Paver patio project planner
Plan a paver patio end to end: pavers, base, bedding sand, the excavation nobody budgets for, and whether to lay it yourself or hire it out.
Herringbone interlocks better under load and looks more considered, and it costs you twice the perimeter cuts and a wet saw you will be using for most of a day.
Materials at ±12% set this spread; the contractor column is wider, at ±25%, because bids vary more than aggregate does.
- Plus 55 hours of your time — about 4 weekends with a helper.
- Materials, tool rental, and the permit fee if one applies.
- You need: a plate compactor, a wet saw, a way to move several tons of stone.
- All-in installed price — their materials, crew, and cleanup.
- Two to three days on site, machine excavation included.
- They carry the settlement risk if the base is wrong.
Building the patio yourself keeps $2,016 — 58% of the contractor price — and costs you 55 hours. That is $37 an hour for your weekends. Get one quote anyway; it costs nothing and it tells you whether this estimate matches your market.
- An at-grade patio under 30 in above adjacent grade and not over a story below is exempt from the building permit under the model code.
- Setback and lot-coverage rules still apply, and utilities still need locating before you excavate. Call 811 first — that one is free and not optional.
| Item | Qty | Unit | Line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paverscheck ↗ | 908 pavers | $0.72 | $654 |
| Crushed-stone basecheck ↗ | 2.5 cu yd | $48.00 | $120 |
| Bedding sandcheck ↗ | 1 cu yd | $55.00 | $55 |
| Landscape fabric | 18 m² | $0.55 | $10 |
| Edge restraintcheck ↗ | 40 linear ft | $2.40 | $96 |
| Edging spikes | 40 spikes | $0.65 | $26 |
| Polymeric joint sand | 2 bags | $32.00 | $64 |
| Spoil haul-offcheck ↗ | 5 cu yd | $35.00 | $175 |
| Materials subtotal | $1,200 |
Prices look wrong for your area? Edit them
Editable estimate · US national averages reviewed July 2026. Prices move; these are a starting point, not a quote. Every edit updates the totals, the band, and the link you share.
- 01Layout & utility locate3 h
Call 811, string the footprint square, and set your slope — 1/4 in per foot away from the house.
- 02Excavation & haul-off21 h
Dig 6 in over the whole footprint and move roughly 5 cu yd of spoil. This is the job.
- 03Base & compaction9 h
Fabric, then base in 2 in lifts with a plate compactor on every lift. Skipping a lift is how patios sink.
- 04Bedding sand screed4 h
Screed the sand to a uniform 1 in over rails and never walk on it after.
- 05Laying pavers10 h
Set 908 pavers from a square starting line, keeping the pattern true rather than the edges.
- 06Cuts, edging & joint sand7 h
Cut the perimeter with a wet saw, spike the edge restraint, sweep and set the joint sand.
55 hours total — about 4 weekends for two people at 14 productive hours a weekend. Working alone, add roughly half again on every phase that needs a second pair of hands.
A paver patio is priced by everyone as a pile of pavers, and built by everyone as a hole in the ground. The pavers are the cheap, fast, satisfying part. The work is excavating four to seven inches across the entire footprint, compacting a crushed-stone base in lifts, screeding a bedding course flat, and getting several cubic yards of spoil off your property. This planner sizes all of it, and it shows the excavation hours next to the laying hours so the shape of the job is visible before you start.
Quantities follow ICPI residential guidance: four inches of compacted aggregate base for foot traffic, six where anything heavier will sit, over a nominal one-inch screeded sand course, with edge restraint on every unsupported edge. Paver counts come from face area — a 4 × 8 inch unit covers 32 square inches, so 4.5 units per square foot — plus a cut allowance of 5 percent for a straight running bond or 10 percent for herringbone, which cuts more units at the perimeter.
The excavation depth is calculated backwards from where you want the finished surface to sit, not forwards from the layer stack. A patio meant to finish an inch proud of the lawn digs an inch shallower than one meant to finish flush, and over 200 square feet that inch is most of a cubic yard of dirt. Loose soil also bulks up about 25 percent once it comes out of the ground, so the haul-off figure is larger than the hole — the number that matters when you order the dumpster.
Patios are the one project on this site where the honest permit answer is usually no. An at-grade patio under 30 inches above adjacent grade and not built over a story below is exempt from the building permit under the model code, and the planner says so plainly rather than manufacturing a warning. Setbacks, lot coverage, and calling 811 before you dig still apply.
area = 16 × 12 = 192 sq ft
pavers = 192 × 4.5 = 864, × 1.05 cut allowance = 908 pavers
section = 4 in base + 1 in sand + 2⅜ in paver = 7⅜ in
excavation = 7⅜ − 1 in proud = 6⅜ in deep
dig = 192 × (6.375 ÷ 12) = 102 cu ft = 3.8 cu yd
spoil = 3.8 × 1.25 swell = 4.7 cu yd, order 5
base = 192 × (4 ÷ 12) = 64 cu ft = 2.4 cu yd, order 2.5
joint sand = 192 ÷ 100 sq ft per bag = 2 bags
permit = at grade, not over a story ⇒ usually not required