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Unilock Home Additions & ADU: The Orlando Owner’s Guide
If you’re planning a Unilock home addition or ADU in Orlando, the installed cost typically lands between $45,000 and $130,000 depending on square footage, foundation work, and whether you’re building up or out. We stock Unilock-compatible pavers, wall units, and coping for these projects, and we can usually have materials on-site within a week of the written estimate. Most homeowners discover something’s off when their existing patio or walkway starts shifting where the new addition will tie in, or when they realize the paver base from the original build wasn’t compacted for Florida’s sandy soil.
Here’s what we see in Orlando week after week: someone adds a mother-in-law suite or a home office, and the Unilock surface they loved for years suddenly heaves, sinks, or separates at the seams. The addition itself is fine. What failed is the connection between old work and new, or the base underneath was never right for our rain cycles. Luca Romano has walked enough of these jobs to know that fixing the visible paver is the easy part. Getting the base and drainage right is where the craft lives.
Key Takeaways
- Unilock home additions and ADU projects in Orlando run $45,000 – $130,000 installed, depending on scope and site conditions.
- Most “part failures” on these jobs are base or drainage issues where the new construction meets existing Unilock work.
- We provide a written price before any work starts, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise covers the full project.
- If you’re adding an ADU, Orlando’s building code requires specific setbacks and drainage plans. We handle the permits.
Which Unilock Models This Applies To
Unilock makes a broad range of paver and wall products, and the good news is that most of their current lines are modular, meaning older and newer series often interlock. We commonly work with Brussels Block, Courtstone, Thornbury, Richcliff, and Town Hall pavers on addition tie-ins around Orlando. If you have an older install, the color blending can vary slightly between batches, so matching an exact shade from a 2012 courtyard means sourcing from the same production run is rarely possible. What we do instead is blend the new pavers from the edges of your existing patio into the new area so the transition looks intentional, not patched.
Here’s one compatibility gotcha most people don’t know: Unilock wall units like U-Cara or Estate Wall have specific coping and cap sizes that changed around 2018. If your original retaining wall is older than that, the new caps may sit a quarter-inch wider or narrower. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s why we always bring samples to the site and measure before ordering. For most Orlando additions, we recommend staying with genuine Unilock product rather than aftermarket equivalents. The color consistency and joint spacing are better, and Unilock backs their pavers with a transferable lifetime warranty that off-brand copies don’t match.
We’re an independent contractor, not affiliated with Unilock directly. That matters because we’ll tell you honestly when the aftermarket part works fine and when it’s worth paying for the OEM piece.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Unilock Home Additions & ADU Is Failing
- Pavers sinking near the new addition’s corner: This usually means the base wasn’t compacted in lifts, or the original sand setting bed washed out during Orlando’s summer downpours. We see it most where a downspout discharges against the new foundation.
- Gaps opening between the old patio and the new walkway: The existing pavers were never pinned with edge restraint where the addition joins them. Without a solid edge, freeze-thaw cycles (yes, even in Florida, we get enough moisture movement) push them apart.
- Retaining wall leaning into the new ADU: A wall that was fine as a garden border may not be built for the surcharge of a new structure behind it. The added weight changes the load path and the wall starts to rotate.
- Water pooling against the addition’s slab after rain: The old patio had a slope that worked for the old layout. The new addition changed the drainage plane, and now water runs toward the house instead of away from it.
- Efflorescence or white crust on pavers near the new construction: This is moisture moving through the paver and leaving mineral deposits behind. It’s often a symptom of a drainage issue beneath the surface, not just a cosmetic stain.
If you’re seeing any of these around your Orlando property, the fix is rarely just “replace the paver.” It’s a base, drainage, and edge restraint correction, and it should be addressed before the new addition’s foundation starts taking on water pressure.
See the difference
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After
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For a Unilock home addition or ADU project in Orlando, you’re looking at $45,000 to $130,000 for the full build, and that range holds whether you’re doing a garage conversion, a bump-out, or a detached backyard unit. The swing comes down to foundation type (slab-on-grade vs. stem wall), roof tie-in complexity, and how much site work the lot needs. When the project includes correcting an existing Unilock surface, expect paver re-installation to run $3,500 to $11,000 for a typical patio area, with larger driveways or courtyards landing between $7,000 and $18,000.
Every quote we write includes parts and labor as separate line items. You’ll see the paver cost per square foot, the base material, the edge restraint, and the labor to install it. That’s the written price before any work starts, and the number on the invoice is the number you approved. The 365-Day Done Right Promise covers the full add-on or ADU for a year after we close the job. If something’s not right, we come back and make it right. No argument, no invoice.
Call (850) 809-0306 for an exact quote on your addition or paver correction. The estimate is free and puts the full price range in writing before you decide anything.
DIY or Call Us?
There are things you can check safely, and then there’s the part where DIY goes sideways. If you’re seeing paver movement near your Orlando addition, you can walk the perimeter and note where water pools, where gaps are opening, and whether downspouts discharge against the new slab. That’s useful information to bring to the phone call.
What you shouldn’t do is start lifting pavers to “take a look” at the base. Once you break the edge restraint, the whole field can shift, and you’ll have a bigger problem than you started with. Same goes for digging near the addition’s foundation to inspect drainage. You don’t know what’s buried there, and Orlando’s sandy soil collapses fast when it’s disturbed. This is the kind of work where good work doesn’t need a speech, it just needs to hold up. Ours does. Call (850) 809-0306 and we’ll send a background-checked, uniformed technician to assess the full scope, take photos, and give you a written price before any tool is picked up.
FAQs
Unilock pavers typically last 25 to 30 years in Central Florida when the base is installed correctly, but the base itself may need re-compaction or drainage correction every 10 to 15 years depending on rainfall and soil movement. Orlando’s wet summers and occasional dry spells cause more expansion and contraction than most people expect, which is why edge restraint and drainage matter more than the paver itself. Call (850) 809-0306 if your pavers are shifting and we’ll tell you whether it’s a paver problem or a base problem.
In most cases, yes. If the pavers are intact and only the base or edge restraint has failed, we can lift the affected area, re-compact the base, reset the pavers, and restore the edge. Full replacement is only necessary when the pavers themselves are cracked, faded beyond a reasonable color match, or the original install was so far off that salvaging it costs more than starting clean. We’ll give you the honest read on that when we see the site. Estimates are free at (850) 809-0306.
Most Unilock home additions in Orlando take 8 to 16 weeks from permit to final walkthrough. ADUs run longer, typically 4 to 6 months, because of the foundation, utility connections, and required inspections. Paver correction work tied to the addition usually adds 3 to 7 days. We’ll put the timeline in your written estimate so you know what to expect before the first day of work.
We keep common Unilock edge restraints, joint sand, and base materials stocked for repair calls, but full paver pallets are ordered per project to match your existing color and series. That means we bring actual samples to the site, confirm the match, and then order. No guessing, no “close enough” color that you’re stuck with for 25 years. Call (850) 809-0306 and we’ll schedule the site visit to check your specific Unilock line.
Written by Luca Romano, Owner & Lead Contractor, Sawyer Remodel Orlando at Sawyer Remodel Orlando, serving Orlando and nearby areas.
