How many pavers do I need for a 12 × 16 patio?

In 6 × 9 in (152 × 229 mm) pavers, each covering 0.375 sq ft (0.035 m²), the 192 sq ft (17.8 m²) patio is 512 pavers' worth of area. The calculator's default allowance takes the order to 564; it calls that 10% standard for a simple rectangular layout like this one. A curved edge or a herringbone or diagonal pattern wants more allowance, and a smaller paver raises the count before any allowance is added.

How much base and sand does a 12 × 16 paver patio need?

Under the pavers alone, 4 in (102 mm) of compacted base is 2.37 yd³ (1.81 m³) and 1 in (25 mm) of bedding sand is 0.59 yd³ (0.45 m³). Carried 6 in (152 mm) past the three open edges so the edging sits on stone, the base covers 212.5 sq ft (19.7 m²) and weighs about 3.76 US tons (3.41 t) at a compacted 106 lb/ft³ (1,700 kg/m³). Bought by the yard instead, the loose volume has to exceed the compacted one.

How deep do you dig for a 12 × 16 paver patio?

Down from the finished level, not the lawn. A 2 3/8 in (60 mm) paver on 1 in (25 mm) of sand and 4 in (102 mm) of base is 7 3/8 in (187 mm) of build-up. With the paving 6 in (152 mm) under the siding, 2 in (51 mm) above the soil at the wall, the dig there is 5 3/8 in (137 mm), and 6 3/8 in (162 mm) at the far edge of the dig, since the surface falls at 1:50 and the lawn less.

Worked example · Patios and garden walls

A 12 × 16 ft (3.7 × 4.9 m) concrete paver patio against the house, on 4 in (102 mm) of compacted base and 1 in (25 mm) of bedding sand, with polymeric sand joints

The materials for a 12 × 16 ft (3.7 × 4.9 m) paver patio against the house, each figure worked from the one before it — levels from the siding line, the dig, the spoil and its weight, base and sand, compaction lifts, pavers, edging, polymeric sand and sealer — and a closing note on which of them tend to move once the ground is open.

10Steps, in order
10Figures computed
US, imperial firstModelled for

Stone fountain in a courtyard garden with clipped hedges and gravel paths

The job

Modelled, not recorded. Every figure on this page is re-run through the calculator it names whenever the site is built; the estimate is worked, but no job was carried out, so the last section gives the mechanism of each likely error rather than a measured overrun.

A paver patio is bought as a pallet count and built as a hole in the ground. The pavers are the part everyone sees; under them sit 1 in (25 mm) of bedding sand and 4 in (102 mm) of crushed stone, and above all of it sits a finished level fixed by the house rather than by the lawn. So the quantities here run in the order each one needs the one before it: levels, dig, spoil, base, lifts, pavers, edging, joints and sealer.

The job: a 12 × 16 ft (3.7 × 4.9 m) concrete paver patio with its 16 ft (4.9 m) side against the house, laid in 6 × 9 in (152 × 229 mm) pavers 2 3/8 in (60 mm) thick on 1 in (25 mm) of screeded bedding sand over 4 in (102 mm) of compacted base, with polymeric sand in the joints. The ground is a firm, reasonably drained lawn falling gently away from the house, and nothing heavier than feet and furniture will use the surface.

THE LEVEL COMES FROM THE HOUSE, AND THE CALCULATOR THAT SETS IT WAS WRITTEN FOR A BRITISH WALL. The levels calculator works down from a damp-proof course — the dark seam two brick courses above the ground on a UK house. A US frame house has no such seam. The calculator's help covers that case in general terms: without a damp-proof course, use the line the paving must stay below, and it names the sill or the weep screed as examples. This page takes the bottom edge of the siding as that line, with the sill plate behind it, so wherever the calculator says damp-proof course, read the siding line. The 6 in (152 mm) the paving finishes below it is the calculator's default for two UK brick courses, kept here as a conservative choice for the job; the siding manufacturer's installation instructions set the real minimum, and they are the figure to check. The one code figure on the page is the fall, which the International Residential Code, Section R401.3, sets at a minimum of 2% (1:50) for impervious surfaces within 10 ft (3 m) of a foundation.

WHAT THIS PAGE IS. Nothing on it was dug or laid: every figure is the output of the calculator named at its step, run on the inputs printed beside it. Two items appear without a quantity — separation fabric, which clay or wet ground needs and which no calculator here sizes for a patio, and the edging spikes, which the edging calculator leaves out of its count. The last section picks out the figures most likely to shift once the ground is open, which way each one tends to go and the cause, reasoning from how the work behaves since nothing was measured.

What was measured, and how

The line the paving must stay below, at the wall
Siding 8 in (203 mm) above the soil; paving to finish 6 in (152 mm) below it, which is 2 in (51 mm) above the soil at the wall
Measured at both ends of the 16 ft (4.88 m) wall run, from the bottom edge of the siding straight down to the soil, with the sod left in place. Reading it from the top of the exposed foundation or from the patio door threshold measures a different line, and soil banked against a foundation over the years varies along the wall, so one mid-wall reading can be wrong at both ends.
The paved rectangle, and the larger footprint that gets dug
Paved 16 × 12 ft (4.88 × 3.66 m), 192 sq ft (17.8 m²); dug 17 × 12.5 ft (5.18 × 3.81 m), 212.5 sq ft (19.7 m²), the base carried 6 in (152 mm) past each open edge
The paved area is strung out on stakes and squared by checking that the two diagonals match. The dig is bigger than the paving: the base runs past the three open edges so the edging spikes bear on compacted stone, and digging only to the paver line is the mistake that leaves an edge free to creep.
How the existing ground falls away from the house
Falls 2 in (51 mm) across the 12.5 ft (3.81 m) dig — less than the paving's own fall
A string pulled level with a line level between a stake at the wall and one at the far edge of the dig, and the drop read at the far stake. A reading at one corner only misses a lawn that also falls sideways across the patio, which a single-direction levels run cannot see.
Paver, sand and base thicknesses, added into one depth
2 3/8 in paver + 1 in sand + 4 in base = 7 3/8 in (60 + 25 + 102 = 187 mm)
Paver thickness from the product sheet of the paver actually bought, bedding sand at its screeded depth, base at its compacted depth, all added together before a spade goes in. The total is how far the subgrade sits below the finished surface. Added up late, a shortfall tends to get hidden in the bedding, and the sand then goes down thicker in the low places than the even screeded course it is meant to be.
The paver's face size and the laying pattern
6 × 9 in (152 × 229 mm) face, 2 3/8 in (60 mm) thick, laid in running bond
Taken from the same product sheet as the thickness, because the face size sets the count and the thickness has already gone into the dig. Choosing a different paver after the dig moves the finished level by the difference in thickness, which is why the paver is chosen first and counted later.

The figures

Each step’s computed figure for this job
Step	Calculator	Figure
Set the levels from the siding line and find the dig	Patio Levels and Dig Depth Calculator	5 3/8 in (136.5 mm) to dig at the wall, 6 3/8 in (161.9 mm) at the far edge of the dig
Bulk the spoil to the volume that leaves	Soil Swell & Shrinkage Haul Volume Calculator	4.82 yd³ (3.68 m³) loose, from 3.85 yd³ (2.95 m³) as dug
Weigh the spoil before choosing a container	Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator	4.82 yd³ (3.68 m³) of soil weighing 12,180 lb (5.52 t): just over three loads on weight at the assumed 2-ton allowance, so four
Split the build-up into base and bedding sand	Paver Base & Sand Calculator	2.37 yd³ (1.81 m³) of base under the pavers, plus 0.59 yd³ (0.45 m³) of bedding sand
Carry the base to the edge of the dig and weigh it	Gravel Base Layer Tonnage Calculator	4.86 US tons (4.41 t) of compacted base over 212.5 sq ft (19.7 m²)
Count the compaction lifts	Backfill Compaction Lift Count Calculator	2 lifts of no more than 3 in (76 mm) each, from 5 1/3 in (135 mm) of loose stone
Count the pavers	Paver Calculator	564 pavers, 6 × 9 in (152 × 229 mm), for 192 sq ft (17.8 m²)
Count the edge restraint for the three open sides	Paver Edging Calculator	6 sections of 8 ft (2.4 m) edging for 40 ft (12.2 m) of open edge
Count the polymeric sand	Paver Polymeric Sand Calculator	3 × 50 lb bags (3 × 20 kg bags in a metric market)
Decide on sealer, and quantify it if the answer is yes	Paver Sealer Calculator	3 gal (11.4 L) for two coats over 192 sq ft (17.8 m²)

The waste factors, and why these ends of the ranges

The waste factor applied to each material, and why
Material	Applied	Why
Pavers	The calculator's default allowance for a simple rectangle, kept rather than trimmed	The calculator's help calls 10% standard for a simple rectangular layout and asks for more on curved edges or a herringbone or diagonal pattern; this patio is the simple case. On a straight field the piece trimmed at the end of one course is often long enough to begin the course after it, so cutting takes little of the 10%. The rest carries breakage, a handful of pavers set aside from the same production run for later repairs, and the course against the house if the wall turns out not to be straight.
Base stone	By weight at compacted density over the dug footprint, plus a small margin for over-dig	A ton ordered at the compacted density already accounts for the stone packing down, which an order by the yard does not — bought by volume, the loose stone has to exceed the compacted 2.62 yd³ (2.01 m³) by what the plate takes out of it, a fifth to a quarter of the depth by this site's patio guide. The margin is for the dig: every hollow left below the subgrade line is filled with base, and the tonnage calculator's FAQ puts a reasonable margin at 5–10%.
Bedding sand	Rounded up to the next part-yard or bulk bag, with no percentage on top	0.59 yd³ (0.45 m³) is small enough that the delivery increment dominates any percentage. Screeding pushes a little off the end of every pass, and a base that finishes slightly low under a rail takes more sand than the drawing shows — which is the case both paving guides linked from this page say to fix in the base, not the sand.
Polymeric sand	Whole bags at the rate on the bag's own chart, the part-bag surplus kept for the top-up	The calculator adds nothing for sand swept or blown off the faces, or for the second fill once the joints settle under the plate. At 90 sq ft (8.4 m²) a bag the first fill takes 2.13 of the 50 lb bags (2.42 of the 20 kg ones), so the rest of the third bag is what the top-up comes from. Only a chart rating this paver below 64 sq ft (5.9 m²) per 50 lb bag moves the 50 lb count to four.
Edging	The calculator's cutting allowance, which a three-sided rectangle barely uses	Forty feet (12.2 m) of straight edge is exactly five 8 ft sections, or a little over five 2.4 m ones. The allowance lifts that to 5.5 sections (5.6 in a metric market), and rounding to whole sections makes six. Cutting at two corners and at the two ends against the wall uses little of it, so most of a spare section arrives on site — useful for a length split by a spike driven into a stone, which the calculator says its allowance does not cover at any setting.
Spoil	Bulked to the loose volume, then weighed before any container is booked	The hole holds 3.85 yd³ (2.95 m³) and the pile a quarter more; a container fills by the pile and is limited by the weight. Wet soil weighs more than the 2,528 lb/yd³ (1,500 kg/m³) the container calculator uses, so a rainy week before collection moves the load towards its limit and never away from it.

Where this estimate is most likely to be wrong

Spoil volume and weight
usually under
The dig is modelled as a clean plane falling evenly from the wall to the far edge. Real digging goes a little below the subgrade line, the sod and root mat bulk more than mineral soil, and soil dug after rain is heavier than the loose density the container calculator assumes. Each of those raises the volume or the weight, and none of them lowers it.
Narrow it by: Checking the subgrade with the laser before any spoil leaves, and giving the hauler a weight with a margin on it rather than a volume.
Base tonnage
usually under
The figure is the in-place mass of an even 4 in (102 mm) layer over the dug footprint, and most of what moves it pushes upward. The band past the edge restraint is easy to dig wider than the 6 in (152 mm) drawn, and every extra inch of it along 40 ft (12.2 m) of edge is more stone. The scale ticket weighs the water in a stockpiled load along with the stone, so a wet delivery lays less base per ton. A local base denser than the calculator's 106 lb/ft³ (1,700 kg/m³) needs more tons for the same depth.
Narrow it by: Asking the yard for the compacted in-place density of the base it sells rather than its loose weight, and marking the band past the edge restraint with paint so it is dug at the width drawn.
Levels at the wall
either way
The whole dig hangs on one line, the bottom of the siding. Where the siding steps up at a patio door, where soil has been banked against the foundation, or where the sill is not level along the wall, that line is not where one reading put it, and the dig moves with it — deeper or shallower depending on which end was measured.
Narrow it by: Reading the siding line and the soil at both ends of the wall and at the door before setting the laser, and working from the lowest line the paving must clear.
Polymeric sand
either way
Bag coverage depends on joint width, joint depth and the chamfer on the paver edges, and none of those is an input. Wide joints or deep chamfers on a 6 × 9 in (152 × 229 mm) paver take more sand than a mid-range rate suggests; tight joints on a square-edged paver take less. The count sits well inside three bags, so it takes a large difference in rate to move it.
Narrow it by: Reading the coverage off the chart for the exact paver thickness and joint width, and keeping the opened third bag for the top-up after the plate has been run over the field.
Paver count
usually over
On a straight rectangle in running bond, most trimmed pieces find a use at the far end of a later course, so the default allowance tends to exceed what the cutting consumes. What pushes the other way is a house wall that is not straight, which turns the first course into a row of tapered cuts, and a block splitter that spalls the odd edge.
Narrow it by: Stringing a line along the wall before ordering to see whether the first course is whole pavers or a row of cuts.
Separation fabric, which is not on this list
usually under
On firm, drained ground a patio base can go straight onto a compacted subgrade. On clay, or ground that stays wet, fabric under the base stops the stone and the soil mixing, and this site has no calculator that sizes it for a patio — its geotextile calculator counts whole driveway rolls with laps and aprons. Where fabric is needed it is missing from the quantities rather than estimated.
Narrow it by: Proof-rolling the dug subgrade with the plate compactor and a loaded wheelbarrow, and if it pumps or holds water, sizing fabric to cover the whole dig with each width overlapping the next and the edges carried up the cut sides.

Tools this job needs

Frequently asked questions

How many pavers do I need for a 12 × 16 patio?: In 6 × 9 in (152 × 229 mm) pavers, each covering 0.375 sq ft (0.035 m²), the 192 sq ft (17.8 m²) patio is 512 pavers' worth of area. The calculator's default allowance takes the order to 564; it calls that 10% standard for a simple rectangular layout like this one. A curved edge or a herringbone or diagonal pattern wants more allowance, and a smaller paver raises the count before any allowance is added.
How much base and sand does a 12 × 16 paver patio need?: Under the pavers alone, 4 in (102 mm) of compacted base is 2.37 yd³ (1.81 m³) and 1 in (25 mm) of bedding sand is 0.59 yd³ (0.45 m³). Carried 6 in (152 mm) past the three open edges so the edging sits on stone, the base covers 212.5 sq ft (19.7 m²) and weighs about 3.76 US tons (3.41 t) at a compacted 106 lb/ft³ (1,700 kg/m³). Bought by the yard instead, the loose volume has to exceed the compacted one.
How deep do you dig for a 12 × 16 paver patio?: Down from the finished level, not the lawn. A 2 3/8 in (60 mm) paver on 1 in (25 mm) of sand and 4 in (102 mm) of base is 7 3/8 in (187 mm) of build-up. With the paving 6 in (152 mm) under the siding, 2 in (51 mm) above the soil at the wall, the dig there is 5 3/8 in (137 mm), and 6 3/8 in (162 mm) at the far edge of the dig, since the surface falls at 1:50 and the lawn less.

A 12 × 16 ft (3.7 × 4.9 m) concrete paver patio against the house, on 4 in (102 mm) of compacted base and 1 in (25 mm) of bedding sand, with polymeric sand joints

The job

What was measured, and how

The line the paving must stay below, at the wall

The paved rectangle, and the larger footprint that gets dug

How the existing ground falls away from the house

Paver, sand and base thicknesses, added into one depth

The paver's face size and the laying pattern

The takeoff, in order

Set the levels from the siding line and find the dig

Bulk the spoil to the volume that leaves

Weigh the spoil before choosing a container

Split the build-up into base and bedding sand

Carry the base to the edge of the dig and weigh it

Count the compaction lifts

Count the pavers

Count the edge restraint for the three open sides

Count the polymeric sand

Decide on sealer, and quantify it if the answer is yes

The figures

The waste factors, and why these ends of the ranges

Where this estimate is most likely to be wrong

Spoil volume and weight

Base tonnage

Levels at the wall

Polymeric sand

Paver count

Separation fabric, which is not on this list

Tools this job needs

Frequently asked questions