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Unilock Home Additions & ADU: The Fort Worth Owner’s Guide
If you’re planning a home addition or ADU in Fort Worth and want Unilock pavers, retaining walls, or outdoor living surfaces as part of the project, the typical installed range runs $45,000 – $130,000 for a home addition, and $90,000 – $220,000 for a detached ADU in Fort Worth. We install Unilock products on these projects as part of full general contracting work – we’re an independent contractor, not affiliated with Unilock, but we work with their product lines directly and know which pavers, walls, and edge restraints hold up through Fort Worth’s clay soil shifts and freeze-thaw cycles. Most owners reach out after a paver patio or walkway on an existing addition has settled, or when they’re planning new square footage and want the driveway, paths, and retaining walls to match the house rather than look bolted on afterward.
Which Unilock Models This Applies To
Unilock makes a wide range of hardscape products, and the compatibility question for home additions and ADUs usually comes down to three categories: concrete pavers (the biggest seller for driveways and patios), segmental retaining wall blocks, and the edge restraint systems that keep everything from creeping. For a Fort Worth addition, the pavers you choose need to meet a specific compressive strength for vehicle traffic if they’ll be used on a driveway – Unilock’s commercial-grade pavers run around 8,000 psi, while standard pedestrian pavers sit closer to 5,000 – 6,000 psi. That’s the difference between a paver that holds up under a pickup truck and one that cracks at the corner by year three. The other gotcha: Unilock’s wall blocks are designed to work with their own geogrid and drainage components, not generic substitutes. Mixing a Unilock block with a cheap off-brand grid can void the manufacturer’s installation spec, and we’ve seen walls lean in Fort Worth clay because of it.
If you already have Unilock pavers and want to match them for a new addition, look for the product name on your original paperwork, or bring us a photo and one loose paver if you have one. Color batches shift over time, so even the same series from a different production year won’t match perfectly. We tell every Fort Worth homeowner this before quoting, because it changes whether you’re extending a patio or starting fresh with a complementary color.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Unilock Home Addition or ADU Hardscape Is Failing
- Pavers sinking or separating in one area. This usually means the base layer underneath has shifted or washed out. Fort Worth’s clay soil expands and contracts with moisture, and a base that was installed without proper compaction or drainage will show it in the first two wet seasons.
- Retaining wall leaning outward at the top. Water pressure building up behind the wall is the typical cause. Unilock walls need weep holes and drainage gravel, and when those get skipped or clogged with silt, the wall starts to move.
- Edge pavers pulling away from the border. This is almost always a failed or missing edge restraint. Unilock systems rely on a plastic or metal edge that gets spiked into the base – once it fails, the outside pavers have nothing holding them.
- Efflorescence and surface spalling. White chalky deposits are usually cosmetic, but flaking or pitting on the paver surface means water is getting into the paver and cycling through freezes. It’s common on older Fort Worth patios that were never sealed.
- Weeds or ants pushing up between pavers. This often points to joint sand that’s washed out. The poly sand Unilock recommends locks pavers together, and when that’s gone, the whole surface loses its interlock strength.
See the difference
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For Fort Worth home additions and ADU projects involving Unilock hardscape work, the full project range of $45,000 – $130,000 (addition) or $90,000 – $220,000 (ADU) includes everything from permitting to final walkthrough. Within that, a dedicated paver patio installation runs $3,500 – $11,000, a paver driveway runs $7,000 – $18,000, and retaining wall work typically falls between those figures depending on wall height and lineal feet. What drives the price: soil conditions under the paver area, whether we need to haul out old concrete or failed base, the Unilock series you choose, and how much excavation Fort Worth’s clay demands before we can lay a proper base.
Every quote we write includes the full breakdown before work starts – materials, labor, hauling, and the written price that doesn’t change. The written price and the final invoice should read the same – if they don’t, that’s on us to explain before we hand you a pen. Our 365-Day Done Right Promise covers the work: if something shifts or fails in that first year, we make it right.
DIY or Call Us?
You can safely check a few things yourself: look for standing water near the paver edge, watch whether a loose paver rocks when you step on it, and check your downspouts to see if they’re dumping water against a retaining wall. Those observations help us diagnose faster when we come out.
What we’d rather you not do is start pulling pavers or digging into a wall. A retaining wall under pressure can shift suddenly if you remove the wrong block, and rebuilding a paver base without compacting correctly means repeating the whole failure in two years. For Unilock home additions and ADU hardscape, the fix is usually a base correction, not a surface patch. Call (682) 708-9180 and we’ll come look at it – the estimate is free, and we’ll write down exactly what we find.
FAQs
A properly installed Unilock paver patio or driveway should last 25 – 40 years in Fort Worth, with the base layer doing most of the work. Clay soil movement shortens that lifespan significantly if the base wasn’t excavated deep enough or compacted in lifts.
Yes, in most cases we remove the affected area, correct the base, and reset the original pavers rather than replacing the whole surface. Pavers themselves rarely fail – it’s almost always the base, edge restraint, or drainage that needs correcting. Call (682) 708-9180 and we’ll tell you whether your situation is a repair or a larger reset.
Most Unilock paver repairs on home additions and ADUs take two to five working days, depending on how much base material needs recompacting and whether we’re matching existing pavers or installing a new edge restraint. We schedule noisy machinery outside school-pickup and nap hours when families are living through the work.
We stock the most common Unilock edge restraints, poly sand, and base materials, and we order specific paver series and wall block directly from Unilock distributors once we’ve confirmed the match. We also work with KraftMaid for cabinetry, and Cambria and Silestone for countertops on the indoor portions of additions and ADUs.
If you’re planning a Unilock home addition or ADU in Fort Worth, or if existing hardscape is showing signs of failure, call (682) 708-9180 to schedule a free estimate. We’ll walk the property, write down what we see, and hand you a written price before anything gets scheduled.
Written by Graham Stein, Owner, Elmstead Remodeling Fort Worth at Elmstead Remodeling Fort Worth, serving Fort Worth and nearby areas.
