Pavers, bedding sand and subbase from the area, the pattern and the depths you set.
Groundwork and site clearance. 5 questions answered below, each with the arithmetic behind it and the limits of what the tool decides. Open the Paving and Block Paving tool.
Paving is a surface over a structure, and both are bought by different measures. The pavers follow the area and the pattern, the bedding and subbase follow the area and the depth, and the edge restraint follows the perimeter, which is why a paving estimate that starts and ends with a paver count is only half a takeoff. The calculator keeps the three apart and lets you set each depth, because those depths are specification decisions rather than defaults. A driveway and a garden path do not share a subbase, and a change from one to the other changes the granular volume by more than it changes the paver count. Where a depth is left blank, the page asks rather than choosing.
A driveway of forty eight square metres in two hundred by one hundred millimetre pavers, at a ten millimetre joint, comes to about two thousand two hundred pavers before cutting, and a herringbone pattern adds close to ten percent for the cuts at the edges. Bedding sand at thirty millimetres is one point four cubic metres. Subbase at a hundred and fifty millimetres is seven point two cubic metres, which is around fourteen tonnes once compacted density is applied. Edge restraint runs the perimeter, eighteen metres for an eight by six rectangle, less the driveway opening. The pavers changed by nothing when the subbase depth changed, which is why the two are separate lines.
Area divided by the area of one paver including its joint, then rounded up, with a cutting allowance for the pattern. A two hundred by one hundred paver at a ten millimetre joint covers about two hundred and thirty one square centimetres of finished surface, so forty eight square metres needs roughly two thousand two hundred. The count comes back in whole pavers, and the pattern adds to it, because herringbone cuts differently from a stack bond.
Yes, through the cutting allowance. A stack bond in a rectangular area loses very little to cuts, a running bond loses more at the edges, and a herringbone or basket weave loses more again because the offcuts rarely fit anywhere. The calculator applies the allowance for the pattern you select, so the same area in two patterns produces two different paver counts, which matches what a paver layer would order.
Both are calculated from the area and the depths you enter, not assumed. Bedding sand is a thickness over the whole area, and subbase is a greater thickness that is compacted to a finished level, so it is ordered as a loose volume or a tonnage. Because the depths are yours, a garden path at a hundred millimetres of subbase and a driveway at two hundred are priced as the different jobs they are.
No, they are inputs. Subbase and bedding depths follow from the traffic, the ground and the drainage, and they are the difference between a pavement that lasts and one that ruts in the first wet season. The calculator asks for the depths your specification calls for and shows the volumes they imply, so you can see the material cost of a specification change before you commit to it.
Edge restraint is calculated from the perimeter, less the openings you enter, and it is included as a line because it is bought by the metre and often forgotten. A pavement that is not restrained at its edges spreads, whatever the subbase. The perimeter also gives you the length of any channel or kerb you are adding, which is why the takeoff asks for the plan rather than only the area.