The Fan Family
Every fan layout is the same idea wearing regional dress: curved courses of small setts rising row over row from a fixed base, each fan overlapping its neighbors until the field reads as scales. The European fan keeps arcs tight and formal – the layout that pavers carried from town square to town square until it became the continent’s default ceremonial ground. Looser peacock variants let the arcs flatten and spread, trading formality for movement. What unites the whole family is the unit of work: not the row, but the fan. Set out one true fan and the rest of the surface is repetition with discipline – which is why the pattern rewards planning far more than improvisation, and why this guide spends its time on the first fan rather than the fiftieth.
The Geometry, Plainly
A fan is controlled by three numbers, all chosen before the first sett is bedded:
- Fan width along the baseline – commonly about arm’s reach, so the layer works a whole fan without moving
- Arc count per fan – typically four to six rows from base to crown
- Sett size – near-cubes, consistent within each row, so joints stay parallel as the arc turns
Everything else is a string and a center point. The arcs are swung, not guessed; the fan that looks effortless was measured twice.
Setts That Suit the Work
Fan work asks more of its stone than flat bonds do:
- Near-cubic proportions, so a sett can rotate a few degrees without opening a wedge joint
- Split or tumbled faces – the pattern is texture, and sawn cubes read sterile in arcs
- Density for the duty: vehicle courts want hard stone underfoot and under wheel
- Size-banded supply, so each arc row draws from a consistent gauge
The setts banded by size for fan work ship on exactly these terms, and the wider family of sett layouts is compared in the sett pattern overview.
The Laying Sequence
Fans are laid one arc at a time, and the order never varies: baseline first, straight and fixed; the fan widths marked along it; the outer arc of the first fan swung from its center point and worked from both shoulders toward the crown, where the keystone sett closes the row without a sliver; then each inner arc sprung from the one before it. Neighboring fans share their shoulder setts, which is what knits the field into one continuous surface rather than a row of badges sitting next to each other. Keep the cull pile within reach – the layer’s real skill is choosing the right cube for the slot, not forcing the slot to take the cube. The first fan takes an hour and sets the standard; the tenth takes a fraction of the time and inherits it.
Joints, Bedding and the Long Game
What keeps a fan surface alive for a century is underneath it: full bedding beneath every sett, no rocking cubes waiting to pump water, and joints filled to the shoulder so the arcs brace each other instead of merely posing together. Jointing that sheds water protects the base; a base that drains protects the joints; and the two of them together are why the old squares still carry delivery trucks over stone their layers never imagined. None of this is fan-specific – it is sett work done properly – but the fan repays it more visibly than any flat bond, because the pattern itself is the finish. Skimp under a flat bond and it settles quietly; skimp under a fan and the arcs write the failure across the surface where everyone can read it.
Time, Cost and What They Buy
Fan work is priced in patience, and pretending otherwise helps nobody. A competent layer covers a fraction of the area per day that a screeded flat bond allows, because every sett is picked by hand for its slot in the arc – and that selection is exactly what the finished surface is made of. Budget accordingly:
- Expect the labor, not the stone, to dominate the cost – cubes are among the cheapest formats per ton
- Phase large areas: a fanned entrance court with plainer flanking surfaces reads richer than a thin fan spread everywhere
- Resist the shortcut of pre-formed fan mats – the joints never sit like hand-set work, and the pattern is the point
What the money buys is permanence and singularity: no two fan surfaces are identical, and none of them date.
Where the Fan Belongs
Courtyards, entrance courts, garden circles and the driveways of houses that intend to stay – anywhere craft should be visible underfoot. It pairs naturally with a plain border course that frames the arcs, absorbs the edge closures and gives the fans a straight line to argue against; a dark soldier course around a pale fan field is the classic move, and it still works. For the broader catalog of what small stone can do beyond fans, start from the cobblestone range and work toward the layout rather than the other way around. Fan pattern paving is slow to lay and almost impossible to wear out – the most patient pattern in the book, and the most rewarded.
What Fans Cost at the Saw
Fan work is the most labor-intensive paving there is and among the most wasteful to cut, because an arc never meets a straight boundary cleanly. The compensation is that the setts themselves are small, so an offcut is often still a usable sett somewhere else in the field.
| Pattern | Straight edges | Curved or angled edges | What drives the number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fan or arc setts | 10-15% | 15% | arcs never meet a straight edge cleanly |
| Circle or rosette | 15-20% | 20% | radial cuts and tapered closers, no reusable offcuts |
| Herringbone at 45 degrees | 10-15% | 15% | two cut triangles at every edge, both offcuts small |
| Border or soldier course | add 5% on the run | add 8% | mitered corners and short closers |
Small units carry their own constraint: anything with an aspect ratio beyond four to one is excluded from vehicular use, per the application guide for interlocking concrete pavements.
Grading the Setts Before the First Arc
A fan is laid from graded setts, not from a mixed pallet. The arc tightens toward its center, so the setts that sit near the springing have to be narrower than those at the outer edge, and sorting them beforehand is what makes the sequence flow.
- Band the setts by width before laying, into three or four grades
- Strike the baseline first and mark the springing points along it
- Work one complete arc at a time rather than advancing a front
- Keep the joint width constant and let the sett size absorb the taper
- Check the arc against a trammel every third course
- Lay the baseline course first along its whole length, then spring the arcs from it
- Keep a stock of the narrowest grade back for closing the tightest radii
Because fans are usually laid in courtyards and public squares where surfaces get wet, set a measurable wet slip target rather than describing a texture; the method is explained in this account of frictional testing on stone walking surfaces.
Fan pattern paving, planned before the first arc
Fans reward preparation more than any other pattern, because once the sequence starts the geometry is fixed and every error propagates outward.
- Grade the setts and set the baseline before anything is bedded
- Allow generously for cuts where the fan meets a straight edge
- Frame the field so the arcs terminate against a border rather than a wall
- Budget the labor honestly, because this is slow, skilled work
The simpler patterns, and where each one is the better answer, are compared in our paver laying pattern guide.
A fan is laid one arc at a time, and it will outlive everything built around it.