Paver Base Calculator
A paver patio is only as good as the compacted gravel under it, and the two questions that decide it are how deep the base must be and how much to order once compaction shrinks it. This calculator answers both: industry guidance puts the compacted base at 4 inches minimum for patios and walkways and 6 inches or more under driveways, and because dense-graded base loses roughly a fifth of its volume to the plate compactor, the loose material you order has to be bigger than the base you finish with.
Total weight ≈ 4,753.09 lb (2.38 tons). Bulk material is heavy — check your vehicle's payload/GVWR; over ~1 ton, delivery is usually safer than hauling it yourself.
Bag or bulk?
You need only about 1.7 cubic yards (2.38 tons). Under ~2 cubic yards, bagged is usually the better call — you can carry the bags yourself and skip arranging a bulk drop, with no leftover pile to deal with.
- 92 × 0.5 cu ft bag
Quantities are planning estimates — confirm with your supplier.
How it works
Enter the patio or walkway footprint and the finished, compacted base depth — that is what the calculator sizes from (area × depth). The standards are well established: a minimum of 4 inches of compacted base for patios and pedestrian walkways and at least 6 inches for residential driveways (ICPI guidance), with paver manufacturers commonly building 8–12 inches over soft or clay soils. The 1-inch bedding sand layer goes on top of this base and is a separate material — size it on the sand calculator, which covers the concrete (sharp) sand that bedding requires.
Then the allowance this page exists for: compaction. Paver base is dense-graded crushed stone with the fines left in, and running the plate compactor over it in lifts knocks the loose volume down — plan on roughly 20% (15–25% depending on material and subgrade). The calculator sizes the loose delivered volume as order = in-place ÷ (1 − compaction) × (1 + waste): at the defaults that is about 1.25× your finished base before the 10% waste is added. Order only the finished volume and the base comes up thin — and a thin base is the start of every wavy, sunken patio. Compact in lifts of a couple of inches rather than all at once, so each layer actually reaches density.
What you get: cubic yards, tons, and a 0.5 cu ft bag count. Weight uses a loose density near 2,800 lb/yd³ — the bagged product works out to about 2,850 from its printed specs, and quarry quotes run 2,400–2,800 depending on the rock — so match the total against your vehicle's payload and GVWR before hauling. Bags are counted by volume (ordered cubic feet ÷ 0.5, rounded up), matching how home centers sell bagged paver base.
Product names overlap, so place this page first: it sizes the traditional dense-graded base — crushed stone with the fines left in, compacted hard, with a 1-inch bedding sand layer on top. Big-box stores sell that material bagged as paver base; quarries sell the same compactable family loose under names like crusher run, #411, ABC, or road base — same family, different shopping format. Use this page for patio- and walkway-scale jobs bought by the bag or as a small bulk drop; for a driveway-scale build measured in many tons, price it loose on the crusher run calculator instead. The other legitimate system is an open-graded base — clean, washed #57 stone, free-draining, used in permeable builds and some modern installs — sized on the crushed stone calculator; it follows different rules (it barely compacts), so don't mix the two systems unless your paver manufacturer's install guide calls for it.
The decisions that make or break the install, in order: never lay pavers on bare dirt — soil swells, shrinks, and frost-heaves, and the pavers follow it. Over clay or soft subgrade, roll out a geotextile fabric under the base first; it is cheap insurance that keeps the base gravel from being pumped down into the mud. And do not substitute stone dust or screenings for the bedding layer on top — industry guidance calls for washed concrete sand (ASTM C33): dust traps water against the paver bottoms and is the classic cause of early failures. (Foam base panels exist as a lighter alternative system; this page sizes the traditional gravel build.)
Worked example
Paver patio, 12 ft × 10 ft, 4 in compacted base, 20% compaction
Building the base for a 12 ft × 10 ft paver patio — 4 inches of compacted dense-graded base, the industry minimum for pedestrian areas. The plate compactor will knock the loose material down by about 20%, so the volume ordered is sized to land at a full 4 inches after compaction, not before.
Watch the bag count against the bulk volume: a patio this size sits near the line where carrying bags stops being fun and a small bulk drop starts making sense. Either way, the bedding sand on top is a separate, thinner order — size it on the sand calculator once the base is in.
- Area
- 120 sq ft
- Volume (in place)
- 1.48 cu yd
- Order (compaction + waste)
- 2.04 cu yd
- Weight
- 2.85 tons
- 0.5 cu ft bag
- 110
Coverage at a glance
| Depth | 1 ton covers | 1 cu yd covers |
|---|---|---|
| 4" | 58 sq ft | 81 sq ft |
| 6" | 39 sq ft | 54 sq ft |
| 8" | 29 sq ft | 41 sq ft |
FAQ
How deep should paver base be?
Industry guidance (ICPI) puts the compacted base at a minimum of 4 inches for patios and walkways and at least 6 inches for residential driveways — and paver manufacturers commonly go 8–12 inches over soft or clay soils, since the base is doing more work there. On top of the base comes about 1 inch of bedding sand, then the pavers. Enter the base depth alone in this calculator; the sand is a separate layer with its own page.
How many bags of paver base do I need?
Most big-box bagged paver base comes in 0.5 cu ft bags, so the count is your ordered volume in cubic feet divided by 0.5, rounded up — 54 bags to a cubic yard. (Some suppliers bag base material by weight or a different volume instead — if yours does, count from the volume or coverage printed on the bag.) The calculator does this for you, compaction allowance included. The worked example on this page (a 12 × 10 patio) shows how a modest patio already runs a serious bag count — which is exactly when pricing a small bulk delivery starts to pay.
Why do I need to order extra for compaction?
Because the base only works compacted, and compacting shrinks it. Dense-graded base — crushed stone with the fines left in — loses roughly 15–25% of its loose volume under a plate compactor as the fines pack into the voids. This calculator defaults to 20% and sizes the loose order as in-place ÷ 0.80, so the base finishes at full depth. Order only the finished volume and the base lands thin — the patio sits low, and thin spots are where pavers settle and wobble first.
What is the difference between paver base and paver sand?
They are different layers with different jobs. Paver base is the thick structural layer — 4 or more inches of crushed stone with fines, compacted hard, carrying the load. Paver (bedding) sand is the thin 1-inch screeded layer on top that the pavers set into — washed concrete sand per industry guidance (ASTM C33), not stone dust and not play sand. Polymeric sand is a third product again, used only to fill the joints after the pavers are down. This page sizes the base; the sand calculator sizes the bedding.
Can I lay pavers directly on dirt?
No — soil moves. It softens when wet, shrinks when dry, and heaves with frost, and pavers laid straight on it sink and tilt within seasons. The compacted base exists to spread loads and stay put through moisture and freeze cycles. Over clay or perpetually damp subgrade, add a geotextile fabric under the base too: it stops the gravel from being pumped down into the soil, which is how a good base quietly disappears over a few wet years.
Is paver base the same as crusher run?
Same family, different package. Bagged paver base is dense-graded crushed stone with fines — the same compactable material quarries sell loose as crusher run, #411, ABC, or road base; names and exact rock vary by region, which is also why quoted weights vary. For patio-scale jobs, bagged or small bulk sized on this page is the practical buy; for a driveway-scale build, order it loose by the ton on the crusher run page. If you are building an open-graded system instead — clean, washed, free-draining #57 stone, the permeable route — size that on the crushed stone page.