Paver Base Calculator: Base Tons and Dig Depth for a Patio
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Most people land here with the same job: a patio off the back door, pavers already chosen, and no idea how much stone goes underneath. The surface is the part anyone looks at. The base is the part that decides whether the patio is still flat in five years, and over Piedmont clay that holds water after every storm, it is the part worth over-thinking. Work through the job in the order it happens on site and the tonnage falls out at the right point.
Growing the paved shape by half a foot on every open side
Start with the paved shape, then grow it. The compacted base runs 6 inches beyond every exposed edge, because that strip is what the edge restraint sits on. Restraint spiked into lawn soil at the perimeter is the cheapest way to lose a patio edge.
So a patio 18 by 12 feet with the house along one long side becomes a base footprint of 19 by 12.5 feet: half a foot added at each of the two open ends and half a foot on the open side. That is 237.5 square feet of base against 216 square feet of pavers, and it is the larger figure that goes in the calculator.
Setting the dig depth before the shovel goes in
Add the layers up before you break ground. Base, plus exactly 1 inch of bedding, plus the paver itself. A standard 2 3/8 inch paver over a 6 inch base gives 9 3/8 inches from the finished surface down, less whatever reveal you want the pavers to stand above the lawn.
Mark that depth on a stake and check it as you dig. Going too deep costs twice: once to haul the extra soil off, and again in stone to bring the level back.
Choosing 4, 6 or 8 inches over red clay
Four inches compacted is the figure for a walkway or a garden path. A patio or seating area wants 4 to 6. Anything a vehicle rolls on takes 6 to 8. Where the subgrade is clay or soft, add 2 inches to whichever of those applies and lay woven geotextile under the stone, which keeps the base from working its way down into wet clay over a few seasons.
That clay rule is why a Georgia patio usually gets 6 inches rather than 4. It is not about cold. It is about a subgrade that turns soft after a wet spell and pumps under load, and about summer downpours that have to leave the patio somewhere.
Turning the footprint into tons
Rectangle takes a length and width in feet, circle takes a diameter, and multiple areas holds as many as five pieces for a patio that steps around a corner. Depth goes in inches, from 0.25 to 24, and it is the compacted thickness you want, not the loose spread. Choose the material, leave the tick box marked add 10% extra for compaction and spillage ticked, or untick it, and the answer comes back in cubic yards, tons and cubic feet, with an email option under it.
For the example patio: 237.5 square feet of base at 6 inches is 237.5 x 6 / 12 = 118.75 cubic feet, which is 4.40 cubic yards. At 1.50 tons a yard that is 6.60 tons, or 7.26 with the extra 10%. Order 7.5 tons and keep what is left for the path. This is a made-up patio, written out so you can follow the working.
Splitting the order between base stone and bedding
Two materials, two calculations, one delivery. The base is Crusher Run or the same material under its Georgia name, GAB (Graded Aggregate Base). The bedding above it is exactly 1 inch of coarse sand, ordered as mason sand for the bedding layer and sized on the paver sand calculator, not here.
Bedding for that same 237.5 square feet: 237.5 x 1 / 12 = 19.79 cubic feet, or 0.73 cubic yards. At 1.35 tons a yard that is 0.99 tons, so one ton covers it. Note the ratio. The base is around seven times the weight of the bedding, which is the proportion to keep in your head if you are ever tempted to make up for a shallow base with deeper sand. Do not. Sand moves, and the patio follows it.
Use Screenings only as a thin leveling course over compacted base if that is how you prefer to set pavers, never as the structural layer on its own.
Rolling it in lifts and pitching it away from the house
Spread the base in 2 inch lifts and run a plate compactor over each one, misting lightly as you go. Damp stone tightens up; bone-dry stone just rearranges itself. Build a 2 to 3 percent fall away from the house into the compacted base before any sand goes down, because the finished pavers copy whatever the base does. On a Georgia lot that means picking where the runoff goes before it picks for you.
If you are rebuilding over an existing patio, lift the pavers, rake the old bedding sand off and look at what is underneath. A base that is still firm, level and draining can take a fresh 1 inch bedding layer and nothing else, which drops your stone order to almost nothing. Soft spots, standing water or a dished middle mean the base comes out and this page starts from the top.
The weight behind the ton line on a GAB order
Crusher run and graded aggregate base run about 3,000 lb per cubic yard on this site, which is the 1.50 tons a yard behind your ton line. Bedding sand runs about 2,700 lb, or 1.35. A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet of anything, so the yards figure is pure volume and only the tons move when you change material.
The same stone bought for a shed pad or a lane, with no overhang and no dig stack to allow for, is sized on the crusher run calculator instead. When the numbers look right, open the product page to set quantity and a date, and dig before the stone arrives rather than after. Delivery is arranged at checkout by ZIP code, and the truck wants firm ground it can back onto.
Common questions
Does the 6 inch overhang go in as extra length or as its own area?
Roll it into the length and width. Add half a foot to each open side of the paved shape and enter the grown rectangle. Only treat it separately if the patio has a wing sticking out, in which case multiple areas is simpler.
Should I leave the 10 percent ticked on a base I am compacting in lifts?
Yes. The depth you entered is already the rolled thickness, so the 10 percent is not there to cover compaction. It covers what spills off the edge, the wheelbarrow route across the lawn and the corner of the dig that came out deeper than planned.
The patio wraps around an outside corner of the house. One entry or two?
Two, using multiple areas, with each leg as its own rectangle meeting at the corner without overlapping. Remember the overhang applies only to the open edges, not to the sides against the house.
The yard falls about a foot across the patio. What depth do I enter?
The compacted base thickness, which is constant, not the fall. The slope is dealt with by cutting into the high side and building up the low side during excavation, and the dirt you take off or bring in can be sized on the dirt calculator.
How do I buy base stone and bedding sand as one job?
Run this page for the base and the paver sand page for the 1 inch bedding course, then order both on the same checkout so they arrive together. They are different materials at different weights, so there is no way to shortcut it with a single calculation.
Related calculators
The pavers get the compliments. The base earns them.
Crusher run and screenings by the ton, free delivery, ordered together with your bedding sand.