Free written scope consultation - allowances, timeline, and change-order rules on paper before a single trade is scheduled
Unilock Driveway & Pavers: The San Francisco Owner’s Guide
We stock and install Unilock-compatible driveway pavers and retaining wall units throughout San Francisco, and a typical paver driveway installation runs $8,260 to $21,240 depending on square footage, base prep, and drainage requirements. Most homeowners discover they need us when a section of pavers starts sinking, cracking along the edges, or separating at the soldier course. The cause is almost never the paver itself. It’s what’s underneath it.
Here’s what’s happening in San Francisco specifically. Our soil shifts. Between the marine clay in the Sunset and Richmond districts, the sandy fill near the Marina, and the steep grades in neighborhoods like Diamond Heights and Twin Peaks, the ground under a paver driveway moves more than most people expect. When the base fails, the pavers above it telegraph the problem within one or two wet seasons. Curtis Lane has spent two decades watching this exact failure pattern repeat across San Francisco driveways. In the Outer Sunset, fog-driven moisture saturates the top layer of soil for months at a time. If the base wasn’t compacted in proper lifts, that moisture turns a solid base into a sponge. Straight number, real scope, no surprises at close-out.
One thing to be clear about up front: Bradford Remodeling Co San Francisco is an independent contractor. We are not a Unilock dealer and we’re not affiliated with Unilock. What we are is a crew that installs their product correctly and repairs failed Unilock driveways the right way, which means fixing the base, not just replacing the top layer and hoping it holds.
Which Unilock Models This Applies To
Unilock makes three paver lines we see most often on San Francisco driveways: the Estate Series (larger format, deeper units, heavier load rating), the Mattoni Series (a contemporary rectangular paver used for both driveways and walkways), and the Promenade Series (old-world cobble look, often used for driveways with a more traditional facade). The part you have is typically identified one of two ways: a stamp on the back of a loose paver, or the pattern name on your original installation paperwork. If you don’t have either, bring us a photo of the surface pattern and a measurement of one unit’s face dimensions, and we can usually identify it from the profile.
The compatibility gotcha with Unilock is color lot variation. A paver purchased today will not match a paver installed six years ago, even if it’s the same product name. Concrete pigments shift between manufacturing batches, and UV exposure in San Francisco’s sun fades the surface differently depending on which direction your driveway faces. South-facing driveways in Noe Valley fade faster than north-facing ones in Pacific Heights. If we’re replacing a partial section, we’ll be honest about whether the match will be close enough, or whether a full relay makes more sense.
Aftermarket equivalents exist for most Unilock profiles, but we don’t push them for driveway applications. The load rating on a cheaper paver often looks sufficient on a spec sheet and fails under vehicle weight within three to five years. For driveway use, we stock OEM Unilock units or their rated equivalent, and we’ll tell you which one we’re quoting and why.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Unilock Driveway & Pavers Is Failing
- Settling or depressions forming in the traffic path. This is base failure, not paver failure. Water has found its way into the sub-base and is eroding it, or the original install skipped a lift of compaction. The pavers are just following the ground down.
- Edge pavers separating from the field, especially along the driveway border. The soldier course or edge restraint has lost its grip. In San Francisco, this is often from a failed plastic edge restraint that was never spiked into a proper concrete curb.
- Cracked or chipped pavers in a single localized area. If the damage is concentrated, you likely have a point load problem: a low spot where car tires hit repeatedly, or a section where the sand joint has washed out and pavers are grinding against each other.
- Weeds or sand washing out through the joints. When joint sand is leaving, the interlock is weakening. On sloped San Francisco driveways, rain carries joint sand downhill faster than on flat lots, and within a season or two the pavers start sliding against one another.
- Efflorescence or white staining on the surface. This is water moving through the paver and leaving mineral deposits behind. It’s often cosmetic, but recurring efflorescence on a driveway signals that drainage under the pavers isn’t moving water away from the surface the way it should.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For San Francisco, full paver driveway installation runs $8,260 to $21,240. Partial repairs, such as relaying a settled section or replacing a cracked border course, typically fall between $1,500 and $6,000 depending on how much base work is required. The range is driven by three things: square footage, how deep we have to excavate to reach stable ground, and whether we’re reusing your existing pavers or installing new Unilock units.
Our written price includes excavation, base material and compaction, paver units, joint sand, edge restraint, and the labor to install it all. It also includes hauling away the old base material. What it never includes is a surprise. The number we write on your estimate is the number you pay at close-out, backed by The Garrison Standard, which means every scope item and every price is on paper before a single tool comes out of the truck.
All completed work carries our 365-Day Done Right Promise. If the driveway fails within the first year, we return and correct it at no charge. That’s a written guarantee, not a verbal one. It’s in your hand at job close, alongside a clean site and a documented scope.
DIY or Call Us?
Paver driveway work is not dangerous in the way that high-tension springs or electrical panels are. You’re not going to seriously injure yourself resetting a few edge pavers. The risk is in what you can’t see below the surface. If you reset pavers on a failed base, you’ll buy yourself a season at most, and then you’ll pay for the proper repair anyway. If your issue is a few chipped units and the base is solid, you can absolutely lift and replace individual pavers yourself with a couple of flat pry bars and fresh joint sand.
If the problem is settlement, edge separation, or washout, that’s a base and drainage issue. Call us at (831) 610-5598. We’ll inspect what’s under the pavers, not just the pavers themselves, and give you a written number for what it actually takes to fix it.
FAQs
A properly installed Unilock paver driveway on a correctly prepared base lasts 25 to 30 years in San Francisco, though you’ll typically need joint sand replenishment every 3 to 5 years. The failure you’re seeing now is almost never the paver itself; it’s the base, the edge restraint, or the drainage. Fix those right and the pavers above them will outlast your cars. Call (831) 610-5598 and we’ll tell you exactly what’s failing underneath.
Yes, if the base in the surrounding area is still sound and you’re willing to accept some color variation between old and new pavers. We’ll give you an honest read on whether a section repair will hold or whether you’re throwing money at a larger base failure. The estimate is free, and it’s in writing.
A small base repair usually takes one to two days. A full San Francisco paver driveway replacement runs three to six days depending on access, grade, and the amount of excavation required. We’ll give you a start date and a completion date in your written scope, and we hit them.
We order OEM Unilock units for your project based on the series and color you have. Don’t order them yourself. If you buy the wrong series or a mismatched color lot, you own that mistake, and you’ll pay twice. Let us identify, order, and verify the product, and we stand behind the whole job with our 365-Day Done Right Promise.
If you’re ready for a straight answer on your Unilock driveway, call (831) 610-5598 for a free estimate. A live person answers, and you’ll get a written price before any work starts. That’s how we’ve done it in San Francisco since the beginning.
Written by Curtis Lane, Owner, Bradford Remodeling Co – San Francisco, CA at Bradford Remodeling Co San Francisco, serving San Francisco and nearby areas.
