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Landscaping & Outdoor

Paver Sand Calculator

Bedding sand under pavers and joint sand between them, by area and joint width.

Your measurements

Paved area
One inch screeded flat. Thicker beds rut under load rather than holding level.
Joints

Your result

Sample values

0.65

Cubic yards of bedding sand

17.6

Cubic feet of bedding

0.88

Tons of bedding sand

4

Bags of joint sand

1 in bedding over 192 ft², 1/8 in joints, 10% waste.

What to order

Item Quantity
Concrete or bedding sand 0.88 tons
Polymeric joint sand, 50 lb bags 4 bags
Screed rails, 1 in pipe 2 lengths

How to use this calculator

Enter the paved area and a one inch bedding depth. Resist the urge to go thicker — bedding sand is a levelling course, not a base, and a deep bed of loose sand will rut under load no matter how well the pavers are laid.

Joint sand depends on joint width and paver thickness, since it fills the full depth of the gap. Narrow joints on thin pavers use very little; wide joints on a thick driveway paver use several times as much.

Formula

Bedding volume = Area × Bedding depth

Joint volume = Joint area × Paver thickness

Bags = Joint volume ÷ Bag yield

Joint area
total plan area of the gaps between pavers
Bag yield
about 1.2 ft³ from a 50 lb bag

Worked example

A 16 ft by 12 ft patio, 1 in bedding, 1/8 in joints, 2⅜ in pavers, 10% waste.

  1. 16 ft × 12 ft = 192 ft²
  2. 1 in ÷ 12 = 0.083 ft
  3. 192 × 0.083 = 16 ft³ of bedding
  4. 16 × 1.10 = 17.6 ft³, or 0.65 yd³
  5. 17.6 ft³ × 100 lb = 1,760 lb, about 0.88 tons
  6. Joints take roughly 4 bags of 50 lb polymeric sand

0.65 cubic yards of bedding and 4 bags of joint sand

Understanding your results

Use the right sand for each job. Bedding wants a coarse, sharp concrete sand that screeds cleanly and does not hold water. Joint sand is finer and graded to lock into a narrow gap. Builders sand in either position tends to wash out and stay damp.

Buy an extra bag of joint sand rather than one too few. Polymeric sand has to be swept in, compacted and topped up in a single session before watering, and stopping halfway to fetch another bag leaves a visible line where the batches meet.

Questions

About this calculator

Ask something else

You can, but it washes out of the joints in heavy rain and weeds seed into it readily. Bedding sand is graded coarse for drainage and screeding; joint sand is graded to pack tightly into a narrow gap. They are not interchangeable.

Because it is a levelling layer, not a structural one. Sand deeper than about an inch and a half moves under load and the pavers settle unevenly. Any levelling beyond that should be done in the compacted base, not the sand.

Install it bone dry, sweep every grain off the paver faces before watering, then blow the surface with a leaf blower. Any polymer dust left on the surface sets there. Follow the watering instructions on the bag exactly — over-watering flushes the binder out of the joints.

No. The bedding sand goes straight onto the compacted base. Adding a loose layer between them just gives the assembly somewhere else to move.

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Estimates, not specifications. Results are based on the values you enter and on typical material properties. Densities, coverage rates and product sizes vary between suppliers, so confirm quantities against your supplier's data before ordering. Structural work must be signed off by a qualified professional and meet your local building code.