Paver Base Guide: How Much Gravel & Sand for a Patio

The short answer

Memorize the 4-6-1 rule: 4 to 6 inches of compacted crushed-stone base, 1 inch of bedding sand, then polymeric joint sand swept into the gaps. For a 12×16 ft patio: gravel at 4 inches = (192 × 0.333) / 27 = 2.37 cubic yards; bedding sand at 1 inch = (192 × 0.083) / 27 = 0.59 cubic yards (16 cu ft); joint sand ≈ 3 fifty-pound bags. Use 6 inches of base for driveways and heavy loads, 4 inches for patios and walkways. Run your own patio through the sand calculator once you have the table ballpark below.

Materials by patio size

Gravel figures are compacted depth — order about 10% extra to cover compaction loss and irregular edges. Bedding sand is shown in cubic yards and cubic feet. Joint sand is estimated at one 50-lb bag per ~70 sq ft of standard pavers.

Bedding sand is cheap and usually bought in bags (a 0.5 cu ft bag costs a few dollars), so even the 16×20 patio's 26.7 cu ft — about 54 bags of 0.5 cu ft — is fine as a small pile delivered with the gravel. Gravel, meanwhile, is ordered loose by the cubic yard or ton: a cubic yard of gravel weighs about 1.4 tons.

Bedding sand vs joint sand: don't mix them up

Bedding sand is the 1-inch layer under the pavers. Use coarse washed concrete sand — sharp-edged particles that interlock and level cleanly with a screed. Joint sand goes on top: after the pavers are laid, you sweep it into the gaps to lock everything together. Polymeric sand is the modern standard — it contains binders that set up hard when misted with water, resisting washout, ants, and weeds. And never use play sand for either job: it is too fine and rounded, holds water, and gives you a mushy bed and weak joints.

Compaction: the step people skip and regret

Compaction is what separates a patio that is still flat in ten years from one that looks like a wave pool by year three. The sequence: compact the soil subgrade first, then spread gravel in 2-inch lifts — never dump all 6 inches at once — and run a plate compactor over each lift. Mist lightly with water between passes; damp stone compacts tighter than dry. You will hear the tone of the compactor change when a lift is done — it goes from a dull thud to a hard ring. Rent the plate compactor; it is typically $50 to $80 a day and it is the single most important tool in the whole project.

Which gravel to use under pavers

Not all “gravel” qualifies as a paver base. The spec is crushed stone with fines — sold as crusher run, dense grade, ¾-inch minus, or road base depending on the region. The angular faces interlock under the compactor and the fines fill the voids, locking the whole layer into a rigid slab-like bed. What to avoid: round river rock or pea gravel (no interlock, shifts under load), and clean washed stone with no fines (compacts poorly and leaves voids). For the bedding layer, insist on coarse washed concrete sand — sharp, clean, and free of silt. Stone dust is sometimes suggested as bedding, but it holds water and can stain pavers, so concrete sand is the safer default. For the quantity side — depths, yards, and tons for your patio size — see our sub-base quantity guide.

Slope for drainage

Before the base goes down, grade the soil so the finished patio slopes 1 to 2 inches per 8 feet away from any structure — that is roughly a 1–2% grade, enough to shed rain without feeling tilted underfoot. Never let a patio drain toward the house foundation. On flat lots where achieving slope is hard, even a half-inch of fall per 8 feet beats dead flat. Set your screed rails to the slope and let the base follow it.

Order of operations: the base, step by step

The sequence matters as much as the materials. 1. Excavate 7 to 9 inches below finished grade (base depth + 1 inch bedding + paver thickness). 2. Compact the soil subgrade — soft soil under a good base still settles. 3. Lay geotextile fabric on clay or wet soil. 4. Spread gravel in 2-inch lifts, compacting each with the plate compactor and a light mist of water. 5. Screed the bedding sand over the compacted base using 1-inch rails, then pull the rails and fill the grooves. 6. Lay the pavers from one edge, keeping joints tight and even. 7. Run the compactor over the pavers with a rubber pad to seat them into the bedding. 8. Sweep polymeric sand into the joints, compact once more, sweep again, then mist lightly to activate the binder. Done in this order, the patio behaves as one locked plate instead of a thousand loose pieces.

Don't forget edge restraint

Pavers are held in place laterally by the base, the joint sand, and the edge. Leave off the edge restraint and the outer rows creep outward year after year. Spike-in plastic or aluminum paver edging — or a concrete haunch — around the full perimeter before you lay the pavers. It is a $30 to $60 line item that protects the entire build.

Common mistakes

Sand layer too thick. More than 1 inch of bedding sand creates a shifting mattress — pavers rock and settle unevenly. Wrong sand type. Play sand for bedding, regular sand in wide joints: both fail. Skipping compaction. See above — the number-one patio killer. No edge restraint. The perimeter walks outward without it. Pouring all the base at once. Six inches of loose stone compacted in one pass is compacted on top and loose underneath. Two-inch lifts, always.