Paver Sand Calculator: One Inch Down, Bags for the Joints

Two jobs share the word sand on a paver patio, and the quantities are nowhere near each other. The bed under the pavers is bought by the ton. The sand swept between them afterwards is bought by the bag, and a patio that takes the better part of a ton underneath may take four or five bags on top. Deciding which of the two you are actually buying is the first thing the paver sand calculator saves you from getting wrong, and the rest of this page runs through the questions in the order they usually come up.

Do I measure the pavers, or the stone under them?

The stone under them. Bedding sand covers the same footprint as the compacted base, which runs 6 inches past every edge that is not against a wall, so that the edge restraint sits on something solid.

For a hypothetical patio 16 ft along the house and 12 ft out, with three open sides, the paved surface is 192 square feet and the bedding footprint is 17 by 12.5 ft, or about 212 square feet. Enter that area, not the paved area. Rectangle, circle by diameter and multiple areas are all available, the last of which totals up to five shapes in one calculation.

Is one inch of bedding really enough under a city back yard?

It is the target, and deeper is worse rather than safer. Sand is there to let you seat each paver level, not to carry load. At 2 inches it behaves like a cushion, and pavers laid on a cushion rock and dip once people start walking on them. Depth belongs in the stone base underneath, which is what the paver base calculator is for.

So set the depth box to 1, screed it level off pipes or rails, fill the rails' tracks as you set the pavers, and stay off the screeded sand. The depth field accepts anything from 0.25 to 24 inches, and the discipline here is not using that range.

Running the example at 1 inch:

• 212 x 1 / 12 = 17.67 cu ft
• 17.67 / 27 = 0.65 cu yd
• 0.65 x 1.35 = 0.88 tons, so order 1 ton

That works out to about 0.42 tons per 100 square feet at bedding depth, a figure worth keeping in your head when someone asks for a rough number over the phone.

What does a yard of bedding sand weigh?

This site publishes mason and washed sand at about 2,700 lb per cubic yard, which is 1.35 tons. At the 1 inch bedding depth, one cubic yard spreads over roughly 320 square feet, so most single patios land under a ton and a half. Sand is sold here by the ton, so the tons figure is what goes in the quantity box; the cubic yard figure is there to tell you how much driveway the pile will take.

Wet sand weighs more without covering any more ground. A soaked pile is also unusable for screeding until it dries back, which is the argument for a tarp rather than for ordering differently.

Should I tick the 5% box for sand?

Yes, for bedding. The tick box adds 5% for compaction and spillage, and a screeded inch loses material into the rail tracks, over the edge restraint and into the back of a wheelbarrow that never quite empties. Rounding up to the next half ton does the same job on a small patio: the difference between 0.88 and 1 ton is a couple of wheelbarrow loads, and running out mid-screed means the second half of the bed is laid on a different day off a different pile.

Mason sand, washed sand or stone dust in the bed?

Coarse and angular is what the bed wants, because angular grains lock against each other under load. Mason Sand and Washed Sand both suit it. Fine rounded play sand does not: it rolls under traffic and washes out of joints.

Stone Dust makes a firmer bed than sand and gives less room for leveling a paver by hand, so it is the choice where the surface will be driven on and the pavers are uniform. Whichever you pick, use the same material across the whole patio. A bed that is sand at one end and screenings at the other settles by different amounts. Bulk sand for anything that is not a paver bed, at a depth you choose, belongs in the sand calculator instead.

How many bags sweep into the joints?

Joint sand is counted by the bag and bought as a bagged product, not as part of the bulk catalogue here. For 1/8 to 1/4 inch joints, allow one 50 lb bag per 40 to 75 square feet, so the 192 square foot example takes 3 to 5 bags. Joints of 3/8 inch and wider can double that. Read the coverage on the bag, then buy one more than the arithmetic says.

Plain fine sand sweeps in quickly and wants redoing every season or two. Polymeric sand sets in the joint and holds longer, but it has to go in bone dry and be misted on a day with no rain in the forecast, which in a nor'easter autumn is a real constraint. Either way, sand keeps leaving the joints: rain, ants and a leaf blower on full power all move it, so keep the blower low near the edges and expect to top the joints up.

Ordering the bed by the ton

Take the bedding tonnage to Mason Sand or the washed sand page, set the quantity and add the Crusher Run for the base to the same order so one truck brings both. Delivery is arranged at checkout by ZIP code, and the driver needs clear access and a firm spot to tip, which in a tight city yard is worth pacing out before you order, or asking about through contact.

Common questions

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