# Paver Patio Prep, base amounts



## bartic (May 11, 2008)

Hey,
Last year i had a contractor in to lay a paver walkway in my front yard, well he walked so i finished it myself. Recently i have decided to make a paver patio in my backyard. The problem is that i don't know how much screening to order as the contractor did it last time. The area is a little under 200 sq feet. I was going to excavate 9 inches for 5inches of screening 1 of bedding sand then the pavers. So how much screening should i order? Is a 5 inch depth too much?

Thx in advance


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## KUIPORNG (Jan 11, 2006)

*5" sub-base is a bit high but no harm...*

I think you are talking about sub-base... 4" is the depth being specified everywere in books/internet.... but I bet many contractor don't do that much to save digging and sub-base gravels...

if you dig 5" it is more than enough as long as you have room for your digged out soil and if digging 5" is not that difficult in your site...

experience told me these:

1. if your site has good soil, then no problem in whatevery depth you want... but if your site has little good soil.... then clay underneath for example... digging out a deep depth becomes difficult if not inpractical and then you would like to go for the minium requirement which is 4".

2. sometimes you can take the chance to change the grade a little bit so rather than dig 5" or 4" the same everywhere to retain your original grade. You may want to dig more or less here or there to obtain a better final surface... for example has grade change not as sharp here but sharper there.... it all depends on your site siutation... but if you have a simple quite levelled 200 sq. ft... then no need to worry about this...


I am doing my 600 sq. ft now and is kind of 2/3 finished in the digging stage and above is what I observed...

I also design a DIYer's digging method.... I am sure pro don't do that... but I find this method is very good for DIYers: set up lines in North/South direction if the padio door is run East/West direction say... then use a paper clip to attach a string and nail. then hang the paper clip along the line and move around to get the depth to dig.... get the idea...?


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## 47_47 (Sep 11, 2007)

5 ton


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## sammyjk1 (Feb 13, 2008)

if you have 200 sq.ft. and want 5" of base use this formula. divide 5 by 12 = .4166 then multiply that by 200 sq. ft. = 83.33 cubic feet of base.


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## 47_47 (Sep 11, 2007)

83.33/27*1.5=4.6 or 5 tons :yes:


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