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Unilock Driveway & Pavers: The Riverside Owner’s Guide
Unilock paver driveway installation in Riverside typically runs $7,000 – $18,000 for a full replacement, depending on square footage, paver line, and what’s underneath. We stock Unilock-compatible pavers and the base, sand, edge restraint, and joint compound that go with them, so if your driveway has a failing section or a sunken area near the curb, we can usually diagnose it in one visit and give you a written number before we touch a tool. Most Riverside homeowners discover a problem the way you just did: a paver shifts underfoot, a low spot pools water after rain, or the sand between joints washes out and the whole pattern starts migrating. Give you a number before we pick up a tool – that’s just how this works.
Which Unilock Models This Applies To
Unilock makes more than forty paver lines, but in Riverside driveways we work with a handful most often: Courtstone, Brussels Block, Mattoni, Richcliff, Umbriano, and Town Hall. The pavers themselves are the same dimensions within a line, but the depth changes by application. A patio paver is often 60mm thick; a driveway paver needs to be 80mm or it will crack under vehicle weight within a few years. That’s the compatibility gotcha that trips up weekend installs in Riverside: someone buys a pallet of 60mm pavers from a big-box store, lays them over a thin gravel bed, and three summers later the center of the driveway is a bowl. The other spec that matters is joint width. Unilock engineered lines like Mattoni are designed for tight, almost no-gap joints; Brussels Block wants a wider joint with polymeric sand. Get that wrong and the pattern locks up or drifts.
Penhallow Remodeling Riverside is an independent contractor, not a Unilock dealer or affiliate. That means we’re free to tell you when an OEM Unilock paver is worth the premium and when a comparable line from Belgard (which we also install) will hold up just as well for less. We source genuine Unilock product through local masonry yards in the Inland Empire, so the lead time is days, not months.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Unilock Driveway & Pavers Is Failing
- Low spots that hold water after rain. The base layer under the pavers has settled or washed out. In Riverside’s compacted clay soils, this usually means water got under the edge restraint and eroded the bedding sand.
- Pavers rocking underfoot or under a parked tire. The bedding sand has migrated out through open joints. This is the first stage of the failure; catch it now and it’s often a re-sand and compaction job, not a full re-lay.
- Gaps widening between pavers. Joint sand washes out during Riverside’s winter rains and never gets replaced. Vehicle traffic pushes pavers apart from the inside out. Left alone, the pavers crack at the edges.
- Edge pavers collapsing at the driveway entrance or along the curb. The plastic or aluminum edge restraint was either never installed or wasn’t spiked deep enough. Driveway aprons take the biggest hit from turning tires, and this is where we see most failures.
- White haze or surface flaking on the pavers themselves. Riverside’s hard water and intense UV combine to break down the surface seal over time. It isn’t structural, but it signals that the joint sand is probably long gone too. A re-sand and re-seal can add years.
See the difference
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After
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
Let’s talk real numbers. A partial repair, like re-laying a 200-square-foot sunken section with new bedding sand and fresh joint compound, usually lands between $1,200 and $3,500 in Riverside. A full driveway tear-out and replacement runs $7,000 – $18,000 depending on square footage, the Unilock line you select, and how much of the old base we need to remove and rebuild. The base is the thing most quotes gloss over. We include excavation, a minimum 6-inch compacted Class II road base, geotextile fabric where the subgrade is weak, 1 inch of bedding sand, the pavers, edge restraint, polymeric joint sand, and a finish pass. That’s the written number you get from us before any work starts, and it doesn’t change at the door. Every driveway job carries our 365-Day Done Right Promise: if the pavers shift, sink, or the joint sand fails inside a year, we come back and fix it at no charge.
What drives the price up:
- Unilock premium lines like Richcliff or Umbriano cost more per square foot than Brussels Block or Courtstone.
- Old driveways where the previous installer poured concrete underneath, which means jackhammering and haul-off.
- Drainage work. Many Riverside driveways slope toward the garage, so we add a channel drain or regrade the base to route water away from the foundation.
DIY or Call Us?
There are things you can safely check yourself. Look at the edge restraint along the curb. If you can see bare plastic or aluminum above the soil line, that’s your water entry point. Check the joints after our next heavy rain; if the sand is gone and you can see down between the pavers, make a note. But moving pavers, rebuilding base, and compacting it correctly is where the damage gets done, both to the driveway and to your back. A paver weighs 12 to 20 pounds and you’ll move a few thousand of them on a full driveway. The sub-base has to be compacted in lifts with a plate compactor, and if the base isn’t right, you’ll redo the whole job in three years. We’ve taken apart enough failed DIY driveways in Riverside neighborhoods, Arlington included, to know. Call (341) 895-1170 with what you’re seeing and we’ll come take a look. You’ll have a written number and a straight answer before we pick up a single paver.
FAQs
Unilock driveway pavers installed over a proper compacted base typically hold up 20 to 30 years in Riverside’s climate, with joint sand needing attention every 5 to 7 years depending on how much water flows across the surface. The pavers themselves carry Unilock’s transferable lifetime warranty against manufacturing defects, though warranty claims go through the dealer, not the installer. Call (341) 895-1170 if you want us to assess whether a problem is installation, base, or product.
Yes, in most cases we can lift and re-lay a sunken section without touching the rest of the driveway, as long as the pavers themselves aren’t cracked and the failure is confined to the bedding sand and base under that area. If the base failed everywhere, repair becomes a patchwork that looks fine for a year and sinks again, and at that point replacement is the honest answer. Call (341) 895-1170 for an assessment and a written line-item quote before anything gets moved.
A typical residential Unilock driveway in Riverside takes 5 to 10 working days from the first day of demo to the final re-sand and compaction, depending on square footage, drainage work, and how much old base needs hauling off. We give you an arrival window and a finish date in writing with the price. Call (341) 895-1170 to schedule a site visit.
We order Unilock pavers through our local Riverside masonry suppliers on a per-job basis so you get the exact quantity, color lot, and depth your driveway needs, and we manage the lead time and delivery. For same-line repairs where you need a few hundred pavers to match an existing driveway, we can pull from local yard stock and have the work scheduled quickly. Call (341) 895-1170 and we’ll tell you what’s available and when we can start.
Written by Trevor Nash, Owner, Penhallow Remodeling Riverside at Penhallow Remodeling Riverside, serving Riverside and nearby areas.
