I have a relative small paver patio job to estimate and need to calculate the stone base needed. Dimensions are 16x18 ft. It is just below grade so only 4-5" of fill will be needed. Following this will be the 1" sand bed. I keep coming up with a huge amount in terms of yards of material. I am doing something wrong and have never had this problem. Very aggravating. Someone help me get this figured. Thanks
Here's what I got. 4.5 yds of stone/fill, 1 yd of sand. You have to convert feet to inches to get the correct amount. For stone/fill multiply 192x216x5, divide 207,360 by 1728, then divide 120 by 27 to get cubic yards needed. 1728 is the volume of a cubic foot in inches, 27 is the volume of a cubic yard in feet. Once you convert everything to like terms it's pretty easy. Now that I'm starting to sound like a math teacher, I'll stop. Glad to be of service.
An Area 16' X 18' X 4.5" works out to 7 Tons or 4 cu/yds. 1" of sand is 1.3 Ton or just under 1 cu/yd. All depends on the material weight, base at 3500lbs per yard and sand just over 3000lbs. per yd.
That is where I made my mistake. Some how I was getting a much higher amount. I knew it was wrong, just couldn't see it. Thanks
bookmark this for future use tonnage
Thanks. That makes it even faster. I know the formulas but sometimes you just have those days when things don't work. Seems to always be the small jobs I have trouble with.
Another way to figure it is that a cubic yard covers 80 square feet 4 inches deep (actually 81 square feet), 60 square feet 6 inches deep, 40 square feet 8 inches deep and so on. This works well well for quick figuring and guestimations. There is an actual formula for figuring it tonnage wise but I am not completely sure of all of it.