Paver Sand Calculator for the Inch Under Massachusetts Pavers
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Dense lower till holds snowmelt close to the surface across most of eastern and central Massachusetts, and a patio built over it moves in late winter whether or not the sand was screeded beautifully. That is the honest limit on anything this paver sand calculator can tell you.
Bedding sand is a setting layer, not a leveling layer. It is fixed at one inch, which means the only variable in the sum is area. If the surface is out by half an inch, the answer is in the stone underneath, not in a thicker bed. Sand that is two inches deep under a paver migrates under load, and what you get is a patio that rocks by the second spring.
So the estimate here is a narrow one, and that is the point. Get the area right, keep the depth at one inch, and the number is as good as the tape.
Tons for the bed below, fifty-pound bags for the joints above
Two uses, two units, one page.
Bedding is bulk sand, ordered by the ton. At one inch, this works out at about 0.42 tons for every 100 sq ft, using this site's published weight for mason and washed sand of roughly 2,700 lb per cubic yard, about 1.35 tons per cubic yard.
Joint sand is bought in bags and swept in. For standard joints of an eighth to a quarter inch, allow one 50 lb bag per 40 to 75 sq ft of surface. Wider joints at three eighths and up roughly halve that coverage.
| Patio size | Standard joints, 1/8-1/4 in | Wide joints, 3/8 in and up |
|---|---|---|
| 100 sq ft | 2-3 bags | 3-5 bags |
| 200 sq ft | 3-5 bags | 6-10 bags |
| 300 sq ft | 4-8 bags | 8-15 bags |
| 500 sq ft | 7-13 bags | 14-25 bags |
Paver thickness and joint width both move those numbers, so take the coverage from the bag label and round up. Bagged joint sand is a local pickup, from a garden center or a masonry yard, and is not part of a bulk order here.
One inch in the depth box, and the area that goes with it
Shapes are rectangle, circle or multiple areas up to five. Length and width go in feet, or a diameter for a round area. Depth goes in inches, and the field accepts 0.25 to 24 for the sake of the other materials on the site. For bedding, type 1 and leave it there.
The area to enter is the paved footprint plus the six-inch base overhang, because you screed over the whole prepared surface rather than stopping at the paver line. The five percent tick is worth using on sand, since screeding wastes a little at every rail and the pile loses some to the wind. Results come back as cubic yards, tons and cubic feet, and the email option will send them to you.
An L-shaped 14 by 10 patio with a grill wing, in two areas
A hypothetical job, entered as two rectangles. The main terrace is 14 by 10 ft against the back of the house, and a grill wing of 6 by 8 ft comes off one end, so 188 sq ft of pavers. Add the overhang on the open edges and the arithmetic is visible: the terrace picks it up on its far long edge and its one clear end, giving 14.5 by 10.5, or 152.25 sq ft, and the wing picks it up on its three open sides, giving 7 by 8.5, or 59.5 sq ft. Screeded area 211.75 sq ft.
- 211.75 x 1 / 12 = 17.65 cu ft
- 17.65 / 27 = 0.65 cu yd
- 0.65 x 1.35 = 0.88 tons
Order one ton of Mason Sand and the bed is covered. For the joints, 188 sq ft of standard-width joints comes to three to five bags, so buy five.
Underneath both figures is the compacted stone, which is a much bigger order and its own calculation in the paver base calculator. The sequence on the day is base, compact, screed the inch, lay, then compact again through the pavers to seat them.
Keeping a bag back for the joints that drop after the first wash-in
Joints settle a quarter inch the first time it rains hard, and nobody has ever regretted the spare bag.
On the bulk side, round the bedding up to the next half ton. It is a small quantity in the first place, and sand left over has a use anywhere on a Massachusetts lot: under a shed floor, leveling a stepping stone, or as the reserve for the joint top-up you will be doing anyway. Keep the site pile tarped. Damp sand screeds cleanly, soaked sand does not, and a nor'easter over a bare pile costs you the weekend.
Use only coarse angular material for both jobs. Play sand is fine and rounded, and it rolls out of joints and shifts under pavers. Mason Sand and Washed Sand, which Massachusetts yards often list as concrete sand, are the right texture.
Paver sand or the general sand calculator
This page is for a fixed one-inch bed and for joints, both tied to a paver surface. Open the sand calculator instead when the depth is something you choose: pipe bedding in a trench, the base under a pool, sand for mixing, or a sandbox. Same weight of 1.35 tons per cubic yard, different job, and the depth box is where the two part company.
When the figure is settled, set the quantity on the product page, choose a delivery date and check out. Delivery is arranged at checkout by ZIP code, how the ZIP code decides the delivery covers the rest of it, and the truck needs clear access to the spot where the sand will land. Beyond this one, the other thirteen calculators handle the stone, the soil and the mulch.
Common questions
The patio slopes away from the house. Do I measure along the slope or across the ground?
For the 2 to 3 percent fall a patio is built with, measure flat; over a ten-foot run that is about three inches of drop and it does not change the sand order. On a genuinely sloping site, where you are terracing into a hillside, measure along the finished surface rather than across the horizontal, or you will be short.
The grill wing comes off one end of the terrace. Is that a second calculation?
Yes. Split it into two rectangles at the inside corner, add them as separate areas and let the tool total them. Make sure the two pieces meet without overlapping at the corner, which is the usual double count. Up to five areas can go in at once.
Where does the screeded inch stop: the paver line, the border course or the base overhang?
Include the border course, because it sits on bedding sand like every other paver. Include the six-inch base overhang as well, since the screed runs over it. Do not add anything for the restraint itself; it is pinned onto the compacted base, outside the sand.
Several tons of crusher run and under a ton of mason sand: is that one quantity or two?
They are two materials and two quantities. The compacted base is crusher run or processed gravel at 1.50 tons per cubic yard, several tons on a patio of this size, and it goes down first. The bedding is coarse sand at 1.35 tons per cubic yard and one inch deep, usually under a ton. Calculate each on its own page and keep them as separate lines.
The terrace edge bows out into the lawn. What goes in the length and width boxes?
Take a rectangle that covers the curve at its widest and deepest, and accept a small over-order. Bedding quantities are so small that the difference is a few bags of sand rather than a wasted ton, and the leftover goes into joints.
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One ton of bedding beats 25 bags.
Mason and washed sand delivered free; keep the bags for the polymeric sweep.