Paver Sand Calculator for Bedding Tons and Joint Bags

Stand at the edge of a compacted base with a screed board in your hand and there are two sand questions in front of you, and they have almost nothing in common. One is a thin leveling course you are about to screed, bought by the ton. The other is the material you will sweep into the joints at the end of the day, bought by the bag. The paver sand calculator on this page sizes the first. The chart further down handles the second. Mixing them up is how people end up with a ton of coarse sand and nothing to fill a single joint.

How big is the sand area once the base runs past the pavers?

Measure the base you have just compacted, not the paving pattern you are about to lay on it. That base should already run six inches past every uncovered edge, and the bedding goes over the whole of it so the screed rails have something to sit on at the perimeter.

For a 22 by 12 patio with one long edge against a porch, the base footprint is 23 by 12.5, which is 287.5 square feet. That is the figure to type in, not 264.

Is one inch really the depth, even with chairs and a table on it?

One inch, screeded, and no more. This is the single instruction on the page that has no flexibility in it. Bedding sand carries load by staying thin; at two inches it behaves like a cushion, the pavers settle into it unevenly, and a table with four chairs around it finds every soft spot by August.

If the base is not flat enough for a one-inch bed, the answer is another pass with the plate compactor rather than another half inch of sand. Depth belongs in the stone below.

What does an inch across a patio actually weigh?

Coarse bedding sand runs about 2,700 lb per cubic yard, which is 1.35 tons. At the strict one-inch depth, one cubic yard covers roughly 320 square feet, so the arithmetic for the patio above runs:

• 287.5 x 1 / 12 = 23.96 cu ft
• 23.96 / 27 = 0.89 cu yd
• 0.89 x 1.35 = 1.20 tons

An illustration rather than a customer job, but the shape of it holds: rule of thumb, about 0.42 tons of bedding per 100 square feet. Enter the shape as a rectangle, as a circle on its full diameter, or as up to five areas for a patio plus its path, with dimensions in feet and the depth in inches anywhere from 0.25 to 24. Select the material, read off cubic yards, tons and cubic feet, and email the estimate to yourself if you want it on the phone at the drive.

Do I tick the 5% box for a layer I am going to screed flat?

Yes, on a bedding course. The box adds 5% for compaction and spillage, and on sand the spillage half is the honest part: what goes over the edge of the screed, what stays in the wheelbarrow, and what gets shoveled back off the lawn. The compaction half matters too, since the pavers are bedded into the sand on the final pass rather than sitting on top of it.

For the patio above, that turns 1.20 tons into about 1.26, and in practice you would order 1.5.

Mason sand or stone dust under Connecticut pavers?

Both work and the choice is about how much adjustment you want while you are laying.

• Mason Sand and Washed Sand are angular and coarse, screed cleanly, and let you tap a paver down a hair when it sits proud.
• Stone Dust is the New England default under bluestone and patio flatwork. It beds firmer and holds a line better under foot traffic, and it gives you less room to adjust once a piece is set. It also weighs more, about 2,900 lb per cubic yard or 1.45 tons, so run the tool with that material selected rather than converting the sand figure.

What does not work is play sand. Rounded grains roll under load, pump up through the joints and let pavers rock, and the fact that it is sold in the same aisle is the only thing it has in common with bedding sand.

How many bags for the joints, and do they need to be polymeric?

Joint sand is counted in bags, not tons, because the quantity is small and the material is swept rather than spread. One 50 lb bag covers roughly 40 to 75 square feet of standard 1/8 to 1/4 inch joints.

The 264 square feet of paving in the example lands at four to seven bags for standard joints. Buy one more than the chart says, because the first rain drops the joints a quarter inch and you will want to top them. Those bags are bought locally, at a garden center or a stone yard; the bulk material listed on this site is the bedding sand.

Polymeric sets when wetted and holds joints against weeds, ants and running water, which matters on a sloped surface or anywhere spring runoff crosses the patio. It also has to go in bone dry, so a shower halfway through the sweep ruins the whole application. Plain mason sand in the joints is simpler, and expects topping up every season or two. Either way, the bedding underneath stays plain coarse sand or stone dust; polymeric belongs in the joints only.

Sand for jobs that are not paving, such as bedding a pipe or leveling under a slab, belongs on the sand calculator instead, which is not locked to a one-inch depth. The compacted stone under all of this is sized on the paver base calculator. Once you have a tonnage, set the quantity and delivery date on the product page, where delivery is arranged at checkout by ZIP code and the truck needs clear access to a firm spot to tip.

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