Pattern decides the waste, and the spread is wide — a 45-degree herringbone cuts every unit round the perimeter, while stretcher bond barely cuts at all. Most calculators apply the same 10% to both.
Enter the area and the paver size, and pick the pattern. Defaults are a UK 200 × 100 block paver.
Works in metric and US imperial — you choose at the start and can switch at any time. Every figure this calculator uses is published with its source, and the result comes with a printable order sheet. No account, no email, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
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And the spread is wide. A 45-degree herringbone cuts every single unit around the perimeter; stretcher bond barely cuts at all. Most calculators apply the same 10% to both, which is generous for one and short for the other. Pick the pattern here and the allowance follows it. Set out from the most visible edge too, so cuts land where they are least seen — against a wall or a border, not across a doorway or the front of the house.
On every edge. Unrestrained block paving spreads under load, and once it has spread the joints open and the jointing sand washes out — at which point the only fix is lifting and relaying. Haunched kerb, concrete edging or a proprietary restraint all work; nothing at all does not. Falls of about 1:80 belong in the base, running away from the building and towards somewhere the water can actually go.
Mix from three or four packs at once. Shade varies within a batch as well as between batches, and laying pack by pack puts that variation down in patches, while blending across packs makes it invisible. And cut with a block splitter where you can — faster than a disc cutter, no dust, and on rustic pavers the split face often looks better than a sawn one. Splitters hire cheaply.
It depends entirely on the pattern. A 45-degree herringbone cuts every unit around the perimeter and needs a generous allowance; stretcher bond barely cuts at all and needs very little. Applying one flat percentage to both is why orders come out wrong.
Yes, on every edge, and it is not a preference. Unrestrained paving spreads under load; once it spreads the joints open and the sand washes out, and the only fix is lifting and relaying.
In much of the UK, paving over a front garden with an impermeable surface above 5 m2 needs planning permission unless the water drains to a permeable area. Check before you order.
A block splitter where possible — it is faster than a disc cutter, produces no dust, and on rustic pavers the split face often looks better than a sawn one. Splitters hire cheaply.