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Unilock Kitchen Remodeling: The Fort Lauderdale Owner’s Guide
If you have Unilock products in your kitchen and something’s failing, we stock and install Unilock-compatible kitchen remodeling parts and materials throughout Fort Lauderdale, with most full kitchen remodels running $14,000 to $45,000 depending on cabinet line, countertop material, and layout changes. We keep common Unilock replacement components on our trucks, so a technician can usually identify what you need on the first visit. Most homeowners discover a failure the hard way: a cabinet door that no longer closes square, a countertop seam that’s opened up, or a paver-style backsplash piece that’s cracked loose from the wall.
Before we get into symptoms and prices, one thing worth knowing: Penhallow Remodeling Fort Lauderdale is an independent general contractor. We install and service Unilock products, and we source Unilock materials through our supplier network, but we are not a Unilock company and not affiliated with the manufacturer. That independence means we tell you what the part actually costs, what the labor actually costs, and whether the OEM part is worth the premium over a quality equivalent. Trevor Nash runs the Fort Lauderdale operation, and he’s spent close to two decades in South Florida kitchens learning exactly which materials hold up to salt air, humidity, and the occasional hurricane-season power outage that leaves the AC off for three days.
Which Unilock Models This Applies To
Unilock is best known in Fort Lauderdale for interlocking concrete pavers and retaining wall systems, but the Unilock product line extends into kitchen-adjacent hardscape features: outdoor kitchen surrounds, paver countertop bases, and tile-style veneer pieces used as backsplashes and accent walls. If your kitchen has Unilock pavers as flooring, a Unilock stone veneer on an island face, or Unilock paver components built into an outdoor cooking area, this page covers the parts and service we provide.
The identification gotcha most owners run into: Unilock paver sizes are metric-spec. A “standard” Unilock paver is often 200mm x 100mm x 60mm (roughly 7 7/8″ x 3 15/16″ x 2 3/8″), which does not match the 4″ x 8″ nominal dimensions of most big-box pavers. If you buy a non-Unilock replacement from a home center, you’ll get uneven joints and a floor or backsplash that looks patched rather than restored. We match the actual Unilock series and color code, which is stamped on the underside of most Unilock pavers. Hold a paver up to a light and you’ll usually see a series name (like Thornbury, Brussels Block, or Courtstone) plus a batch number. That batch number matters for color matching, because Unilock colors shift slightly between production runs and a piece from the wrong batch will show.
For OEM versus aftermarket: Unilock’s own replacement pavers and veneer pieces carry a manufacturer warranty against manufacturing defects, and we recommend OEM for anything visibly installed where a color or texture mismatch would be obvious. For structural underlayment work, sand, and drainage layers beneath the paver surface, quality commercial equivalents perform identically and cost 30-50% less, and we’ll tell you which line items benefit from OEM and which don’t.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Unilock Kitchen Remodeling Is Failing
- Pavers or veneer pieces have shifted out of level. In Fort Lauderdale’s sandy soil and high water table, the compacted base under a paver floor settles over time. A 1/4″ lip between pavers means the base is washing out or was never compacted correctly.
- Joints between pavers are eroding or showing gaps. Polymeric sand joints break down in Florida humidity, especially near a dishwasher or sink where water finds its way to the floor. Gaps wider than 1/8″ let water reach the base layer and accelerate the problem.
- Efflorescence, or a white chalky film, appears on paver surfaces. This is mineral salts leaching through the concrete, common in coastal Fort Lauderdale air. It’s cosmetic but signals the sealer has failed and moisture is moving through the paver.
- A paver or veneer piece is cracked clean through. A hairline crack is often from a drop or point load. A crack that runs across multiple pavers in a line means the sub-base has failed underneath and the repair is structural, not cosmetic.
- The island face or outdoor kitchen base is bowing or leaning. Unilock wall units retain weight when stacked correctly. A lean means the wall was built without proper drainage behind it, and South Florida rain has been building hydrostatic pressure for months.
See the difference
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After
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
Full Unilock-inclusive kitchen remodels in Fort Lauderdale run $14,000 to $45,000. A small kitchen with Unilock paver flooring and modest cabinet work lands around $9,000 to $20,000. If you’re just replacing a section of failed Unilock paver floor, paver counter base, or veneer backsplash, the job typically falls between $800 and $2,800 including material, base repair, and labor. Countertop installation involving Unilock paver bases runs $2,000 to $6,500 depending on square footage and whether we’re rebuilding the substrate underneath.
What drives the range: square footage, whether the base layer needs re-compacting or full replacement, color matching to existing Unilock batch numbers, and whether the adjacent cabinetry or plumbing has to come out to access the failed area. Every quote includes parts, labor, haul-away of the failed material, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise in writing. That promise means if the repair fails inside a year, we return and fix it at no charge. No re-inspection fee, no service call charge, no argument.
DIY or Call Us?
You can safely identify the problem: pull up a loose paver and check the sand base underneath, look for the series name and batch number on the underside, and photograph the failure with a tape measure for scale. That information helps us give you a realistic number over the phone. Where DIY goes wrong is in the repair itself. Replacing a single paver means matching the batch color, re-compacting the base to the right density, and re-sanding the joints with the correct polymeric sand for Fort Lauderdale’s humidity. Get the compaction wrong and you’ll have a low spot in six months. Get the sand wrong and water gets under the floor and the problem spreads to the pavers you didn’t replace.
Paver work is not high-tension or electrical, so it won’t hurt you, but it will frustrate you. If you want to check the failure yourself, fine. If you want it fixed once and fixed right, call (754) 551-2922 and tell us what you’re seeing. We’ll give you a written price before any work starts.
FAQs
A properly installed Unilock paver floor lasts 20 to 30 years in Fort Lauderdale, though the polymeric sand joints typically need refreshing every 4 to 6 years because of humidity and regular cleaning around kitchen fixtures. Call (754) 551-2922 if your joints are eroding faster than that and we’ll check the base drainage.
No. Concrete pavers cannot be structurally glued or patched in a way that holds up under foot traffic, so we replace the cracked piece with an OEM Unilock paver matched to your series and batch. Call (754) 551-2922 and we’ll verify the match before we order anything.
Most single-paver or small-section repairs are done in one visit of 2 to 4 hours, while a full kitchen paver floor replacement can take 3 to 5 days including base work and joint sanding. Call (754) 551-2922 for a written timeline on your specific job.
We keep common Unilock replacement pavers, veneer pieces, and polymeric sand on our Fort Lauderdale trucks, but color-specific and batch-number-specific pieces usually need a 3 to 7 day order from our supplier. Call (754) 551-2922 and we’ll tell you if we already have your part in the truck.
Tell me what you need, I’ll tell you what it costs, then we’ll get it done. Call (754) 551-2922 to schedule your free estimate. We also stock and install parts for KraftMaid, Cambria, and Silestone kitchens, so if your Unilock failure has a cabinet or countertop involved, one call covers it.
Written by Trevor Nash, Owner, Penhallow Remodeling Fort Lauderdale at Penhallow Remodeling Fort Lauderdale, serving Fort Lauderdale and nearby areas.
