Paver Sand Calculator for a 17 by 12 Patio, and Everything Like It
Enter your project dimensions
Start with the job that brings most people to this paver sand calculator: a freestanding patio, seventeen feet by twelve, going in over compacted base in the back yard. It needs two kinds of sand that have almost nothing to do with each other, and only one of them is measured here.
The base under it was built six inches wider than the paving on every exposed edge, so the bedding course covers that whole shoulder too: 18 feet by 13, or 234 square feet. Bedding is exactly one inch deep, never more. 234 x 1 / 12 = 19.5 cubic feet. 19.5 / 27 = 0.72 cubic yards. At 1.35 tons a yard that is 0.98 tons of Mason Sand, so a round ton is the sensible order.
The joints are a different errand entirely. Over 204 square feet of paving, at the 40 to 75 square feet a fifty pound bag covers on standard one-eighth to one-quarter inch joints, that is three to six bags. Same word, two materials, and a difference of roughly ten to one by weight.
Why the depth box stays on 1 for a bedding course
The tool will take any depth from 0.25 to 24 inches. The bedding layer is still one. Screed it to an inch, lay onto it, and compact only once the pavers are down so the units set into the sand rather than the sand shifting under them.
Two inches feels more forgiving while you are working and behaves far worse afterwards. Sand is not a structural material; a thick bed rocks under foot traffic and lets individual pavers settle out of line within a season. Depth belongs in the stone below, which is what the paver base calculator is for. If your base is not flat enough to screed an inch over, fix the base.
Entering a base footprint in the paver sand calculator, shoulder and all
Choose Rectangle, Circle or Multiple areas, put length and width in as feet and depth in as inches, then set the material so the weight is right. Tick "add 5% extra for compaction & spillage" for the sand you will lose off the screed and the wheelbarrow. The result comes back in cubic yards, tons and cubic feet, and "Email my quote" sends a copy through.
Use the base footprint, not the paving footprint, because the bedding runs out to where the edge restraint sits. An L-shaped terrace goes in as two rectangles under Multiple areas rather than as one averaged guess.
Bedding sand and the sand calculator are two different errands
This page is locked to patio geometry: the base footprint, one inch, coarse sand. The sand calculator is the open version, for Washed Sand or mason sand at whatever depth a job actually needs, under a slab, in a play box, or leveling a low corner. Joint sand is bagged and is not sized by either tool, because coverage depends on joint width and paver thickness rather than on volume.
If you are here for one inch under pavers, stay. For anything else sand-shaped, the other tool is the right one.
Coarse and angular, which rules play sand out entirely
Bedding wants sharp, coarse grains that interlock and stay put, which is mason sand or a concrete-grade washed sand. Fine rounded play sand rolls. It rolls under load in a bedding layer and it rolls out of joints, and a patio bedded on it will not stay level no matter how well the base was built.
Screenings make a firmer bed than sand but give you less room to adjust a paver that sits proud, so pick one bedding material and use it across the whole job. Mixing the two mid-patio leaves a visible line down the paving.
What 2,700 pounds a cubic yard means with a screed board in your hands
This site publishes mason and washed sand at about 2,700 pounds a cubic yard, or 1.35 tons, and that approximate figure is what the tool applies. At one inch deep, a single cubic yard spreads across 27 x 12 = 324 square feet, so most residential patios are a one or two ton conversation rather than a five ton one.
The comparison worth holding on to: the same one-inch layer of crush and run would come out at 1.50 tons a yard, and a yard of shredded mulch at 0.30. Volume is fixed by the shape you measured. Weight is entirely the material's business, and it is why the tool asks which one you are buying.
Whether five percent covers a screed, and the top-up two springs later
For spillage off the board and the wheelbarrow, the five percent allowance is about right. What it cannot cover is a base that is not true, since every dip you screed over takes sand that never appeared in the calculation. Round up to the next quarter ton and keep the surplus dry under a tarp; damp-to-dry sand screeds cleanly, soaked sand does not screed at all.
Joint sand is its own routine. Plain mason sand sweeps in quickly and wants replacing every season or two. Polymeric sand sets once it is wetted, resists weeds and ants, and lasts far longer, but it needs a completely dry installation and an accurate misting, and it suits sloped or busy paving where Piedmont runoff crosses the surface. Buy the bags locally, at whichever yard or store stocks them, since what is sold here in bulk is the bedding course. Buy one more than the arithmetic says, because joints settle by a quarter inch after the first wash-in and want topping. Keep the leaf blower on a low setting near filled joints.
Once you have the tonnage, open the product page for your bedding sand, choose the quantity and a delivery date, and add Crush and Run to the same order if the base is not already on site. A patio usually means three passes, so every calculator on the site is worth having open at once. Delivery is arranged at checkout by ZIP code, and the truck needs clear access to somewhere the pile can sit, which delivery and access explains.
Common questions
Why does an inch of sand weigh less than an inch of base stone over the same patio?
Because the tool applies a different weight to each material. Coarse sand is published at about 2,700 pounds a cubic yard and crush and run at about 3,000, so identical measurements produce different tickets. The cubic yards figure is the one that stays the same.
Is the five percent tick enough for a bedding layer?
For spillage, yes. It does not allow for an uneven base, which is where sand actually disappears. If your straight edge rocks anywhere across the compacted stone, expect to use more than the calculation and buy accordingly.
The patio steps down a slope in two levels. How do I measure it?
Measure each level flat, along its own surface, and enter the two as separate areas. Risers between levels are not bedded and should not be included.
My terrace is an L. Does that need two calculations?
One calculation, two areas. Split the L into two rectangles that do not overlap, put both into Multiple areas, and let the tool total them. Up to five areas go in at once, which covers most patios with a bay or a step-out.
Does the bedding layer stop at the edge restraint or run under it?
The base runs under the restraint; the bedding sand stops at it. That is why you measure the base footprint for the sand rather than the paving. The restraint is spiked into compacted stone on that shoulder, not bedded on sand, or it works loose.
Related calculators
One ton of bedding beats 25 bags.
Mason and washed sand delivered free; keep the bags for the polymeric sweep.