Patio cost calculator

How the patio cost calculator works

Pick a material, enter the shape, and the calculator lists every item the patio needs, with a dated price where we have read one. It adds the priced lines into a total and divides by the area for a cost per square foot. Rows we did not read at a store are marked est. and say where the figure came from.

Materials from our quantity calculators

The pavers, gravel base, leveling sand, polymeric sand and edge restraint come from the same code as the paver calculator. The bags of mix, the base, the mesh or rebar and the formwork come from the concrete slab calculator. A 12x16 ft patio is 192 sq ft whichever material you pick, so you can flip between them and compare like for like.

Prices we read and the ones we did not

Lines with a shelf price today: 80 lb concrete mix at $6.47, a 2x4x8 ft form board at $4.88, a 0.5 cu ft bag of paver base at $6.47, a 0.5 cu ft bag of paver sand at $5.97, 6 ft of paver edging at $14.97 and the Pavestone Holland paver, sold at $5.15 per sq ft, which we price at $1.11 a paver (marked est.). From Lowe's: a 35 lb bag of polymeric sand at $30.48, a 3.5 x 7 ft mesh sheet at $10.88 and quartzite flagstone at $6.38 per sq ft. No. 3 rebar for the grid is $5.98 a 10 ft stick. Every other paver size, the edge spikes and the drain pipe carry a price too, with est. where we did not read it at a store. Type your store's price into any row and the total updates.

Paver vs concrete patio cost

Per square foot for a 12x16 ft patio

Installed figures are HomeGuide's, read Nov 6, 2026. The 12x16 ft slab takes 2.6 cu yd of concrete, 118 bags of 80 lb mix at $6.47, which is more than a pallet, so ready-mix by the yard is the other way to buy it: at HomeGuide's $120.00 to $150.00 per cubic yard delivered, about $312.89 to $391.11 for the concrete alone. The paver row uses the Holland paver, the one we have a shelf price for; in 6 by 9 in pavers the paver line is not priced yet.

What the price leaves out: digging, haul-off, tools

The material total leaves out excavation, hauling away the soil, a plate compactor, a screed board, a saw for the pavers, delivery and sales tax. Digging out the base depth plus the sand plus the paver is the heaviest part of a paver patio. Call 811 before you dig.

Stamped concrete and flagstone

Stamped concrete is a plain slab plus color, release and patterned mats, placed and stamped by a crew while the concrete is still workable. The calculator lists the plain slab as the floor of the material cost and sets HomeGuide's $8.00 to $19.00 per sq ft beside it, because there is no honest DIY list for the stamping.

Stone yards sell flagstone by the ton, and a ton covers a different area for each stone and thickness, so the calculator prices it by the square foot instead: quartzite flagstone at $6.38 per sq ft at Lowe's, with 10% extra for cuts. A yard price by the ton is often lower; type its square foot price into the row. The base and the sand are counted as for pavers. HomeGuide lists a dry-laid flagstone patio at $15.00 to $32.00 per sq ft installed.

DIY or installed

Next to the material total the calculator shows the installed range per square foot for your material and your area, with the source and the date we read it. If the installed figure is close to your material total plus your weekends, a crew is the better buy. If it is far above, the saving is the labor, and on a paver patio it is a lot of labor: the base has to be dug, laid and compacted in lifts.

The guides on paver patio cost and concrete patio cost set common sizes side by side. For quantities alone, use the paver calculator or the concrete slab calculator.

After the patio: a cover or pergola

A patio gets used more with shade over it. The patio cover designer sizes a cover over the patio, posts and footings included, and the plan with the cut list is $39. A pergola plan is $29. Both are ordered from the designer.