commonly about 1/8 to 1/4 inch per foot, so water drains off.
• Skipping edge restraint. Without it, the outer pavers creep outward and the pattern opens up.

What it costs

Concrete pavers commonly cost about $2 to $6 per square foot in the US, and natural stone more. For the 192 ft² patio with waste, that is roughly $442 to $1325 in pavers, before base stone, sand, edging and a plate compactor rental. Prices vary widely by style and region.