Paver Base Calculator for Indiana Patios and Drive Aprons

Two paved jobs in the same yard can differ by more than ten times in stone. A 3 by 20 ft garden walk needs about 1.6 tons under it. A 20 by 25 ft apron where a truck parks, on the heavy clay that covers most of this state, needs closer to 20. Same pavers, same installer, same afternoon of measuring. The difference is depth, and on ground that freezes 30 inches down and holds water above that, the depth is not a preference. This paver base calculator settles the tonnage once you have decided it.

A Garden Walk and a Truck Apron, Twelve Times Apart in Stone

The walk, 3 ft by 20 ft, is 60 sq ft of pavers. The apron, 20 ft by 25 ft, is 500 sq ft. Foot traffic on the walk takes 4 compacted inches of base. The apron takes 8, because vehicles and a soft clay subgrade each add depth. Run both and the gap is stark:

Eight times the paved area, twelve times the stone. That multiplier is worth knowing before anyone starts digging, because it is also the point at which a wheelbarrow job becomes a machine job.

The Six Inches Beyond the Pavers That Belong in the Length Box

The base is wider than the patio. Extend it 6 inches past every exposed paver edge, because that shelf is what the edge restraint sits on, and edge restraint pinned into lawn soil lasts about one spring.

• The walk has four exposed sides, so its base measures 4 ft by 21 ft, not 3 by 20. That is 84 sq ft.
• The apron butts a garage on one side, so three sides get the extension: 21 ft by 25.5 ft, or 536 sq ft.

Then the tool itself:

1. Choose rectangle, circle or multiple areas, which takes up to five pieces and totals them. An L-shaped patio is two rectangles.
2. Enter the base dimensions in feet, overhang included.
3. Enter the compacted depth in inches, from 0.25 to 24.
4. Choose the material.
5. Leave the 10% box for compaction and spillage ticked. On a base course, always.
6. Read cubic yards, tons and cubic feet, then email yourself the figures before you lose the scrap of paper.

Dig depth is a separate sum and worth marking on a stake before the spade goes in: base, plus 1 inch of bedding, plus the paver thickness, less whatever reveal you want above the lawn. A 4 inch base under a 2 3/8 inch paver comes to roughly 7.5 inches of excavation.

Paver Base at 1.50 Tons a Yard, Read Off a Compacted Four Inches

Dense graded stone is published here at about 3,000 lb per cubic yard, or 1.50 tons. At a compacted 4 inches, one ton covers about 54 sq ft. At 6 inches it covers 36, and at 8 inches, 27.

The clay line is the one that catches people out on a till plain. Ground that drains slowly stays soft under the base through late winter, and stone pressed into soft clay is stone that has left the base. Fabric under the layer keeps the two apart.

Lifts, Frost and the Stone You Will Actually Place

• Compact in 2 inch lifts. A 6 inch base is three passes, not one. Mist each lift lightly, because dense graded stone packs tighter damp than dry.
• Build the fall in at base level. A 2 to 3% slope away from the house, set in the compacted stone, carries through the sand and the pavers above it.
• Expect to place more than you measured. Stone settles into an uneven subgrade, corners get overfilled, and the 10% allowance is a floor rather than a ceiling on soft ground. Round up to the next half ton.
• Do not solve a wavy base with deeper sand. Sand moves. Depth belongs in the stone.

Frost is the reason all of this matters more here than it would on free-draining ground. Nothing you build goes below the frost line, so the defense is a base that drains and a subgrade that is not sitting wet under it.

#53 Stone Underneath, Screenings Only as a Skim on Top

#53 stone is the dense graded size Indiana specifies for compacted base, and it is what the full 4 or more inches should be. Limestone screenings belong in a thin leveling skim over compacted base, never as the base itself, because fine material with nothing coarse in it holds water and pumps under traffic. If you want the finer dense graded size for a topping course elsewhere on the drive, that is #73 stone and it has its own tool, the crusher run calculator.

Two other quantities sit either side of this one, and each has its own tool:

• The 1 inch bedding layer above the base is sand, not stone, and is sized with the paver sand calculator.
• The soil coming out of the hole is sized with the dirt calculator run in reverse, which is worth doing before you discover the spoil pile will not fit on the drive.

Take the tonnage to the product page, set your quantity and pick a date there. Delivery is arranged at checkout by ZIP code, and the truck needs clear access to a spot where the pile can be tipped, ideally on the drive rather than on the lawn you are about to rebuild. Where the subgrade is soft enough to raise doubts about the depth, ask before you dig through the contact page.

Common questions

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