How much does a paver patio cost?
In materials, a paver patio runs about $12 – $28 per sq ft laid over a gravel base, and the base and the bedding sand under it add a little more. Labour, if you hire it, roughly doubles the number. Here is what is inside the figure, what a few common sizes come to, and where the money actually goes.
Paver patio cost calculator
What will your patio cost in pavers?
Working out a whole yard rather than one bed? Sketch it to scale in the planner and every area is measured, costed and totalled together.
What is in the price
A paver patio is three layers, and all three are bought. The pavers themselves are the bulk of it: plain concrete pavers sit at the bottom of the range and thicker, textured or tumbled ones at the top, and natural stone is a different conversation again. Under them is an inch of bedding sand and a compacted base of crushed stone, four inches for a patio, which at $40 – $85 per cu yd is a smaller line but not a small one. Edge restraint round the perimeter and polymeric sand for the joints finish the list.
The planner prices a patio as pavers over gravel for exactly this reason. Paint the patio and it costs the pavers by the square foot and the base by the cubic yard, at the depth you set, so the figure you see is the whole build rather than the top of it.
By size
Materials only, at the national range, with a four inch base. A ten-by-ten is where a patio starts to hold a table; twelve by sixteen is the size most back yards get.
| Patio | Area | Pavers | Base (4 in) | Materials |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small, 10 × 10 ft | 100 sq ft | $1,200 – $2,800 | 1.2 cu yd, $49 – $105 | $1,249 – $2,905 |
| Typical, 12 × 16 ft | 192 sq ft | $2,304 – $5,376 | 2.4 cu yd, $95 – $201 | $2,399 – $5,577 |
| Large, 16 × 20 ft | 320 sq ft | $3,840 – $8,960 | 4.0 cu yd, $158 – $336 | $3,998 – $9,296 |
Sand, edging and joint sand add a few hundred dollars on top of these. Delivery of the base is charged per load, which is why a small patio pays proportionally more for it.
What moves the number
The paver. This is most of the spread. A plain grey rectangle is a fraction of the price of a large-format, blended-colour, tumbled unit, and the two lay the same way. Decide on the look before you decide on the size, because the look sets the rate and the size multiplies it.
The pattern. A running bond or a basketweave in one size wastes almost nothing. A herringbone, a circle kit, or anything with a border course means more cuts, more waste and more time, and if you are paying for labour, more of that too. Ten percent waste is normal; a busy pattern with a curved edge can reach twenty.
The ground. A level, well-drained spot needs the four inch base and no more. Clay, a slope, or a spot that holds water needs a deeper base, geotextile fabric under it, and sometimes drainage, and every extra inch of base across the whole patio is another cubic yard or two of stone. Base depth covers what goes under the pavers and how thick it needs to be.
Labour. Installed, a paver patio typically runs two to three times the materials figure, most of it in excavation and compaction. That is also the part that is genuinely hard to do well by hand, so if you are choosing what to hire out, it is the base, not the laying.
Cheaper ways to the same patio
The same footprint in poured concrete runs about $6 – $14 per sq ft, and stamped concrete, which imitates pavers, about $12 – $25 per sq ft. A patio of decomposed granite held in with edging is the cheapest surface that still reads as a patio, at $45 – $95 per cu yd loose, and it is what the gravel surround in the patio and fire pit example is made of. Flagstone set in the same base costs more than pavers and looks like it.
The honest comparison is per square foot over the life of the thing. Pavers can be lifted and relaid when a tree root or a frost heave moves them; concrete cracks and stays cracked. For a small patio that difference is worth less than it sounds. For a big one it is the reason people pay for pavers.
Quick checklist
- Price the pavers per square foot, then add a four inch gravel base and an inch of sand.
- Allow ten percent waste for a simple pattern, up to twenty for borders and curves.
- Budget delivery per load, not per yard: one big delivery beats two small ones.
- If hiring, hire the excavation and base; laying is the part you can learn.
- Compare against poured concrete at the same size before you decide.
Draw your patio in the planner
Paint the patio at the size you are thinking of and the planner prices the pavers and the base together, for your state. Swap the pavers for concrete with one click to see what the saving actually is, or start from the patio and fire pit example and move things around.