Paver patio cost

A paver patio costs $12 to $30 per square foot installed, typically around $20. A 280 square foot patio, which is the national average size, runs $2,275 to $6,950 with most landing near $3,350.

Concrete is cheaper, $8 to $26 per square foot. Pavers cost more and, done properly, outlast poured concrete by decades, because a patio that moves can be lifted and relaid rather than replaced.

Cost by material

Those are installed prices including excavation and base preparation. The material itself is usually a third of them.

Cost by patio size

At $20 per square foot:

A useful rule for sizing: allow about 25 square feet per person for seating, and a dining table for six needs a 12 by 12 area to allow chairs to pull out. Patios are more often built too small than too large.

The base is the whole job

Everything that goes wrong with a paver patio is the base.

A correct installation excavates 6 to 12 inches, lays and compacts crushed aggregate in lifts of a few inches at a time, adds a screeded sand or stone dust setting bed, lays the pavers, installs an edge restraint, and sweeps in polymeric sand.

A cheap installation skips the excavation depth, dumps the aggregate in one lift without compacting, and omits the edge restraint. It looks identical on the day it is finished. Two winters later the edges have spread, the field has settled into waves, and weeds are coming up through the joints.

Ask three questions of every quote: how deep is the excavation, how is the base compacted, and what edge restraint is used. A contractor who answers these easily is not the one whose patio fails.

Pavers against poured concrete

Concrete is cheaper and faster, and it is a single monolithic surface with no joints to weed. It cracks. Not sometimes: control joints exist because concrete is expected to crack, and they simply decide where. A cracked slab cannot be repaired invisibly and eventually has to be broken out and replaced.

Pavers cost 40% to 70% more and never crack as a surface, because they are individual units with flexible joints. Ground movement shows as unevenness rather than fracture, and unevenness is fixable: lift the affected pavers, correct the base, relay them. A single stained or broken paver is replaced in ten minutes.

Pavers also let water through the joints, which matters where drainage or stormwater rules are a concern.

If you plan to be in the house a long time, or your soil moves, pavers are worth the premium. For a small, flat, budget project, concrete is perfectly reasonable.

What adds to the bill

• Excavation and disposal of the old surface: $2 to $6 per square foot
• Poor drainage requiring grading or a drain: $500 to $3,000
• Retaining a slope with a low wall: $20 to $55 per square foot of wall face
• Steps: $150 to $400 per step
• A seating wall around the edge: $60 to $150 per linear foot
• A fire pit: $400 to $3,000
• Permit, where required for size or drainage: $100 to $500

Drainage is the item worth spending on. A patio must slope away from the house at about a quarter inch per foot. One that slopes back toward the foundation delivers water where you least want it, and it is a difficult and expensive thing to fix afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a paver patio take?

Three to seven days for a typical residential patio. Most of it is excavation and base preparation; the pavers themselves go down quickly, which is why a suspiciously fast job is a warning rather than a bonus.

Do pavers need sealing?

Not structurally. Sealing deepens the color and helps resist stains, and it costs $1 to $3 per square foot and needs redoing every three to five years. It is optional and it is largely cosmetic.

Will weeds grow between them?

Some, over time. Polymeric sand in the joints suppresses most of it, and it needs topping up every few years. Weeds growing through mean the joint sand has washed out, which is a sign to refresh it.

Can I do it myself?

Yes, and it is one of the more rewarding DIY projects, saving roughly half. The work is excavation and compaction, which is heavy and slow, and renting a plate compactor is not optional. Do not skip the base depth to save a weekend.

Does a patio add value?

Modestly, and less than a deck in most markets, though it costs less to build and almost nothing to maintain. Its real return is that it gets used.