Paver Sand Calculator for a One-Inch Bedding Course
Enter your project dimensions
The correction this page makes most often is a reader planning to pour the sand deeper because the base underneath came out uneven. On heavy clay in a limestone valley, or over the dense till that holds water through the glaciated northeast, a thick sand bed is the worst thing you can put under pavers. Water sits in it, winter freezes and lifts it, and the surface goes wavy the first spring. The bedding course is one inch screeded, and this paver sand calculator is built to size exactly that.
Depth is therefore not a choice on this job. Enter 1 into the depth box and leave it there. Everything variable is in the area.
Measuring the bed, overhang and all
The sand goes over the same footprint as the stone under it, which means the six inch base overhang on every unconfined side is part of the area you measure. A patio that is 24 by 14 in pavers has a bedding footprint closer to 25 by 15.
Choose rectangle, circle, or multiple areas, which holds up to five pieces and totals them. Length, width and diameter go in as feet, depth in inches, and the box will take anything between 0.25 and 24 even though this job wants 1. Select the material, leave on or untick the optional five percent for compaction and spillage, then press calculate. Cubic yards, tons and cubic feet all come back, and Email my quote sends it over in writing.
Example only, hypothetical measurements. A 24 by 14 ft patio, so 375 sq ft of bedding footprint including the overhang. At 1 inch: 375 x (1 ÷ 12) = 31.25 cu ft, then 31.25 ÷ 27 = 1.16 cubic yards, and 1.16 x 1.35 = 1.56 tons. Round to 1.75 tons and the screed has something to work with.
Why both the ton and the yard figures appear
Cubic yards is the size of the heap that lands on the drive. Tons is the unit bulk sand is weighed and sold in, so tons is the figure that goes in the quantity box. The bridge between them is the published weight for mason and washed sand, about 2,700 lb per cubic yard, or 1.35 tons per yard, and it is approximate. At a one inch bed, a single cubic yard covers around 320 square feet, which is why bedding sand orders for a home patio are usually a ton or two rather than a truckload.
Read the tons for ordering and the yards for planning where it goes.
A patio, a walk, and the bags that fill the joints
| Hypothetical job | Bedding footprint | Bedding tons at 1.35 | Joint sand, standard 1/8 to 1/4 in joints |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patio, 24 ft x 14 ft | 375 sq ft | 1.56 | 5 to 9 bags of 50 lb |
| Front walk, 30 ft x 4 ft | 155 sq ft | 0.65 | 2 to 4 bags of 50 lb |
Walk working: 155 x (1 ÷ 12) = 12.9 cu ft, then 12.9 ÷ 27 = 0.48 yd³, and 0.48 x 1.35 = 0.65 tons.
The bags are a separate purchase and a separate arithmetic. One 50 lb bag of joint sand covers roughly 40 to 75 square feet of standard joints, so the count comes off the paved area, not the bedding footprint, and wide joints of 3/8 inch and up can take twice as many. Joint sand comes in bags from a garden center or a masonry supplier, not from the bulk material sold here. That bag range is why a 300 square foot patio needs about 1.25 tons of bedding and only a handful of bags for the joints. Same material family, quantities roughly tenfold apart.
Keep a bag spare. Joints settle a quarter inch after the first wash-in and want topping straight away, and in this state the first hard spring rain finds every joint that was left low.
Coarse and sharp, screeded loose, then compacted through the pavers
The bed wants coarse, angular grains that key into each other: Mason Sand or Washed Sand. Rounded play sand rolls under load and pumps out of joints, whatever the label on the bag says.
Screed the inch across pipes or rails, fill the grooves as you lay, and then stay off it. Set pavers working forward from the ones already down. Leave the sand loose until the surface is complete, because compacting over the finished pavers is what beds them in properly. Screenings will also serve as a setting bed and give a firmer one, though it is less forgiving to level. Pick one material and use it across the whole area, since a patio bedded half in sand and half in screenings settles at two different rates.
Ordering a little over on a material you cannot re-screed
The five percent tick box covers spillage and settling, which on a one ton order is about 100 lb. The real allowance on this job is rounding, because a bedding course that runs out three feet from the end of the patio stops the work while the last row waits.
Round up to the next quarter ton. Leftover coarse sand is useful under a step or a splash pad. Cover the pile as soon as it lands: sand screeds cleanly when it is damp to dry and not at all when it is soaked, and a Pennsylvania summer storm can put a day of drying between you and the next row of pavers. Pick the drop spot before the truck comes, on firm level ground near the work with clear access to back in and tip, off the lawn and clear of the septic lid.
Which sand tool to open, and which product page follows it
Stay on this page when the sand is going under or between pavers. Use the sand calculator instead when mason or washed sand is going somewhere else, for mortar, for a sandbox, or as bedding under a pipe, because those jobs set their own depth rather than a fixed inch.
After the figure is settled, go to the product page for the sand you chose, set the quantity and the delivery date there, and delivery is arranged at checkout from your ZIP code. The stone underneath is a different order and a different tool: size it in the paver base calculator and put both on the one delivery. Measurements that will not resolve can go through the contact page.
Common questions
Which product page do I open once I have the tonnage?
Mason Sand for a fine, sharp bed that screeds smooth, or Washed Sand where a coarser concrete-grade material suits the job better. Both carry the 1.35 tons per yard this page uses, so the tonnage does not change between them. Joint sand comes in bags and is bought separately from the bulk bedding order.
Where should the load go when it arrives?
Somewhere firm and level, close to the patio, with room for the truck to back in and tip, and clear of low wires. A ton of sand takes up less space than most people expect, roughly three quarters of a cubic yard, so a corner of the drive is usually enough. Put a tarp down first if it is landing on concrete, and cover the pile after.
The results show tons and cubic yards. Which do I use?
Tons for ordering, because that is how bulk sand is weighed and sold. Cubic yards for judging the pile and the wheelbarrow trips. They are the same quantity expressed two ways, converted at about 2,700 lb per cubic yard for mason and washed sand.
Is the one inch measured loose or after it is compacted?
Screed it loose at a full inch. It is not compacted on its own, and it should not be. The compaction happens through the laid pavers at the end, which draws the bed down slightly and locks the surface. That small drop is expected, and it is also why adding depth to compensate for it leaves the pavers rocking.
How do I size a round patio or a circular landing?
Switch to the circle shape and give it the diameter measured straight across, then add a foot to that diameter for the base overhang around the outside. A 12 ft circle becomes 13 ft, so 3.1416 x 6.5 x 6.5 = 132.7 sq ft. At 1 inch that is 11.1 cu ft, or 0.41 cubic yards, about 0.55 tons. Round it up to three quarters of a ton.
Related calculators
One ton of bedding beats 25 bags.
Mason and washed sand delivered free; keep the bags for the polymeric sweep.