Tumbled Pavers Priced by the Pound: The Math No Other Paver Tag Gives You

You stand at the paver pallets in the yard and read the tag. Every paver seller you have ever called quoted a price by the piece or by the square foot. This tag reads $0.25 per pound. Rockhouse sells its two tumbled pavers by the pound, the same way it sells boulders and flagstone, and that one fact changes how you price a patio.

A price under one dollar is a correct and complete price for one pound of stone. What you need is the arithmetic that turns it into a price per square foot, and the yard has the two numbers that do it. This guide covers the two sizes in the aisle, how many pieces cover a square foot, and how a pallet weight becomes a patio price.

Rockhouse runs a 7-acre stone yard in Hot Springs Village with Bennett Brothers of Hot Springs heritage since 1972. The yard stocks the pavers, weighs the pallet, and loads it onto your trailer with a forklift. Your own crew lays them.

The two tumbled pavers in the aisle

The paver aisle holds two products, and both price at $0.25 per pound. Tumbling gives each piece a softened, aged edge and a uniform fit, which is why these pavers go into driveways, walkways and patios where an old-world look is the point.

Tumbled Gray Pavers 4 x 8 carry a weathered texture and softened edges. The 4 x 8 size lays in several patterns, running bond and herringbone among them, and the gray gives a neutral field beside brick, stone or planting.

Tumbled Black and Burgundy Pavers 9 x 9 carry an aged edge and a blended color. The 9 x 9 format lays cleanly in a simple grid, and the dark blend gives strong contrast beside lighter stone and lawn.

How many tumbled pavers cover a square foot

The piece count comes straight from the paver face. A square foot is 144 square inches. A 4 x 8 paver covers 32 square inches. Divide 144 by 32 and 4.5 pieces cover a square foot before any joint gap. A 9 x 9 paver covers 81 square inches. Divide 144 by 81 and 1.78 pieces cover a square foot, call it 1.8.

Put a 200 square foot patio against those counts. In the 4 x 8 it takes about 900 pieces before overage. In the 9 x 9 it takes about 356 pieces. A sand joint between the pavers drops both counts a little. The yard recommends ordering 10 percent over for cuts and waste, and the two adjustments roughly cancel. Order the count plus 10 percent.

What a pallet of tumbled pavers looks like on the ground

The pavers sit stacked on a pallet on the lot, and you can read a lot from the stack before you ask a single question. Tumbling knocks the corners off every piece, so no two edges match and the stack shows a slightly ragged face. That is the finish you are paying for. A sharp-cornered stack is a different product.

Judge the color from the whole pallet. The gray 4 x 8 runs a single tone with a weathered surface. The 9 x 9 blends black and burgundy across the stack, and a patio laid from one pallet carries that blend evenly only when the pieces come off the stack in order. Look at the pallet from a few feet back, the way you will see the finished patio, and pick the blend you want.

Pallet weight and pallet count vary from one pallet to the next. The yard weighs each pallet before it goes on the forks, and the tag on your invoice carries that weight. When you compare two pallets, compare the weight and the count together. A heavier pallet with more pieces on it covers more ground for the extra dollars.

Turn the pallet weight into a price per square foot

Weight per paver is not on the product record. The yard weighs the whole pallet, and that weight is the number you price from. Two questions at the counter give you everything. What does this pallet weigh, and how many pavers are on it?

The arithmetic runs in two steps. Multiply the pallet weight by $0.25 per pound to get the pallet price. Divide the pallet price by the square feet the pallet covers to get the price per square foot. As an example of the arithmetic only: a pallet that weighed 3,000 pounds would cost $750.00, and if the yard said it covered 100 square feet, that would be $7.50 per square foot. Your pallet will carry its own weight and its own count, and the yard reads both to you.

The piece count on the pallet also tells you the coverage. Divide the pallet count by the pieces per square foot. A pallet of 4 x 8 pavers with 450 pieces on it covers about 100 square feet. A pallet of 9 x 9 pavers with 180 pieces on it covers about 100 square feet. Then the price per square foot follows from the weight.

The base under tumbled pavers

Pavers sit on a compacted base, and Rockhouse sells that base too. The yard's Decomposed Granite and Base calculator takes the area and the depth and returns tons at 1.4 tons per cubic yard. A 10 by 15 foot patio at 4 inches deep comes to about 2.6 tons, and 10 percent over makes it about 2.9 tons. Bring the base tonnage to the counter with the paver count and the yard prices both on one call.

Pavers or flagstone for the same patio

The other patio surface in the yard is flagstone, and it also prices by the pound. Pavers give a uniform, repeating face, and flagstone gives an irregular natural face with more waste at the edges. The yard's guide to flagstone patio pricing runs the same pallet-weight math for that stone. Put the two side by side before you decide. Both come off the same lot.

Where each size goes

The aisle lists driveways, walkways and patios for both products, and the size decides the pattern more than the place. The 4 x 8 is the running-bond and herringbone paver. Its two-to-one face lets a crew lay it in straight courses or on the diagonal, and the small piece follows a curve without big cuts. A walkway that bends or a patio with a rounded edge takes fewer cuts in the 4 x 8.

The 9 x 9 is the grid paver. A square face lays in a straight grid or a basket weave, and the big piece covers ground with fewer joints. A square patio or a straight walk goes down faster in the 9 x 9, and the dark blend hides a soil stain that would show on the gray.

Both sizes take the same base and the same sand joint. The yard sells both from the same lot, and a buyer who wants a gray field with a dark border buys a pallet of each.

Why a stone yard sells pavers by the pound

Rockhouse prices stone by the unit on the product record, and about half the catalog prices by the pound, boulders and flagstone among them. The pavers follow the same rule. The yard weighs every pallet that leaves the lot, so the pound is the unit the scale already reports, and a buyer pays for the stone on the trailer and nothing else. A sub-dollar price on the tag is the complete price of one pound.

The pound price also makes two pallets easy to compare. Two pallets of the same paver with different counts still cost the same per pound, and the heavier pallet carries more pieces. Read the weight and the count on both, and the better buy shows up in the price per square foot.

Pick up the pallet or have the yard deliver

Rockhouse stocks, sorts, weighs, prices, loads and delivers. It never installs, builds or lays anything, and your own crew does that work. Orders load by the pallet, the super sack or the full truckload. At the yard the crew sets the pallet on your trailer with a forklift. Ask for the pallet weight and bring a trailer rated above it.

Delivery is free on 3 or more pallets to Hot Springs Village and all of Garland County. Below three pallets the yard quotes the run. Freight to other regions runs through the yard, and contractors get delivery straight to the jobsite. The yard will meet or beat any stone supplier's price.

Contractors who buy every week open a verified pro account for trade pricing and net terms. Qualified buyers can open trade credit, and the Rockhouse Rewards Program gives tiered discounts to repeat and volume buyers. The online store shows inventory and pricing. The yard takes the order on the phone.

Call 501-532-1905 with the patio dimensions

A paver quote takes a couple of minutes once you have these ready.

• The patio area in square feet, and its shape.
• The size you want, 4 x 8 gray or 9 x 9 black and burgundy.
• The base depth you plan, in inches.
• The delivery address, or a note that you will collect at the yard.

Call 501-532-1905 and the yard will read you the pallet weight and count, quote the pavers by the pound, and add the base. Or come to 5643 N Hwy 7, Hot Springs Village, Monday through Friday from 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM, and pick your pallet off the ground.