Paver calculator

Q: How many pavers do I need for a 10x10 patio?

**473** of the common 4 x 8 size: 100 sq ft at 4.5 per sq ft is 450, plus 5% for cuts. At 12 x 12 it is 105. Order everything at once — concrete pavers are produced in batches and the colour shifts between them, so a top-up delivery rarely matches.

Q: How much does a paver patio weigh?

A 60 mm paver runs about **28 lb per square foot**, so a 10 x 10 patio is roughly 1.4 tons of stone, and the base under it another 2.8 tons. That figure comes from published pallet data — 480 pieces at about 2,884 lb — and it is worth checking against your vehicle before you plan to haul it yourself.

Enter the patio size and the paver you are buying. You get the paver count and the aggregate base, which outweighs the pavers themselves and has to be dug wider than the patio.

Patio length Patio width Paver length Use the module size — the paver plus its joint. A "4x8" brick is 8 x 4 here. If the spec sheet gives pallet coverage instead, use that (see below); it runs a few percent higher. Paver width Square pavers: enter the same number twice. 12 x 12 gives 1 per sq ft, 6 x 6 gives 4. Paver thickness Only affects the weight figure. 60 mm is what big-box stores stock; 80 mm is required where cars drive. Extra for cuts and breakage % 5% for running bond, 10% for 90° herringbone, 10-15% for anything laid at 45°, where every border cut leaves an offcut you cannot reuse. Aggregate base depth, compacted ICPI/CMHA minimum after compaction: 4 in for patios and walks over well-drained soil, 6 in for a residential driveway, more over clay or in hard-freeze regions. Base extends past the paver edge CMHA Tech Spec 3 wants the base to run past the edge restraint by at least its own thickness. Set 0 to see the paved area alone. Base compaction allowance Loose crushed stone loses about a fifth of its volume under the plate. Order the finished depth and you run short.

Pavers to buy 473 pavers Includes the waste allowance, rounded up. Buy them in one delivery — colour varies between production batches.

Pavers per square foot 4.5 per sq ft

Base gravel to order 1.87 cu yd Loose volume, compaction allowance included.

Base gravel by weight 2.75 tons At 2,950 lb/cu yd for crusher run. Ask your quarry for its own figure — that is what the ticket is priced on.

Area to excavate 121 sq ft Larger than the patio, because the base has to run past the edge restraint.

Bedding sand volume 8.3 cu ft A nominal 1 in screeded bed. For bag counts and joint sand, use the [paver sand calculator](/calculators/paver-sand).

Weight of the pavers 2,793 lb The patio as designed, before the waste allowance. Paver concrete is about 142 lb/cu ft.

How the count is worked out

Pavers per square foot is 144 divided by the paver's area in square inches. A 4 x 8 module is 32 sq in, so 4.5 pavers per square foot. A 10 ft x 10 ft patio is 450 pavers before waste, 473 with 5% for cuts.

Nominal or actual size? Neither answer is always right

The usual advice is to ignore the nominal size and divide by the real one. That advice is wrong about half the time, and here is why.

Pavestone's 60 mm Holland stone actually measures 7.87 x 3.94 in (200 x 100 mm). The ICPI/CMHA construction specification calls for joints between 1/16 and 3/16 in (2–5 mm) wide, and 7.87 in plus a 3 mm joint is 7.99 in — the stone is designed so that unit plus joint fills an 8 x 4 in module. Divide by the module and you get 4.5/sq ft, which is correct for the laid pavement.

Divide by the bare face instead and you get 4.66/sq ft. That is also a real number: it is what the pallet label says, because 480 pieces covering 103 sq ft counts face area with no joint allowance. It is the more conservative order by about 3.5%.

So: use whichever figure your product sheet gives you — published coverage, or actual dimensions plus your joint width. Do not apply a blanket "always use the actual size" rule, and do not mix the two.

The related myth is that certain patio dimensions force cuts. They don't, by themselves — 12 ft is 144 in, which divides evenly by both 4 and 8. Cuts come from the pattern: a 45° layout or herringbone leaves a triangular offcut at every border that cannot be turned around and used on the other side, which is why those patterns need 10–15% instead of 5%.

The base is the bigger material order

Weigh a 10 x 10 patio: the 60 mm pavers come to about 1.4 tons, and the 4 in compacted base under them is about 2.8 tons. A paver count on its own is therefore not the material list — the heavier half of the order is the part you never see. Two things drive the base number:

Compaction. Loose crushed stone carries 35–40% air voids and compacts to 20–25%, so a dense-graded base is ordered about 25% over the finished volume. Place it in lifts, not one deep layer.
Extent. CMHA Tech Spec 3 states that "the base should extend beyond the restraint at least the same dimension as the thickness of the base material." For a 10 x 10 patio, adding 6 in on each side means excavating 121 sq ft, not 100 — a 21% jump. Skimp on it and the edge restraint spikes sit in soil, the perimeter drops, and the whole field walks outwards.

The same Tech Spec is blunt on two related points: edge restraints must never be installed on top of the bedding sand, and soil backfill is never a suitable edge restraint.

What this leaves to other pages

Bedding sand is quoted here as a volume only — the paver sand calculator does bags, and joint sand by joint width. Base depth minimums are ICPI/CMHA: 4 in compacted for patios and walkways over well-drained soil, 6 in for a residential driveway, and 80 mm pavers rather than 60 mm wherever a vehicle will drive.

What the paver count does not know

The count is a density spread over a rectangle. That is enough for most patios and wrong for these:

One paver size, one shape. A random or modular pattern sold as a set of three sizes, a circle kit, or a fan pattern cannot be described by a single module — those come with the manufacturer's own coverage per bundle, and that is the figure to buy from. A curved or L-shaped patio has to be split into rectangles.
Borders are usually a different paver. A soldier course round the edge, a contrasting band, or a step tread is a separate size bought separately. Nothing here separates the field from the edge.
The pattern only reaches the answer through the waste percentage. The count itself is the same for herringbone and running bond; the allowance you set is the entire model of how many offcuts a pattern throws away. It is a convention, not a cutting plan.
The base assumes one depth over flat, well-drained soil. A patio has to fall away from the house, so the excavation is deeper at one end than the other. Over clay or in a hard-freeze region the base gets thicker — and the geotextile that keeps the stone out of a soft subgrade is not in these figures at all. Neither is any allowance for a subgrade that digs out uneven.
The base is added on all four sides. The overhang runs past every edge of the rectangle, which is right for a free-standing patio and generous where the paving stops against the house, a step or an existing slab — there is no edge restraint to protect there, so nothing has to run past it. Take those sides off by hand rather than trusting the excavation figure.
The bedding sand is a flat nominal inch over the paved area. It does not respond to the base depth, the joint width or the paver thickness, it stops at the paving rather than following the excavation, and it deliberately carries no waste allowance. Bags, screeding losses and joint sand are on the paver sand calculator.
The paver weight uses a density we back-solved. 142 lb/cu ft is not a published figure: it comes from dividing out one product's pallet data — 480 Holland stones covering 103 sq ft at about 2,884 lb. Concrete pavers vary by mix and by plant, so treat the weight as good enough to decide whether your trailer copes, and take the real figure off the pallet tag before anything depends on it.
These are the numbers for conventional interlocking pavement. Permeable pavement is a different specification: open-graded stone, a different bedding course, joint aggregate instead of sand, and a compaction behaviour that is not the one in the dropdown. Do not size a permeable installation from this page.

Two more materials it leaves out entirely: the edge restraint and its spikes, and whatever you fill the joints with. Both decide whether the field stays where you laid it.

Common cases

How much paver base for a 10x10 patio?

Questions people ask

How many 4x8 pavers per square foot?

Four and a half. A 4 x 8 module is 32 square inches and there are 144 in a square foot. Pallet labels often quote about 4.66/sq ft instead — for example 480 pieces over 103 sq ft — because pallet coverage measures the paver face and ignores the joint. Either is defensible; do not mix them.

How many pavers do I need for a 10x10 patio?

473 of the common 4 x 8 size: 100 sq ft at 4.5 per sq ft is 450, plus 5% for cuts. At 12 x 12 it is 105. Order everything at once — concrete pavers are produced in batches and the colour shifts between them, so a top-up delivery rarely matches.

How much gravel base do I need under pavers?

Four inches compacted for a patio or walkway over well-drained soil, six for a residential driveway, per the ICPI/CMHA specification. Order 20–25% more than that finished volume because crushed stone loses that much under the plate compactor, and dig 6 in wider than the paving on every side.

Do I need to compact the base before laying pavers?

Yes, in lifts. A 4 in base placed in one go stays loose underneath no matter how long you run the plate over the top, and that lower half is what settles in year two. Compact each lift, then screed the sand — never use the bedding sand to fill dips in the base.

How much does a paver patio weigh?

A 60 mm paver runs about 28 lb per square foot, so a 10 x 10 patio is roughly 1.4 tons of stone, and the base under it another 2.8 tons. That figure comes from published pallet data — 480 pieces at about 2,884 lb — and it is worth checking against your vehicle before you plan to haul it yourself.

How much extra should I order for a herringbone pattern?

Ten percent for 90° herringbone and 10–15% at 45°. The extra is not breakage, it is geometry: a diagonal border cut produces a triangular offcut that will not fit anywhere else on that border. Running bond parallel to the edges can get away with 5%.

Last reviewed 2026-07-31