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Unilock Home Additions & ADU: The Fort Lauderdale Owner’s Guide
Planning an addition or ADU with Unilock hardscape integration in Fort Lauderdale typically runs $45,000 – $130,000 installed, and we schedule a free on-site estimate before any number gets written down. Most homeowners reach out to us when they notice the paved surround of an existing addition settling, pooling water, or pulling away from the slab, or when they want to know whether a Unilock paver base will hold up under a new ADU footprint in Florida soil. Here’s what we tell every Fort Lauderdale homeowner before we touch a thing: the paver base and drainage are where this job succeeds or fails, and that’s true whether you’re building 400 square feet or a full two-story addition.
We’re an independent Fort Lauderdale contractor, not a Unilock dealer or affiliate. That matters because we recommend what works rather than what clears out a showroom inventory. Sometimes that’s a Unilock paver. Sometimes it’s a different base spec entirely.
Which Unilock Models This Applies To
When a Fort Lauderdale homeowner mentions “Unilock addition work,” they’re usually talking about one of three scenarios: a paver patio or walkway that abuts the addition, a paver base under an ADU that needs to meet current Florida wind and drainage codes, or a retaining wall that has to be integrated into the addition’s foundation line. The Unilock lines we see most in Fort Lauderdale are the Brussels Block, Richcliff, and U-Cara Multi-Face systems. Brussels Block is a tumbled paver with a 60mm and 80mm option, and it’s the one that shows up in half the mid-century neighborhoods like Victoria Park and Sailboat Bend. Richcliff runs larger format, 600mm by 400mm, and holds up well on pool decks. U-Cara is a different animal entirely: it’s a modular wall system with a fiberglass-reinforced backing, and it requires a very specific base prep if you’re tying it into an existing foundation.
The compatibility gotcha nobody warns you about: Unilock pavers come in metric and imperial bed depths depending on the series, and you can’t mix a 60mm Brussels Block with an 80mm paver on the same compacted base without creating a trip line. We check the paver stamp before we quote anything. If the stamp is worn off, we take a thickness measurement on site with a caliper. Aftermarket or copycat pavers look close online and photograph well, but the color variation and joint width don’t match once they’re laid next to an original Unilock installation. In Fort Lauderdale’s sun, color mismatch shows up fast.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Unilock Home Additions & ADU Is Failing
- Water pooling against the addition’s foundation after a heavy rain. Fort Lauderdale gets roughly 60 inches of rain a year, and a paver base that was never sloped to 2% away from the slab will push water into the crawlspace or footer. This is the most common reason an addition needs corrective work.
- Paver edges pulling away from the foundation wall. The edge restraint has failed or wasn’t installed. Once the outer border shifts, the entire field starts to drift, and you’ll see a widening gap at the slab line within one wet season.
- Paver tint fading unevenly within three or four years. Some Unilock series use color-through pavers, some use face-mix color. If a previous contractor patched with a different batch or a non-Unilock paver, the patch shows in eleven months of Florida sun.
- Sand washing out between joints after every storm. Polymeric sand that wasn’t installed dry, or was broomed into wet joints, won’t cure properly. The joints stay soft, weeds get in, and every rainstorm welts sand across the driveway.
- Settling or heaved sections near a new ADU’s downspout. Downspout discharge aimed at the paver edge erodes the base over one rainy season. We reroute the discharge and rebuild the base in that section every time.
See the difference
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For a full addition with Unilock paver integration in Fort Lauderdale, plan on $45,000 – $130,000. The spread is wide because a 400-square-foot bump-out with a 200-square-foot paver patio is a very different job from a full secondary structure with retaining walls, driveway tying, and drainage rework. A standalone ADU built to Florida code, including site prep and paver hardscape, runs $90,000 – $220,000. Garage conversions in Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods where setbacks allow them run $30,000 – $80,000 depending on whether you’re doing a simple interior conversion or adding a bath and pulling new utility lines.
What’s included when we quote: written line-item pricing before any work starts, the paver removal and base recompaction, any retaining wall work, drainage correction, paver material with the correct Unilock series match, polymeric sand, and edge restraint. The written price is the price. No change orders because we forgot something on day three.
DIY or Call Us?
Replacing a settled paver section next to an addition looks approachable, and for small areas it sometimes is. What you can safely do: lift a few pavers, check whether the sand base is still there or has washed out, and clear visible debris from a clogged drain channel. What you should not do is pull up more than a few square feet and think you’ll re-lay it with a bag of sand from the big-box store. A Unilock base next to a foundation carries loading and drainage that are now part of your structure’s envelope. If the base has failed once, the next fix has to address why it failed, not just the symptom. We tell you what we found, what it takes to fix it, and what it will cost, before we touch a thing. If you want to know whether it’s a small fix or a rebuild, call (754) 354-3720 and we’ll come look.
FAQs
A properly installed Unilock paver deck or walkway next to an addition lasts 25 to 40 years in Fort Lauderdale, with the base typically outlasting the paver color. The failure point is almost always drainage, not the paver itself. If it’s failing in year three, the base prep or the slope is the problem. Call (754) 354-3720 and we’ll diagnose it for free.
Most of the time a section can be lifted, the base recompacted, drainage corrected, and the same Unilock pavers reinstalled, as long as they aren’t cracked or faded past a reasonable color match. Full replacement is only needed when the base has completely washed out under a large area or the original install used the wrong paver series. We’ll tell you which one you have after one site visit.
A paver repair or replacement next to an addition usually takes two to four working days in Fort Lauderdale, depending on the drainage work involved. A full addition or ADU project runs from eight to twenty weeks from permit to final walk-through, and we’ll give you a written schedule before we start. Estimates are free, and there’s no obligation.
We don’t stock Unilock pavers on a shelf, but we order direct from Florida Unilock distributors weekly and can match most current Fort Lauderdale installations. For discontinued series, we source through our material partnerships, including KraftMaid, Cambria, and Silestone when the project involves interior finishes, and we’ll tell you honestly if a match is no longer available. Call (754) 354-3720 with a photo of your paver and we’ll confirm before you get your hopes up.
Written by Isaac Pruett, Owner, Mason Remodeling Co Fort Lauderdale at Mason Remodeling Co Fort Lauderdale, serving Fort Lauderdale and nearby areas.
