Paver count is area divided by paver size, but the waste allowance is what separates a smooth job from a second trip to the yard. Pattern drives it more than shape does.
Waste by pattern, not by guess
A straight running bond against square edges wastes about 10 percent. Turn the pattern 45 degrees and every edge paver gets cut — budget 15 percent. Herringbone cuts the most; 20 percent is realistic.
Curves and circular features push it higher again. If the patio has a rounded edge, add five points on top of whatever the pattern calls for.
Pull pavers from several pallets as you lay
Color varies slightly from pallet to pallet even within one order. Working straight through one pallet at a time puts those variations in blocks that read as patches.
Take from three or four pallets at once and the variation blends into texture instead.
What goes underneath
Four to six inches of compacted crushed stone for a patio, eight or more for a driveway, then exactly one inch of coarse bedding sand screeded flat.
The sand layer is bedding, not base. Adding depth there to fix an uneven base is the standard cause of a wavy patio a year later.
Edge restraint and joint sand
Without a restraint spiked into the base along every open edge, the outer rows creep and the joints open. It is not an optional upgrade.
Finish by sweeping polymeric sand into the joints and wetting it per the bag. It locks the field together and keeps weeds and ants out of the seams.
Cutting, and how to do less of it
Every cut is time and every cut produces a piece that will not be used elsewhere. Sizing the patio to a whole number of pavers plus joints, where the design allows it, removes most of them.
A wet saw with a diamond blade is the tool for anything more than a handful of cuts. A splitter is faster and rougher, and for cuts that will be visible the saw is worth the rental.
Cut pieces smaller than about a third of a paver are unstable in the field and pop out over time. Where a layout leaves one, adjust the course rather than filling the gap with a sliver.
Laying, and why you do not walk on the sand
Pavers are laid from a screeded sand bed working forward off the pavers already placed, never stepping back onto the screeded sand.
A footprint in the bedding sand is a low spot in the finished patio, and it cannot be seen once the paver is down.
After laying, the whole field is compacted with a plate compactor with a pad on it, which beds the pavers into the sand and brings the surface into plane. That step comes before the joint sand goes in, and then again after.