Paver Patio Cost per Square Foot: Our Material List vs Installed Bids

Paver patio cost pages tend to give one range per square foot for a job that is really two: a list of materials you can count, and a block of labor you cannot see. The first part is arithmetic. The second part is a bid. This guide gives you the arithmetic for five common sizes, puts the installed ranges from two named cost sites beside it, says what the labor covers, and tells you which numbers we have and which we do not.

We are not a contractor and we do not quote labor. A quantity is ours when it comes from our own paver calculator and its numbered rules. A price range is quoted only when we name the source and the date in the sentence. Where we have no figure, we say so instead of borrowing one.

Paver Patio Cost per Square Foot

A paver patio costs the materials plus the work of laying them. Per square foot, the materials are the pavers, the gravel base, the bedding sand, the joint sand and the edge restraint. The work is digging, compacting, screeding, laying, cutting and sweeping. Cost sites usually fold both into one rate, which is why two pages can disagree by a factor of two and both be right for a different job.

Installed, by source

We opened three sources on November 6, 2026:

• HomeGuide (written September 18, 2024) lists $10 to $17 per sq ft installed, $1,400 to $2,500 for a 12x12 and $3,800 to $6,800 for a 20x20. It puts installation labor at $6 to $11 per sq ft, and says a two-person crew lays about 100 sq ft of pavers a day.
• HomeAdvisor (updated June 17, 2026) gives $8 to $25 per sq ft, and up to $50 for high-end stone such as flagstone. Its average job is $3,800 for a 280 sq ft patio, with most between $2,400 and $7,000. Labor is $50 to $80 an hour, or $4 to $11 per sq ft, and a 300 sq ft patio takes 35 to 40 hours.
• The 2023 Remodeling Impact Report from the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) priced one specific job, an 18x16 concrete paver patio dry set over a compacted gravel and sand base, at $10,500 nationally. That is about $36 per sq ft, well above both sites, and it is a single landscape professional estimate, not a range.

The spread is the useful lesson. A rate that leaves out the base, the soil removal or a simple shape is a floor, not a price. Ask any bid which of the three it includes.

Materials

The material list comes from the same engine as our paver calculator. It starts from the patio area, adds a cutting allowance for the pattern, and sizes the layers under the pavers. The table further down shows the result for five sizes. For the dollars on your own lines, use the patio cost calculator, which prices them with the numbers you enter.

We priced the lines at Home Depot, Hamilton Mill store, on November 6, 2026, before tax and delivery: Pavestone Holland concrete pavers at $5.15 per sq ft, Pavestone paver base at $6.47 and paver sand at $5.97 per 0.5 cu ft bag, and ProFlex paver edging at $14.97 per 6 ft piece, with the polymeric sand and edging spikes from Lowe’s the same day. All in bags, the materials for a 12x16 patio come to about $2,538.53, or $13.22 per sq ft. Yard prices vary by city, by season and by whether you buy by the pallet, the bag or the ton, so price your own list at your own supplier, and ask for delivery in the same quote.

Where the labor goes

Labor is the larger part of the installed rate on HomeGuide’s split, and most of it is in the work you cannot see once the patio is finished.

• Dig-out. The excavation has to take out the sod, the topsoil and enough soil for the base, the sand and the paver thickness. That soil has to go somewhere. Call 811 before you dig, in every case.
• Base compaction. The gravel goes in in layers and is compacted with a plate compactor. A thicker base means more gravel, more passes and more time.
• Cuts. Every edge that meets a curve, a wall or a drain needs cut pavers. Herringbone at 45 degrees means more cuts than running bond, and more waste. HomeAdvisor names herringbone as a pattern that raises labor.

The labor in a bid also covers the bedding screed, the laying, the edge restraint and sweeping in the joint sand. None of this is in a materials list, and none of it is free if you do it yourself, because it costs a weekend or two.

Paver Patio Cost by Size

First the installed ranges each site prints for these sizes. HomeGuide is its September 18, 2024 page, HomeAdvisor its June 17, 2026 page, both read November 6, 2026, and both include labor. Where a site prints no row for a size we leave it empty rather than stretch its figures.

Then the material list under each. The table is for 6x9 in pavers and for 12x12 in pavers, both laid in running bond with 5% cutting allowance, a 1/8 in joint, a 4 in gravel base and a 1 in bedding sand layer. Gravel and sand include the 10% ordering allowance. All four sides are free edges, so every side takes edge restraint. A side that butts a house wall does not need it.

Edge restraint is sold in 10 ft lengths with a spike about every 12 in. Polymeric sand is counted at 50 sq ft per 50 lb bag, a starting figure, and your bag’s printed coverage for your joint width wins. Tons use 1.4 tons per cu yd for crushed gravel and 1.35 for damp concrete sand, so ask your yard for the weight of the product you order.

The paver count is by far the biggest swing between the two paver sizes, and the base is the heaviest thing to move. A 20x20 patio needs more than seven and a half tons of gravel and less than two tons of sand.

The material list, priced

Here are the same lines with Home Depot Hamilton Mill shelf prices read November 6, 2026, before tax and delivery. The pavers are priced by area plus the 5% running bond allowance, at $5.15 per sq ft for Pavestone Holland 7.75 x 4 in concrete pavers (model 22099), so the dollars do not depend on the 6x9 count. Base is Pavestone paver base (model 98001) at $6.47 per 0.5 cu ft bag, sand is Pavestone paver sand (model 98000) at $5.97 per 0.5 cu ft bag, and edging is ProFlex paver edging (model 1260-HD) at $14.97 per 6 ft piece. The only polymeric sand Home Depot listed was a 40 lb premium bag for joints up to 4 in wide, at $89.00, so the joint sand is EZ Sand 35 lb at $30.48 from Lowe’s (near Chamblee, Georgia, read the same day), counted at our starting coverage of 1 sq ft per lb, 35 sq ft a bag. The edging spikes, one every 12 in, are Expert Edge 8.5 in spikes at $10.13 for a 16-pack, also from Lowe’s (Atlanta-Edgewood) that day.

Home Depot shows lower prices from 64 bags of base or sand ($5.82 and $5.37) and from 12 pieces of edging ($13.47), so the bigger patios come down a little.

Two things stand out. Bagged base is the biggest line after the pavers, about $4.76 per sq ft at 4 in, which is why a delivery of bulk gravel from a yard is worth a quote on any patio past a few dozen bags. Gravelshop listed crushed stone delivered at $64.17 to $86.38 per ton on November 6, 2026, but only in truckloads of 18 to 24 tons, so ask a local yard for a small load. And our bagged materials for a 20x20 sit inside HomeGuide’s installed range of $3,800 to $6,800, which says that range assumes bulk materials and a simple job.

20x20 paver patio

A 20x20 is 400 sq ft, the size where the base starts to feel like a job for a delivery and a plate compactor, not a few wheelbarrows. HomeGuide lists it at $3,800 to $6,800 installed. In 6x9 pavers it is 1,083 pavers, in 12x12 it is 412. Fewer, bigger pavers mean fewer joints to sweep and fewer to lay, though large pavers cut less forgivingly around curves. At HomeGuide’s rate of about 100 sq ft a day for a two-person crew, it is about four crew days of laying.

Small patios

A 10x10 is 100 sq ft and takes 271 pavers of 6x9 size. Small patios can cost more per square foot at the low end of the range. HomeAdvisor’s averages stay near $18 per sq ft from 10x10 to 16x20, but its low end falls from $8 to about $6 per sq ft as the patio grows. The fixed parts, such as renting a compactor, delivering a small load of gravel and mobilizing a crew, are spread over fewer square feet on a small job. Ask a contractor whether there is a minimum charge.

What Changes the Price

The size is not the only lever. Five choices change the list more than most people expect.

Paver size and type

Concrete pavers are the baseline in these tables. Brick pavers, natural stone and permeable pavers are different materials with different rules, and we have not priced them. Paver size changes the count a lot: the same 20x20 patio is 1,083 pavers of 6x9 or 412 of 12x12. Fewer, bigger pavers mean fewer pieces to buy, but a pallet of large pavers is heavy and a mis-cut costs more. Ask for the price per paver and per square foot, and use the square-foot figure to compare.

Pattern and waste

The pattern sets the cutting allowance. We use 5% for running bond, stack bond and basket weave, 10% for herringbone laid 90 degrees to the edge, and 15% for herringbone at 45 degrees (rule HS-PAVER-01, an editorial allowance based on what installers quote). On a 20x20 patio, that allowance is the difference between about 1,083 pavers in running bond and about 1,134 in herringbone, which also adds hours at the saw. HomeGuide advises ordering 10% extra, and 20% for angled patterns.

Base depth

A base of 4 in works on firm, well-drained soil. On clay or soft soil we start at 6 in or more (HS-PAVER-02). Both are our editorial starting points for foot traffic, so confirm the depth with your paver maker’s installation guide. Each extra inch of base on a 20x20 patio is about 1.36 cu yd of gravel at our ordering allowance, plus the compaction time.

Edge restraint

Every free edge needs restraint, or the pavers creep outward (HS-PAVER-07). A patio that butts a house wall on one side needs less of it. The restraint is cheap next to the pavers, but it is one more line that cost pages skip.

Polymeric sand

Polymeric sand is the joint filler that sets after wetting (HS-PAVER-06). Coverage depends on joint width and paver size, so a patio of small pavers with wide joints uses more bags than one of large pavers with narrow joints. Use the coverage printed on your bag.

DIY Paver Patio: What You Rent and Buy

Doing it yourself removes the labor line, which HomeGuide puts at $6 to $11 per sq ft and HomeAdvisor at $4 to $11, and adds a rental line. You rent or buy a plate compactor for the base, a wet saw or a splitter for the cuts, and a screed rail and a rubber mallet for the bed. You also buy the materials above, and you pay for the delivery of the gravel, which is often a separate charge from the store.

Countbricks, a rental cost planning site, puts a standard 18 to 20 in plate compactor at $65 to $110 a day (Louisville, July 26, 2026) and a 14 in handheld cut-off saw at $85 to $160 a day before the blade (Charlotte, March 23, 2026). A 20x20 patio is often two or three days of base and cutting, so budget the rental by the day you will actually use it, and ask your rental counter for its own rate and the deposit.

The time is the other cost. HomeAdvisor puts a 300 sq ft patio at 35 to 40 hours for a professional. A first-timer takes longer. If you want to see what the work involves before you decide, run your own size through the paver calculator and read the order list back as a day-by-day plan.

Pavers or Concrete

Both are patios, and they fail in different ways.

Cost

A 4 in concrete slab for 400 sq ft needs 5.43 cu yd of concrete with a 10% order allowance (HS-SLAB-01, HS-SLAB-02, HS-UNIT-01). A paver patio of the same size needs 1,083 pavers, a gravel base and bedding sand. Installed, HomeGuide lists a plain concrete 20x20 at $1,600 to $4,800 (July 2025) against $3,800 to $6,800 for pavers. See our concrete patio cost guide for the slab side, our stamped concrete patio cost guide for a patterned slab, and our flagstone patio cost guide for natural stone.

Repairs and drainage

A single cracked slab is hard to fix. A single stained or sunken paver can be lifted and replaced, and a settled patch can be relaid. Pavers with a sound base let water pass through the joints, though a patio still needs a slope away from the house. A slab sheds water off its surface and needs control joints, which we cover in the concrete guide. Which fails first depends on the base under both, so budget for the base either way.

Can You Lay Pavers on Dirt or Over Concrete

On dirt. Not directly. The soil has to be dug out and replaced with a compacted gravel base, with 1 in of ASTM C33 concrete sand on top (HS-PAVER-03). Pavers laid on bare dirt move with every rain and every frost.

Over concrete. It can be done on a sound, well-drained slab. A slab that is cracked, heaving or draining toward the house is not a base. Check with your paver maker before you commit, and expect the height of the pavers and the bed to raise the patio against doors and steps.

What to Do Next

Run your own size through the paver calculator to get the quantities, then put prices on the lines with the patio cost calculator. If the patio sits below grade or beside a slope, read about the wall that holds it in our retaining wall calculator, and call 811 before you dig. Then ask two or three contractors for itemized bids and hold them against your own list and the ranges above.