Paver Base Calculator for Patios, Walks and Frost-Prone Ground
Enter your project dimensions
The decision this page exists for is depth: four inches or six, and whether the ground you have earns the extra two. Everything else follows from it, including the tonnage, the excavation and how the patio looks after its third winter.
Four ways a base order lands wrong
The paved area gets entered instead of the base footprint. Base runs 6 inches past every unconfined paver edge so the edge restraint has something solid to sit on. On a small patio that border is ten per cent of the order.
Loose depth is entered rather than compacted depth. Base tightens as it is rolled. Specifications are written at the rolled depth, so that is the figure the box wants.
Sand is deepened instead of base. A thicker bedding layer looks like a shortcut and behaves like one. Bedding stays at a strict inch, and the depth is built in stone below it.
Soft ground is treated like firm ground. Marine silt and clay on the Seacoast, and dense till anywhere it holds water, take two more inches and woven geotextile underneath. Without the fabric, stone migrates down into the subgrade through a few wet seasons and the base thins from below.
Depth by what the patio carries and what it sits on
| Surface | Compacted base |
|---|---|
| Garden walk or path | 4 inches |
| Patio or seating area | 4 to 6 inches |
| Drive taking cars | 6 to 8 inches |
| Silt, clay or soft till | add 2 inches, plus fabric |
Frost is the reason none of this is optional here. It reaches about 48 inches in the southern towns and 60 or more up north, deeper than any patio base will ever go. You cannot dig below it, so the job is to give meltwater somewhere to go and to build a layer that does not pump. That means a graded base, compacted in lifts, pitched 2 to 3 per cent away from the house.
Adding the border before the numbers go in
Take the paved dimensions in feet. Add a foot to each dimension that has two open edges, or six inches for each single open edge. A patio against the house has three open sides.
Then the form: rectangle, circle, or multiple areas totaling up to five pieces. Length, width and diameter in feet. Depth in inches, 0.25 to 24. Material select last, because that is what drives the weight.
Leave the 10% compaction and spillage box ticked. Base is placed to be compressed.
Out come cubic yards, tons and cubic feet, with Email my quote if you want it written down.
Crusher run for the structure, stone dust only for leveling
The structural layer is a graded mix with fines in it, which is what locks up under a plate: crusher run or crushed gravel, the base course NHDOT specifies as Item 304.3. That item number is how material is described locally, not a certification held here.
Both sit on the same weight row: about 3,000 lb per cubic yard, which is 1.50 tons. So cubic yards = area sq ft x depth in, divided by 12, divided by 27, and tons = yards x 1.50.
Stone dust is the New England default for bedding and for a thin leveling skim over compacted base. It is not a base. A bed built entirely of screenings holds water and pumps under load.
A 13 by 21 patio against the back of the ell
Hypothetical. The house runs along the 21 ft side, so the two ends and one long edge are open and the base footprint is 22 by 13.5. Four inches compacted, firm till, no fabric needed.
- 22 x 13.5 = 297 sq ft
- 297 x 0.333 ft = 99 cu ft
- 99 / 27 = 3.67 cu yd
- 3.67 x 1.50 = 5.50 tons
- With the 10% box: 4.04 cu yd, 6.05 tons
Two lifts of 2 inches, each compacted and lightly misted. The excavation stack for this one: 4 inches of base, 1 inch of bedding, a 2 3/8 inch paver, which is 7 3/8 inches below the finished height, less whatever reveal you want above the lawn.
A 9 by 30 paver apron on soft ground
Hypothetical. Cars park on it and the subgrade is wet till, so 6 inches of base and fabric below. Two long open sides and one open end.
- Footprint 10 x 30.5 = 305 sq ft
- 305 x 0.5 ft = 152.5 cu ft
- 152.5 / 27 = 5.65 cu yd
- 5.65 x 1.50 = 8.47 tons
- With the 10% box: 6.22 cu yd, 9.32 tons
Three lifts of 2 inches. Set the edge restraint on the compacted stone, out on that 6 inch shelf, never on lawn soil.
Lifting an old patio that has gone wavy
If the pavers are coming up anyway, look at what is underneath before ordering anything. A base that is still level, firm and draining needs no more than fresh bedding sand, which is a fraction of a new build. Soft spots, dips or standing water mean the base comes out too. Leaving a failed base under new pavers in this climate buys you one season.
Bedding sand is measured separately and only ever at an inch. Size it with the paver sand calculator and order mason sand alongside the base stone so the whole job lands in one drop.
Two neighboring tools, while you are here. A plain compacted pad with nothing laid on top skips the border allowance entirely and is sized as base stone by the ton. The spoil coming out of the excavation is volume too, and measuring the dig-out yardage before you book a skip is worth ten minutes. The calculator index has the rest.
Delivery is arranged at checkout from your ZIP, and the pile wants firm ground with room for the truck to tip. Dig first, then take delivery; stone sitting on grass for two weeks kills a rectangle of it.
Common questions
Can I verify the tonnage on paper before ordering?
Yes. Base footprint in square feet, times the compacted depth in inches, divided by 12 for cubic feet, divided by 27 for yards, times 1.5 for tons. A 10 by 10 patio with the border added comes to 121 square feet, and at 4 inches that is 1.49 yards or about 2.24 tons.
Same 4 inches under two different materials and the tons change. What is going on?
The material select changes the weight per yard, not the volume. Base runs about 3,000 lb a yard, bedding sand about 2,700, screened loam about 2,200. Choose the material before you read the tonnage or you will order to the wrong number.
Is 10% enough allowance for a base course?
It covers spillage and what compaction takes out. It does not cover a subgrade that swallows stone, which is what soft till does on the first few passes. On wet ground, keep the ten percent ticked and put the fabric down.
The patio sits on a slope down to the field. What do I measure?
Measure the finished patio, which is flat, and measure the excavation depth from the high corner. The pitch you build in is 2 to 3 per cent away from the house, not the slope of the land. Where the ground falls away, base depth at the low edge grows, so run that corner as its own area.
The patio wraps round a corner in an L. Do I need two calculations?
One calculation, two rectangles. Choose multiple areas, split the L where the corner turns, add the 6 inch border to each open edge only, and let the tool total them. It takes up to five areas, which also covers a patio with a separate landing or a path running off it.
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.