Paving Cost Calculator (South Africa): Patios & Driveways

It depends on the paver size, but a standard 200 x 100mm interlocking paver works out to 50 pavers per square metre before waste. Measure your area, then add extra for waste from cutting at edges and corners, typically 7 percent for a stretcher or basketweave pattern and 10 percent for herringbone, more for a complex shape with many corners or curves. Divide that total area by the area of one paver to get the paver count. For example, 24 square metres in a stretcher pattern needs about 25.7 square metres of paver, which is 1,284 pavers at 200 x 100mm each. The calculator above does this for your own measurements and paver size.

A pedestrian-only patio or walkway can use a lighter 50mm paver. A residential driveway carrying vehicles needs at least a 60mm paver, and heavy-duty or industrial applications use 80mm. These are the standard South African stock thicknesses. Going thinner than recommended for the load risks cracking, going thicker than needed only adds cost without improving performance.

For a driveway, a well compacted G5 crusher-run sub-base of 150mm is essential, this is what actually carries the vehicle load, not the pavers themselves. For a pedestrian-only patio it is still the recommended, longer-lasting option, though compacting the existing soil alone is a cheaper alternative for light foot traffic, with a higher risk of the paving settling or sagging over time. Never skip a proper sub-base on a driveway to save cost, it is the single biggest reason paving fails.

Screed bedding sand, sometimes just called paving sand, loose to 30 to 40mm, it compacts down to 25 to 35mm once the pavers are laid and vibrated. Never use bedding sand to build up a slope or level out a dip, that should be done in the sub-base layer beneath it, using bedding sand for levelling causes it to compress unevenly under load.

Yes, they are two separate materials for two separate jobs. Bedding sand is the layer the pavers sit on. Jointing sand, usually a finer plaster sand, is swept bone-dry into the narrow joints between pavers after they are laid and compacted. Jointing sand is what locks the pavers together and distributes load across the whole paved area, without it pavers can shift and the paving fails.

You need two different amounts, for two different sands. Bedding sand, the layer the pavers sit on, is screeded to 30 to 40mm over the whole area, so a 24 square metre patio at 35mm needs about 0.84 cubic metres, roughly 34 bags of 40kg sand. Jointing sand, the finer sand swept into the joints afterward, is a much smaller amount, worked out from the joint width and paver size, typically only 2 or 3 bags for the same area. The calculator above works out both amounts for your own area, paver size and joint width.

Often, yes, especially for larger driveway jobs, alongside the option to buy loose per square metre for smaller patios. How many square metres a pallet covers varies by paver size, thickness and supplier, so check your own supplier's pallet coverage rather than assume a figure. The calculator above gives you the exact area and paver count you need first, then you can work out how many pallets or loose square metres that comes to with your supplier.

Without a solid edge, pavers at the border of the paved area creep sideways under load, opening up the joints, losing the jointing sand and eventually failing across the whole area, not just at the edge. The standard fix is an edge course of pavers or kerbs bedded on 75mm of concrete and haunched with at least 75mm of concrete at the back, built with a moist mix of 4 parts sand to 1 part cement. Trying to add an edge restraint after the paving is already down, by digging a trench and filling it with wet concrete, does not work and typically fails within months.

Herringbone. Interlocking pavers laid in a herringbone pattern resist the sideways spread of joints under vehicle load far better than a straight stretcher pattern, which is why it is the industry standard for driveways. It is important to avoid continuous straight joints running in the direction vehicles travel. Stretcher (running bond) or basketweave patterns are fine for patios and walkways, which only carry foot traffic.

Straightforward, level patios are a realistic DIY project if you follow the sub-base, bedding and edge restraint steps properly, most paving failures come from skipping or rushing these layers, not from the pavers themselves. Driveways are more demanding, since they need to carry vehicle weight and often involve drainage falls and a thicker, better compacted sub-base, and any sloped, clay-soil or commercial job is worth handing to a contractor or engineer. The calculator's labour estimate above gives you a sense of what a professional would add to the materials cost.

Yes. A driveway needs a transverse fall of roughly 1 in 50 and a longitudinal fall of roughly 1 in 80 so that surface water runs off rather than ponding, built into the sub-base and formation layers, never achieved by varying the bedding sand depth. Paving should also sit slightly proud, 5 to 10mm higher, than any drain or channel it drains into.

A flexible installation, the standard method for most South African driveways and patios, uses sand for both bedding and jointing, allowing the pavers to move very slightly and interlock under load. A rigid installation instead beds the pavers on a concrete base with a cement based jointing compound, typically used for very large or heavy flagstones that are hard to level on sand. The two philosophies should never be mixed on the same job, sand on one side and cement on the other simply does not work.

It depends heavily on the paver type, thickness and finish. As a rough guide, fully installed costs (materials and labour together) commonly range from around R380 to R550/m2 for basic cement bevel pavers, R420 to R650/m2 for interlocking driveway pavers, up to R850 to R1,500/m2 for natural stone. Labour alone is typically R100 to R250/m2, more for a driveway's extra sub-base work or a complex shape. Use the calculator above with your own paver price and area for a figure specific to your job.

No, it is a free independent tool built from South African paving industry guidance, principally Bosun's own paving installation guide and the Concrete Manufacturers Association's paving specification (an extract of SANS 1200MJ). It gives a materials estimate for planning and budgeting, not an engineering design. For a driveway on poor, clay or unstable soil, a sloped site, or any commercial application, consult a paving contractor or engineer before you start.