How to install pavers: a 12x16 patio from excavation to polymeric sand

How deep do you dig for a paver patio?

Dig 7-3/8 in below the finished surface for a foot-traffic patio of 2-3/8 in pavers on well-drained soil, and deeper for driveways or poor soil. A paver patio is a stack, and the dig is the sum of the stack. The Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute's construction guide, Tech Spec 2, sets the minimums. For patios, walks and other foot traffic on well-drained soil, the aggregate base is at least 4 in after compaction. Residential driveways need at least 6 in. In cold climates, or on soil that stays wet or is weak, add 2 to 4 in to either.

Over the base goes a nominal 1 in of bedding sand, screeded loose. Then the paver, 2-3/8 in thick for the Holland paver in this case. So 4 + 1 + 2-3/8 = 7-3/8 in below the finished surface. Mutual Materials' instructions say to excavate at least 7 in below the final paver elevation and to finish the base 3 in below it, which matches.

The base also runs wider than the patio. Unilock's guidance is to extend it past the paved edge by a distance equal to its depth, so 4 in all around here. The pavers at the edge sit on the same support as the ones in the middle, and the edge restraint has something solid to spike into.

Build in the slope before any stone arrives. ICPI's minimum is 1.5%; Mutual Materials says 1/8 to 1/4 in per foot. Across the 12 ft width, 1.5% is 2.16 in of fall, and 1/8 in per foot is 1.5 in. Set the grade stakes so water runs away from the house, and cut the slope into the soil, so every layer above it is an even thickness.

How many pavers and bags of base for a 12x16 patio?

You need 1,015 pavers, 155 half-cubic-foot bags of base and 32 bags of bedding sand, counted as follows. Menards lists the 4 x 8 Holland paver at an actual 3-7/8 x 7-7/8 in, which is 4.72 pavers per sq ft. Through the tile calculator's module, 192 sq ft is 906 pavers net; with the module's 12% allowance for running bond, you buy 1,015. At 5% it would be 952, which saves $42.84. Take the 12%: the cuts at all four edges eat whole pavers, and a matching paver from a later pallet is not guaranteed.

The base footprint is 12 ft 8 in by 16 ft 8 in, 211.1 sq ft. At 4 in compacted that is 70.37 cu ft, or 2.61 cubic yards, computed with the concrete calculator's slab function. That is 141 half-cubic-foot bags if the bag volume compacted perfectly, which it does not. I add 10% for compaction and grade variation and buy 155. Bedding sand is 192 sq ft x 1 in = 16 cu ft, or 32 bags.

Polymeric sand coverage depends on joint width and paver depth. At the bag's 60 sq ft you need 4 bags; at 30 sq ft you need 7. Five covers the middle (45 sq ft a bag), and an unopened bag goes back. The edging: the patio perimeter is 56 ft, so three 24 ft kits give 72 ft of edging and 48 spikes, and one extra pack brings it to 58, enough for a spike every 12 in, the loose end of Mutual Materials' 8 to 12 in spacing.

Two numbers to plan around. The pavers weigh 5.8 lb each, so 1,015 of them are about 5,887 lb. Plan on delivery. And 155 bags of base is a lot of bag handling for 2.6 cubic yards of stone; ask a local yard what a bulk load of the same material costs delivered before you buy bags.

What tools do you need to install pavers?

A plate compactor first, and it is not optional. ICPI's method compacts three times: the soil, the base, and the pavers themselves, the last with a plate of at least 5,000 lbf of force running at 75 to 90 hertz. Rentd's July 2026 survey puts plate compactor rental at $50 to $150 a day, and this job needs it on two different days (base, then pavers), so price two. Menards rents a mason wet saw with a 14 in blade for $58 per 4 hours; a double-blade splitter also works for straight cuts. Cutting concrete pavers makes silica dust, which ICPI flags, so cut wet or with dust control.

Also needed: square shovels, a wheelbarrow, a rake, string line and stakes, a line level or laser, a 4 ft level, two 1 in pipes as screed rails and a straight 2 x 4 to strike off the sand, a rubber mallet, a push broom, and a hose with a shower nozzle for the polymeric sand.

How to install pavers, step by step

1. Call 811 a few business days ahead and wait for the marks. Check: every utility the service lists has responded before the first shovel.
2. Lay out the patio with stakes set slightly outside the work area, strings at finished height, and the slope marked on the stakes. Check: the diagonals of the rectangle match (square), and the strings fall 2.16 in across the 12 ft width, away from the house.
3. Excavate to 7-3/8 in below the strings, and 4 in wider than the patio on every side. Check: measure down from the string every few feet; the bottom follows the slope and has no soft spots.
4. Compact the soil. ICPI asks for at least 98% standard Proctor density. Soil should be moist, without visible water. Check: the plate stops leaving marks and your boot leaves no print. Dig out and replace soft spots with base.
5. Lay geotextile on the soil if it stays wet or is weak, overlapped at least 12 in down slope. Check: no bare soil at the laps.
6. Spread the base in two lifts of about 2 in each and compact each one. Unilock notes most plate compactors will not compact more than 4 in at a time, and ICPI allows 4 to 6 in lifts only with a 7,000 lbf plate. Check: the top of the compacted base is 3-3/8 in below the strings everywhere, and a 10 ft straightedge shows no more than 3/8 in of variation (ICPI's tolerance).
7. Install the edge restraint on the base, tight to the planned paver line, with a spike every 8 to 12 in. Check: at least 1 in of the restraint's vertical face will touch the side of the edge pavers, the minimum ICPI asks for.
8. Set the screed pipes on the base, spread the sand over them, and strike it off with the 2 x 4. Remove the pipes and fill the grooves by hand. Do not compact the sand, and do not walk on it. Check: a loose, even 1 in layer. If you find yourself using sand to fill a dip, stop and fix the base.
9. Lay the pavers from a corner, straight down onto the sand without sliding, keeping the joints between 1/16 and 3/16 in (the built-in spacers hold that). Pull string lines every few rows to keep the joints straight. Check: no open joint wider than 3/16 in, and any edge gap over 3/8 in gets a cut paver, per ICPI.
10. Cut the edge pieces with the wet saw and fit them. Check: cut pieces are not tiny slivers at the edge; shift the layout by half a paver if they are.
11. Compact the pavers with at least two passes of the plate (a rubber pad protects the face), sweep in dry joint sand, and compact again. ICPI says to compact everything within 6 ft of an unrestrained edge at the end of each day. Check: the surface is flat under a straightedge and no paver rocks.
12. Sweep in the polymeric sand on a dry day, vibrate it into the joints, top up, then sweep and blow every grain off the paver faces. Check: the sand sits at least 1/8 in below the top of the paver or its chamfer. Mist with the shower setting per the bag, without washing sand out of the joints.

Are pavers cheaper than a concrete slab?

No. The same 12 x 16 ft patio poured in 4 in concrete comes to $3,356.63 hired and $1,411.96 in materials if you do the work yourself, on this site's concrete slab cost guide. Pavers cost $708.31 more as a DIY job and $679.32 more hired, in direct cost. What the extra buys is repair: a cracked or sunken paver comes out and goes back, while a cracked slab panel is a saw-and-pour job. If you want the cheapest flat surface, pour concrete. If you want a surface you can fix one piece at a time, lay pavers. For what can and cannot be patched on an existing slab, see the concrete crack repair guide.

Mistakes that cost money

The relay figure is the $602.95 base plus 24 crew-hours at the loaded laborer rate below. It assumes the pavers come up whole and go back down, which they usually do. That is the paver advantage again.

Is it cheaper to lay pavers yourself?

Yes, by $1,915.68 against the direct cost of a hired crew on this patio, paid for in about 50 hours of heavy work. BLS does not publish a national wage line for paver installers, so I price the crew as construction laborers (SOC 47-2061): a national mean of $25.02 an hour in May 2025. Wages are 69.0% of total compensation in the construction, extraction, farming, fishing and forestry occupations row of the June 2026 employer cost survey ($32.17 of $46.65), so the loaded hour is $25.02 x 46.65 / 32.17 = $36.28. I allow a three-person crew two days, 48 crew-hours, for the full job from layout to polymeric sand.

That lands inside Angi's $2,400 to $7,000 national range and above its $3,800 average, which covers patios of every size and material. A bid adds overhead and profit to the direct cost. Across the scenarios, the DIY cost runs from $1,929.06 (5% paver waste, four bags of polymeric sand, a $50 compactor day) to $2,679.28 (a 6 in base for poor soil, seven bags of polymeric sand, a $150 compactor day).

Doing it yourself saves $4,035.95 − $2,120.27 = $1,915.68 against the direct cost. Over my 50-hour allowance for two first-timers, that is $38.31 an hour, a little above the loaded laborer rate. The work is heavy and the base has to be right the first time. If your back or your weekends are the limit, hire out the excavation and base, the heaviest part, and lay the pavers yourself.