The number a homeowner wants is a price per square foot of patio. That number is not a takeoff. A 12 × 16 running-bond sitting area on six inches of compacted base is not the same job as 12 × 16 of 45° herringbone on a ten-inch driveway pad. The face is identical. The hole, the waste, the cuts, and the dump tickets are not.
Open the free bid calculatorExcavation depth is base + bedding + paver thickness. On the sample rates shipped with the calculator, a 12 × 16 patio at 6 inches of base excavates about 5.6 cubic yards. The same face at 10 inches of base excavates about 7.9. If spoils cannot stay on site, that extra yardage is also a dump ticket. Quoting both jobs at the same per-foot number is how the driveway pad eats the patio margin.
Running bond often starts around 7% extra pavers. 90° herringbone around 10%. 45° herringbone around 15%. Circular or fan layouts around 18%. Those extra pavers do not, by themselves, add hours — the crew still walks the finished face. The extra hours come from the cut list, which is why the calculator keeps a separate pattern labor factor. Mixing the two hides which part of a high bid is stone and which part is time.
A 12 × 16 rectangle has 56 feet of edge. A 4 × 40 walkway has 88 feet of edge on the same 160 square feet. Soldier courses, interior radii, and seat-wall returns add lineal feet that a per-square-foot special never sees. Measure the restraint, or you are giving away the plastic, the spikes, and the hours that hold the field together.
A $32/h crew loaded at 30% payroll burden is $41.60. Margin is a share of the price you send, not a markup on cost. The walk-away price is total cost — below that the job makes nothing before you take a dollar home. On the sample 12 × 16 running-bond patio the calculator prices about $4,381 ($22.82 per finished square foot, 20.9 crew-hours, walk-away $3,417). The same face as 45° herringbone on a 10-inch base prices about $5,151 ($26.83 per foot). Replace every rate with your invoices before you send either number.
This is not an engineered pavement design, a soils report, a permit, or a recommended market price. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. Compaction spec, drainage, polymeric-sand joint width, and local code are yours to confirm.
Charge from finished area plus pattern waste, compacted-base cubic yards, edge restraint, haul-away, loaded labor, overhead, and a margin that is a share of price. A default 12 × 16 running-bond patio on a 6-inch base prices around $22–$23 per finished square foot on the sample rates in this calculator — the same face as 45° herringbone on a 10-inch driveway pad is several dollars more per foot.
Homeowners measure the face they walk on. Pattern waste, excavation volume, dump tickets, and edge restraint do not scale with that face. Matching a cheaper per-foot quote written for a simple running-bond patio is how a herringbone driveway pad becomes a loss.
Start around 7% for running bond, 10% for 90° herringbone, 15% for 45° herringbone, and 18% for circular or fan layouts. Those are starting points, not a manufacturer warranty — a border course and a lot of radii move the number.