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Materials for a Round Edge Stone Patio

You decide to build a low budget simple stone patio, already selected the area to build your patio on, decided on a stone patio design and selected the patio stone.

Now it is time to determine the amount of materials you need and to avoid surprises, I will help you.

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The construction materials you absolutely need for building a simple stone patio are:

Patio stone
Gravel
Lime stone
Construction sand

Lets take for example the stone patio design depicted below

Here is how to determine the amount of each material required for such a design:

1. Number of Edge Stones

Number of Stones for Edge = (2*A + B) / C

where
C is the dimension of the edge stone
A and B are the dimension of the red rectangle depicted in the figure above.

2. Amount of Patio Stones

Typically the patio stones come into skids with 3 to 5 stone sizes. Your patio stone retailer needs to hear from you the square footage you would like to cover.

Square Footage of Patio = A * B

If the shape of your patio is more complex, try to approximate its shape by using as many rectangles you need.

Number of Stones for Edge = Area 1 + Area 2 + … Area N

where Area 1, Area 2, … Area N area the square footage of all the rectangles.

3. Amount of Gravel

Amount of Gravel = Increased Square Footage of Patio * Depth of Patio Foundation

where Increased Square Footage of Patio = (A+C+1’) * (B+C+1’)

Most of gravel vendors will like to hear how many cubic yards you would like to buy. Lets convert cubic feet to cubic yards.

Amount of Gravel in cubic feet = Amount of Gravel in cubic yards * 0.037

4. Lime stone

Lime stone is typically sold in bags of 55 lbs and one bag will cover approx. 30 square ft.

Number of Lime Stone Bags = Square Footage of Patio / 30

where Square Footage of Patio = A * B

Should you find a vendor selling lime stone in bulk, here is what you have to order:

Amount of Lime Stone in cubic yards = Amount of Lime Stone * 0.037

where Amount of Lime Stone = Square Footage of Patio / 30

4. Construction Sand

Construction sand is typically sold in bags of 55 lbs and such a bag cover approximately 150 square ft. In most cases one bag of construction sand is enough.

You could use polymeric sand which may better inhibit the growth of vegetation in between the patio stones. Since the polymer-based sand tends to be quite expensive and not fully proved, I have always used organic effective ways for getting rid of unwanted vegetation.

Polymeric sand is usually sold in 10 lbs bags and, depending on the square footage of your patio, you may need a number of these bags.

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