Paver Calculator

US & Canada

A patio is not just pavers. Enter the area and you get the paver count plus the base gravel, bedding sand and edging to order with it.

Work out your patio

ft
ft

Sets the waste allowance for cuts.

in
in

One inch is standard. Not more, or it ruts.

%

Pavers to buy

0 pavers

The rest of the shopping list

Material Imperial Metric

Base and sand include 10% for compaction and spillage. Joint sand is a range because it depends on joint width.

How the calculation works

Pavers are sold by the piece or by coverage, so everything starts from how many fit in a square foot:

  • Pavers per sq ft = 144 ÷ (length × width, in inches)
  • Pavers per m² = pavers per sq ft × 10.76
  • Pavers to buy = area × pavers per sq ft × (1 + waste)

The waste allowance is not padding. It covers the pieces you cut to fit the edges, and the pattern you choose decides how much of that there is.

Pavers per square foot and per square metre

Pavers needed per unit area, by paver size
Paver Per sq ft Per m² For 100 sq ft For a 10×10 patio
4" × 8" (brick) 4.5 48.4 450 473
6" × 6" 4 43.1 400 420
6" × 9" 2.67 28.7 267 280
8" × 8" 2.25 24.2 225 237
12" × 12" 1 10.8 100 105
16" × 16" 0.56 6.1 57 60
12" × 24" 0.5 5.4 50 53
24" × 24" 0.25 2.7 25 27

The last column includes a 5% allowance for cuts. The one before it is the bare coverage with no waste.

Waste allowance by laying pattern

Typical waste allowance by laying pattern
Pattern Waste Why
Running bond or stack 5% Cuts only along the edges
Herringbone (45°) 12% Nearly every perimeter piece needs an angled cut
Circular or curved edges 15% Curves waste the offcuts entirely

How deep should the base be?

Compacted base depth by use
Use Base depth Bedding sand
Patios and walkways 4" 1"
Light vehicle traffic 6" 1"
Driveways, soft or clay ground 8" 1"

Common practice for residential work, not code. Soft or clay ground, poor drainage and frost all push these deeper, so check locally before a driveway.

The whole shopping list for common patio sizes

With a 4 inch base, 1 inch of bedding sand and 5% waste on the pavers.

Materials needed for common patio sizes
Patio Area 4×8 pavers 12×12 pavers Base (tons) Sand (tons) Edging
8 × 8 ft 64 sq ft 303 68 1.35 0.29 32 ft
10 × 10 ft 100 sq ft 473 105 2.11 0.46 40 ft
12 × 12 ft 144 sq ft 681 152 3.04 0.66 48 ft
12 × 16 ft 192 sq ft 908 202 4.05 0.88 56 ft
16 × 20 ft 320 sq ft 1512 336 6.75 1.47 72 ft
20 × 20 ft 400 sq ft 1890 420 8.43 1.83 80 ft

Before you order

  • Buy the pavers in one delivery. Concrete pavers vary in colour between production batches, and a patch laid from a later pallet can be visibly different.
  • Compact the base in layers. Three inches at a time, not the whole depth at once, or the bottom never properly compacts.
  • Screed the sand, do not spread it by eye. One inch, level, undisturbed. Walking on screeded sand before laying is the usual cause of a wavy finish.
  • Slope it for drainage. About a quarter inch of fall per foot, away from the house. Flat patios hold water and heave in frost.
  • Keep the offcuts until the end. Edge pieces you cut early often fit somewhere else, which is how you stay inside the waste allowance.

Common questions

How many pavers do I need per square foot?
It depends entirely on the paver size. A 4 by 8 inch brick paver takes 4.5 per square foot, a 12 by 12 takes 1, and a 24 by 24 takes 0.25. The sum is 144 divided by the paver's length times its width in inches, because there are 144 square inches in a square foot. The table above lists every common size.
How many pavers do I need for a 10x10 area?
A 10 ft by 10 ft patio is 100 sq ft. With 4 by 8 inch brick pavers that is 473 pavers including 5% for cuts, or 105 if you use 12 by 12 inch slabs. You will also need about 2.1 tons of base gravel, 0.46 tons of bedding sand and 40 feet of edging.
How many pavers are in a pallet?
There is no single answer, because pallets are stacked by weight and size rather than by count. The useful thing is that suppliers almost always quote the square footage a pallet covers, not the number of units. Take that coverage figure, divide your area by it, and round up. If you only have a paver count, divide the pallet coverage by the pavers per square foot in the table above.
How many pavers per square metre?
A 4 by 8 inch brick paver works out at about 48 per square metre, and a 12 by 12 inch slab at about 11. The calculator and the table both show per square metre alongside per square foot, since Canadian suppliers quote either depending on the product.
How many pavers do I need to make a fire pit?
A fire pit is a ring, so the count comes from the circumference rather than an area. For a 36 inch inner diameter using blocks 4 inches deep and 8 inches wide, that is about 16 blocks per course, so 48 for three courses. The sum is π times (inner diameter plus block depth), divided by the block's face width. Wedge shaped fire pit blocks are different: those have a fixed count per course that the manufacturer specifies, so check the box.
How much gravel goes under pavers?
4 inches of compacted base for a patio or walkway, 6 inches or more where vehicles go. Use angular crushed stone, not rounded pea gravel, because angular stone locks together when compacted. Then 1 inch of bedding sand on top, and no more than that. A thick sand layer ruts under load and the pavers go wavy.
Do I really need edging?
Yes. Without an edge restraint the outer pavers creep outwards every freeze and thaw, the joints open up, and the whole field loosens from the perimeter inwards. It is the cheapest part of the job and the one most often skipped. You need it along every open edge, which is the perimeter figure the calculator gives you.
How much polymeric sand do I need for the joints?
Somewhere between one bag per 100 sq ft and one per 50 sq ft, and we will not pretend to be more precise than that. It depends on joint width, paver thickness and how chamfered the edges are. Narrow joints between small thin pavers use the least; wide joints between thick slabs can use far more. Buy at the generous end, because topping up after the first rain does not bond properly.