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Unilock Driveway & Pavers: The Fresno Owner’s Guide
We install and repair Unilock paver driveways in Fresno, with most full driveway projects landing between $7,000 and $18,000 depending on square footage, the paver series you choose, and what’s underneath the old surface. If you have a Unilock driveway that’s settling, cracking, or losing joint sand, we can diagnose it and give you a written price before any work starts. Most homeowners first notice something’s wrong after a Fresno winter when the ground shifts and a low spot appears where water pools, or when a paver starts rocking underfoot near the garage apron.
Which Unilock Models This Applies To
Unilock makes several paver lines, and Fresno driveways tend to fall into three camps: the Brussels Block series, the Courtstone series, and the Richcliff or Thornbury lines for a more finished look. The Brussels Block and Courtstone pavers are 60mm thick, which is the minimum we recommend for vehicle traffic in the Central Valley. The Richcliff and Thornbury pavers are typically 50mm and work better for patios and walkways than for a driveway that sees a pickup truck or an SUV every day.
If you’re matching a paver, look on the underside or the side edge. Unilock stamps the series name into the mold on most production runs. If the stamp has worn off, measure the thickness and the face dimensions. Brussels Block runs 6″ x 9″ with a tumbled face. Courtstone is a modular 3-piece system, so if you have three different paver sizes arranged in a repeating pattern, that’s what you’re dealing with. We can also match by color blend: Sierra, Basalt, and Almond Grove are the blends we see most often in Fresno neighborhoods like Woodward Park and Fig Garden.
Elmstead Remodeling Fresno is an independent service provider, not affiliated with Unilock. We stock the most common Fresno blends on the truck and source the rest directly from Unilock distributors in the region.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Unilock Driveway Is Failing
- Settling or low spots near the garage or street edge. This is almost always a base failure. The compacted rock underneath wasn’t deep enough, or water has been eroding it slowly. In Fresno’s clay-heavy soil, we dig deeper than the spec sheet calls for because the ground expands and contracts more than contractors from coastal areas expect.
- Rocking pavers or loose edges. The edge restraint has failed or was never installed properly. Without a solid edge, the whole field drifts outward over time, and the gaps open up. You’ll see this first along the driveway’s border where a mower wheel catches the edge.
- Joint sand washing out after every rain. This means the sand wasn’t compacted in lifts, or the pavers have shifted enough to break the bond. Left alone, the pavers will start to chip against each other under vehicle weight.
- Weeds or moss growing through the joints. Normal over time, but if it’s constant, the joints have opened up too wide. That tells us the paver field has moved more than it should have.
- Efflorescence or white haze that won’t go away. This is cosmetic, but persistent efflorescence in a Fresno driveway often means water is trapped under the pavers and wicking up through them. It’s a sign the drainage slope has flattened out.
Replacement Cost & What’s Included
A full Unilock paver driveway replacement in Fresno runs $7,000 to $18,000. The range comes down to a few things: total square footage, whether we’re removing an old concrete slab or just reusing a viable base, the paver series and thickness, and whether we need to re-slope the grade for drainage. A partial repair, like re-setting a settled section or replacing a broken run of pavers, typically runs $1,500 to $4,500 depending on how much base material we need to rebuild.
Every quote we write includes the pavers, the base material, the sand, the edge restraint, the labor, and the haul-away. We put the price in writing before any work starts, and that’s the price you pay. No change orders because we discovered something mid-job. We identify what’s underneath during the estimate. The work is covered by our 365-Day Done Right Promise: if it’s not done right, we make it right. That means if a section settles within the first year, we come back and fix it.
See the difference
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AfterDIY or Call Us?
You can safely re-sand the joints on a Unilock driveway yourself if the pavers are still seated and stable. Polymeric sand, a broom, and a plate compactor rental from any Fresno equipment yard will do it. You can also pull a single broken paver and replace it, provided you match the series and blend and the base underneath is intact.
Where DIY goes wrong is when the base has failed. If your driveway has a low spot, a dip, or edge drift, the problem is underneath the pavers. Digging out a section, re-compacting road base, and getting the slope right takes experience and equipment. A paver driveway is not dangerous like a garage spring or an electrical panel, but a poorly rebuilt base will fail again in the next rainy season, and you’ll be out the cost of materials and a weekend. If you’re in Fresno and want a straight answer on what’s actually wrong, call us at (559) 540-8453. Sometimes it’s a fifteen-minute fix, and we’ll tell you that over the phone before we ever schedule a visit.
FAQs
A properly installed Unilock paver driveway in Fresno should last 25 to 30 years before the base needs major work, and the pavers themselves can go longer than that. The weak point is never the paver. It’s the base and the edge restraint. Get those right, and the driveway will outlast two or three asphalt surfaces. If your driveway is failing at year five or seven, the base wasn’t built correctly, and replacement is the honest fix. Call (559) 540-8453 and we’ll give you a straight assessment.
Yes, if the failure is isolated. A settled section near the street, a broken paver or two, or edge restraint that’s come loose can all be repaired without tearing out the whole driveway. We’ll rebuild the base under the affected area, re-set the pavers, and re-sand the joints. If the entire field has shifted or the base was thin everywhere, repair gets expensive enough that replacement makes more sense. We’ll show you the numbers for both options so you can decide.
A full paver driveway replacement in Fresno typically takes five to seven working days. That includes demolition of the old surface, excavation, base compaction, paver installation, and joint sanding. Weather can extend it; Unilock pavers don’t cut well in the rain, and neither do we like compacting wet base. We keep a project calendar and we update it when something changes, so you’ll always know where things stand. That’s Graham Stein’s rule: write it down before anything comes off the truck.
We stock the most common Unilock series and blends on our trucks for repairs: Brussels Block, Courtstone, and Richcliff in the Fresno-area colors like Sierra, Basalt, and Almond Grove. For full driveway projects, we order the pavers directly from Unilock’s regional distributor with a lead time that’s already built into our schedule. We also work with named-brand materials across our remodeling projects, including KraftMaid, Cambria, and Silestone, so if your paver project is part of a larger outdoor plan, we can handle that too. Call (559) 540-8453 for availability and a free estimate.
Get a Written Price for Your Unilock Driveway in Fresno
The fastest way to know what your Unilock driveway repair or replacement will cost is to call us at (559) 540-8453. A live person answers, 24/7. We’ll ask a few questions about what you’re seeing, give you a straight answer on whether it’s a repair or a replacement situation, and schedule a time to come measure. Every estimate includes a written price before any work starts, and when the job is done, you get a photo of the clean-up so you know the driveway was left the way we’d want a family in Fresno to find it.
Written by Graham Stein, Owner, Elmstead Remodeling Fresno at Elmstead Remodeling Fresno, serving Fresno and nearby areas.
