How Much Crushed Stone for a Patio Base?

Quick answer: a paver or flagstone patio wants about 4 inches of compacted crushed stone over firm subgrade. For a 100-square-foot patio that's roughly 1.2 cubic yards, or about 1.7 tons. The crushed stone calculator gives you the tons; here's how to get the depth and the stone right.

How deep should the base be?

Four inches of compacted crushed stone is the standard base for a patio. Build it in 2-inch lifts, compacting each with a plate compactor before adding the next — stone dumped in one thick layer never compacts and the patio settles later.

Soft, clay, or poorly drained ground needs 6 inches plus a layer of geotextile fabric underneath to stop the base from sinking into the subgrade. A patio that will carry vehicles (a parking pad) needs a driveway-grade base of 6 inches or more.

What stone to use

Use a dense-grade crushed stone — crusher run (often called #411 or "QP"), which mixes coarse stone with rock dust so it packs into a hard, locked base. Avoid:

• Smooth, round pea gravel — it won't compact or hold the load.
• Clean single-size stone (like #57) — great for drainage, but the open voids don't make a stable base on their own.

A worked example

A patio 10 feet by 10 feet (100 sq ft) at 4 inches:

• Volume: 100 × (4 ÷ 12) = 33.3 cubic feet ÷ 27 ≈ 1.23 cubic yards
• Weight: 1.23 × 1.4 ≈ 1.7 tons

Order about 10% extra for compaction and spillage, and quote it in tons when you call the yard. The crushed stone calculator and aggregate calculator both size this.

The full paver build

The crushed-stone base is layer one. On top of it goes a thin 1-inch bedding sand layer, then the pavers, then polymeric sand in the joints and an edge restraint around the perimeter. The paver calculator sizes the whole stack — base gravel, bedding sand, paver count, and edging — in one go.