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Unilock Home Additions & ADU: The Miami Owner’s Guide
When a Unilock paver patio, walkway, or retaining wall starts shifting, cracking, or sinking here in Miami, the problem usually traces back to the base layer underneath, not the pavers themselves. Penhallow Remodeling Miami stocks Unilock-compatible paver materials and the base, bedding, and edge-restraint components that keep them locked in place. A typical Unilock paver patio repair or re-installation in Miami runs $4,130 to $12,980, while full home additions and ADU projects using Unilock hardscape materials land between $53,100 and $153,400. Most homeowners realize something’s wrong when they notice a paver rocking underfoot, water pooling where it never used to, or a joint that’s suddenly wider than its neighbor.
We’re an independent service provider in Miami, not a Unilock dealer or factory affiliate. That means we can be straight with you about what’s worth fixing and what needs to come up and go back down. Trevor Nash has been working Miami jobsites for years, including older Coconut Grove properties where the original paver installs were often done over little more than sand and hope.
Which Unilock Models This Applies To
Unilock’s catalog spans several product families, and the repair approach changes depending on which one you have. The biggest compatibility gotcha we see in Miami is homeowners assuming all Unilock pavers use the same joint width. They don’t. The EnduraColor series, which includes the popular Beacon Hill and Courtstone profiles, is manufactured with a color-through body and tighter joint tolerances, often 1/16 to 1/8 inch, because the paver faces are precision cast. The older Elegance and Series 3000 lines have slightly looser manufacturing tolerances and run wider joints. If you’re replacing a handful of pavers and you grab the wrong series, the joints won’t match and the repair will be obvious from ten feet away.
To identify what you have, flip over a loose paver. Unilock stamps the product name and date code on the underside of most lines made in the last 20 years. The date code matters because paver color batches shift slightly from year to year, and a repair done with a current batch against 15-year-old pavers will show. For an OEM match, we cross-reference your date code with current production runs. A quality aftermarket equivalent can work for base and bedding material, but for the paver itself, we strongly prefer genuine Unilock product so the color, size, and surface texture line up. We also stock polymeric sand matched to Unilock’s joint spec, because using the wrong sand in a Florida rain cycle is exactly how you end up with joint washout and weeds six months later.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Unilock Home Additions & ADU Is Failing
- Pavers rocking or shifting underfoot. This almost always means the bedding layer has eroded or settled. In Miami, the culprit is usually heavy rain washing fine material out through a failed edge restraint, leaving a void under the paver.
- Water pooling instead of draining. A properly installed paver patio in Miami should shed water within minutes after a storm. Standing water that lingers means the base has settled below the drainage path, or the original install never had the slope it needed (1/8 inch per foot minimum).
- Joint sand washing out after every rain. If you see little sand fans spreading across the paver surface after a downpour, the joints aren’t holding. This is common on Miami installs where beach sand or fine mortar sand was used instead of proper polymeric sand.
- Edge pavers creeping outward. The edge restraint on a paver patio is what holds the whole field in compression. Once it fails, the outer rows wander and the pattern opens up. We see this often on older Coconut Grove patios where plastic edging was spiked into loose Florida soil.
- A sunken depression the size of a trash can lid. That’s a localized base failure, typically where an irrigation line leaked or a tree root decayed underground. In Miami’s sandy soil, small voids can grow fast once water finds them.
See the difference
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After
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After
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For a paver patio repair or re-installation in Miami, expect $4,130 to $12,980 depending on square footage, the condition of the existing base, and how much of the original material can be salvaged. A full home addition or ADU project where Unilock hardscape is part of the scope falls in the $53,100 to $153,400 range, with the spread driven by foundation work, permit requirements, plumbing and electrical rough-ins, and finishes.
What drives your specific number:
- Base rebuild vs. repair. If the original base is 2 inches of sand over Miami fill, it all needs to come out and a proper 4 to 6 inch compacted aggregate base goes in. If the base is sound, we can often reset pavers for much less.
- Paver reclamation. We can typically reuse 70 to 90 percent of existing Unilock pavers. The more we salvage, the less you spend on new material.
- Access. Tight Miami backyards with no side gate for equipment add labor hours. We’ll tell you upfront if your job needs hand-carrying.
Every job gets a written price before any work starts. That number includes labor, materials, debris removal, and a written 365-Day Done Right Promise. If the repair fails inside a year, we come back and fix it at no charge. That’s not a verbal commitment, it’s the Kingswell standard that’s been in writing since 2004.
DIY or Call Us?
You can safely check a few things yourself. Pick up a rocking paver and look at what’s underneath. If you see wet, black soil instead of compacted granular base, the install was never right and no amount of sand on top will fix it. Check your joints after the next rain and note which direction the water runs. That information helps us price your repair accurately.
What we’d caution against is the YouTube approach of prying up a few pavers, dumping bags of sand underneath, and calling it done. Without rebuilding the base and re-establishing the edge restraint, that repair lasts one Miami rainy season, maybe two. And a full home addition or ADU isn’t a weekend project for anyone. We’re not saying that to sell you a job. We’re saying it because we’ve fixed enough homeowner repairs in Miami to know what they cost in the second pass. Call us at (850) 988-7559 and we’ll give you a written number before any tools come off the truck.
FAQs
In Miami, a properly installed Unilock paver patio on a solid base typically lasts 25 to 40 years before the base needs major attention, though the pavers themselves can outlast that. The Florida climate accelerates base settlement and joint washout more than paver wear, so a 15-year-old patio here may need a base rebuild even when the pavers look fine.
Yes, in most cases. If the base is intact except for one localized area, we can cut out the affected section, rebuild the base there, and reset the pavers to match. The catch in Miami is that color-matched replacement pavers from a different production run will show some variation against sun-weathered originals. Call (850) 988-7559 and we’ll assess whether a patch or a full reset makes more sense for your situation.
Most paver patio repairs in Miami are done in 2 to 4 days, depending on size and whether the base needs a full rebuild. A full home addition or ADU with Unilock hardscape runs on a different timeline, typically 4 to 8 months from permit to final inspection. We’ll give you a written schedule before work starts, not after.
We keep common Unilock base, bedding, and polymeric sand on hand for Miami repairs, along with edge restraint components for the most common profiles. Specific pavers are ordered per job by product line and date code, so we can match what’s already on your property. We also work regularly with materials from KraftMaid, Cambria, and Silestone on projects that move inside the home.
Written by Trevor Nash, Owner, Penhallow Remodeling Miami at Penhallow Remodeling Miami, serving Miami and nearby areas.
