🧱 Patio Paver Calculator

Enter your patio dimensions and paver size to find out how many pavers to buy.

Patio Length (ft)

Patio Width (ft)

Paver Length (in)

Paver Width (in)

Waste Allowance (%)

How the paver count is worked out

The patio area is divided by the area of one paver, which is its two dimensions in inches divided by 144 to convert to square feet. The waste allowance is applied to that count and the result rounded up.

patio area   = length x width
paver area   = (paver length x paver width) / 144
pavers       = ceiling(patio area / paver area x (1 + waste% / 100))

The defaults - a 14 x 10 ft patio with 12 x 12 in pavers - give 140 sq ft and 140 pavers exactly, or 154 with the 10% allowance. Swap to 4 x 8 in pavers and the same patio takes 693 of them.

Where the waste actually goes

Nothing in the arithmetic knows the shape of your patio, and the edges are what cost money:

Every edge paver on a curve or a diagonal gets cut, and the offcut is a wedge that fits nowhere else. A 45-degree herringbone has two cut ends on every perimeter unit.
Pavers break. Some arrive cracked on the pallet, some split on the splitter, and the ones you cut too short cannot be uncut.
Colour runs vary between pallets. Concrete pavers are tinted in batches, so pull from two or three pallets at once and mix as you lay - a patio laid pallet by pallet ends up in visible blocks of slightly different shade.

5% is enough for a plain rectangle laid square with full units. 10% is the sensible default. Budget 15 to 20% for a curved edge, a circle kit, a diagonal or herringbone pattern, or any patio with a tree or a post to work around. Order it all in one go: a second order weeks later is a different production run and rarely matches.

The count says nothing about what goes underneath, which is where paver patios fail. A patio normally wants 4 to 6 in of compacted crushed stone plus about 1 in of bedding sand, and a driveway considerably more. In areas that freeze, local building rules and frost depth govern the base you need, and no amount of extra pavers makes up for a thin one.

Frequently asked questions

How many pavers do I need for a 12x12 ft patio?

144 sq ft, so 144 of the 12 x 12 in pavers - 159 with a 10% allowance. In 4 x 8 in brick pavers, each covering 0.22 sq ft, it is 648 units, or 713 with the same allowance.

How much waste should I allow for pavers?

5% for a square patio laid straight, 10% for a normal job, and 15 to 20% once there are curves, circles or a diagonal pattern. Cuts are the whole story - the more edge units that have to be trimmed, the higher it goes.

Does the calculator account for the sand joints?

No, and that works in your favour. It assumes pavers are laid edge to edge, so the joint width between units - typically 1/8 in, or the built-in spacer lugs - means the true count comes out very slightly lower than the figure shown.