Paver Base Calculator for Patios and Drives on Texas Clay
Enter your project dimensions
Every figure this page produces hangs on one decision you make before you type anything: how deep the compacted stone layer under the pavers is going to be. Get that right on ground that swells in a wet spring and pulls back hard in a dry August, and the patio is still flat in five years. Get it wrong and no amount of care with the pavers themselves will save it.
| What is going on the surface | Compacted base depth | One ton covers roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Walkway or garden path | 4 inches | 54 sq ft |
| Patio or seating area on firm ground | 4 to 6 inches | 36 to 54 sq ft |
| Apron or drive with cars on it | 6 to 8 inches | 27 to 36 sq ft |
| Any of these over clay or soft subgrade | Add 2 inches and lay fabric | see the depth above it |
The last row is the one that applies across most of the Blackland Prairie and a good deal of north and central Texas. Where the subgrade is clay, put woven geotextile down before the stone. Without it, base material works its way into a wet subgrade season by season and the layer you paid for slowly thins from underneath.
Six inches past every open edge before the paver base calculator sees it
The base is not the same size as the patio. Extend it 6 inches beyond every open paver edge, because the edge restraint has to sit on compacted stone rather than on lawn soil, and the outer course of pavers needs support under its full width. Edges against a house wall or an existing slab do not need the allowance.
So measure the paved surface, add a foot to each dimension with two open sides, six inches where only one side is open, and enter that larger figure. Rectangle takes length and width in feet. Circle takes a diameter, which handles a round seating area or a fire pit surround. Multiple areas totals up to five pieces, which is how a patio plus the path leading to it goes in as one estimate. Depth is in inches, anywhere from 0.25 to 24, and it is the compacted depth you want, not the loose pile.
Digging to a stake: base, bedding, paver, reveal
Excavation depth is the sum of the layers, not the base alone:
Excavation = base + 1 inch bedding + paver thickness - the reveal you want above grade
A standard patio with a 4-inch base, an inch of bedding sand and a 2 3/8 inch paver finishing level with the lawn works out at about 7.5 inches of digging. Mark that on a stake and check it as you go, because over-digging costs twice: once to haul the spoil away, once to buy stone to bring the level back up. The dirt calculator run on the same footprint tells you how many yards are coming out of the hole.
A hypothetical patio, 14 ft by 11 ft, sitting against the house along one 14-foot side, built to 6 inches because the subgrade is clay:
- Base footprint: 15 ft by 11.5 ft = 172.5 square feet
- Cubic feet: 172.5 x 6 / 12 = 86.25
- Cubic yards: 86.25 / 27 = 3.19
- Tons: 3.19 x 1.50 = 4.79
With the ten percent box ticked, 3.51 cubic yards and 5.27 tons. A round seating area is the same arithmetic through the circle mode: a 10 ft circle becomes an 11 ft base circle, 95 square feet, and at 4 inches that is 1.17 cubic yards, or 1.76 tons.
Compact in 2-inch lifts with a plate, misting each lift before you run it, and shape a fall of 2 to 3 percent away from the house into the finished base. The bedding and the pavers take their grade from whatever is under them, so slope gets built in down here or not at all.
Three thousand pounds to the yard, and where it lands
The calculator works this material at about 3,000 lb per cubic yard, which is 1.50 tons, the site's published figure for crusher run and road base alike. It is a heavy number by landscape standards, so a patio that sounds modest turns into a pile that needs planning for.
Flex Base is the term to use when you are specifying this locally, under the TxDOT Item 247 flexible base description, by type and grade. That item number is specification language, not a certification held here. Crusher Run is the crushed limestone base sold for the same purpose, and it runs at the same weight, so the tonnage is unchanged whichever you order.
Two tools on this site handle it and the difference matters. This one adds the perimeter allowance and thinks in patios. The crusher run calculator sizes a straight footprint for pads and lanes with no allowance added, and the road base calculator does the same if Flex Base is the name on your order. Bedding sand is a separate calculation again, on the paver sand calculator.
Rounding up on ground that moves twice a year
The ten percent, on by default, covers material tightening under the plate and the spread that ends up outside the string line. Leave it on for anything you are compacting.
Where to spend more than that is depth, not cushion. The one substitution that ruins patios is making up for a thin base by screeding a deeper sand bed. Sand moves under load, and two inches of it will read as a wavy surface within a season. Put the extra where it does work, which is another two inches of compacted stone on clay. Stone screenings belong here only as a thin leveling course over a compacted base, never as the base itself.
If you are lifting an existing patio, check before you order the full amount. Pull the pavers, rake off the old bedding, and look at what is underneath. Flat, firm and draining means you may only need fresh bedding sand and a fraction of the stone. Dips, soft spots or standing water mean the base comes out too, and leaving it will reproduce the same problem under new pavers.
Ordering the base and the bedding together
Email the estimate to yourself, open the product page, set the tonnage and a date, and give the delivery ZIP at checkout. Time the drop for after the excavation rather than before it, so the pile is not sitting on the area you are about to dig, and keep it off grass you want to keep.
Common questions
Is the depth I type the loose depth or the finished one?
The finished, compacted depth. Enter what the layer should measure once it has been rolled, then keep the ten percent option on to allow for the material tightening and for spillage.
How do I estimate a circle, like a fire pit surround?
Switch to circle mode and enter the diameter in feet, adding a foot to the paved diameter so the 6-inch allowance runs all the way round. The tool works out the area; you supply the depth as normal.
Which product page do I order from?
Crusher Run or Flex Base, depending on which name your plan or your installer uses. Both weigh the same per yard, so the tonnage this calculator gives applies either way.
Why show tons and cubic yards for the same base?
Cubic yards are the hole you have dug and have to fill. Tons are how the stone is sold and carried. At 1.50 tons per yard, the two numbers describe one pile, and you need both to check an order against a dig.
Where should five tons of base go on a small suburban lot?
On the drive or another hard surface within wheelbarrow reach of the patio, with a tarp under it. Stone left on lawn for two weeks kills the grass beneath, and moving a five-ton pile twice is a day nobody plans for.
Related calculators
The pavers get the compliments. The base earns them.
Crusher run and screenings by the ton, free delivery, ordered together with your bedding sand.