Free written scope consultation - allowances, timeline, and change-order rules on paper before a single trade is scheduled
Unilock Roofing: The Santa Clarita Owner’s Guide
We stock and install Unilock-compatible roofing materials across Santa Clarita, with most replacement jobs running between $800 and $3,500 depending on the part and how much of the surface has to come up. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably noticed something that wasn’t there last month: a cracked cap, a shifted paver, a pooling spot that never dries, or a roof edge that’s started to crumble along the drip line. That’s how Unilock owners usually find us. The first call gets you a written price before any work starts, and a live person answers the phone.
Unilock is known for paver and wall systems more than traditional shingle roofing, so when a Santa Clarita homeowner mentions “Unilock roofing,” they’re usually describing a rooftop deck, a paver-topped accent roof, or a decorative stone cap on a parapet or entryway structure. The materials are concrete-based, and they fail differently than asphalt shingles do. We’ll walk through exactly what goes wrong, what it costs to make it right, and what you can check safely from the ground before you pick up the phone.
One thing to be clear about up front: Elmstead Remodeling Santa Clarita is an independent service provider. We’re not affiliated with Unilock, but we work with their materials and know their installation specs well enough to match replacements cleanly.
Which Unilock Models This Applies To
Unilock doesn’t make a single “roofing” product line the way GAF or Owens Corning do. What we see in Santa Clarita falls into three groups. First, Unilock paver units used as roof-deck surfaces, most commonly from the Umbriano, Courtstone, and Series lines, which sit on pedestal systems or sand-set over a waterproof membrane. Second, Unilock wall caps and coping units, including the Estate Wall and Brussels Dimensional System caps, used to finish parapet walls, chimney surrounds, and low garden walls that tie into roof lines. Third, Unilock step and tread units on rooftop access paths. The compatibility gotcha here is real: Unilock changed the dimensional tolerances on certain Umbriano and Courtstone blends around 2018, so a replacement unit from a newer lot can sit proud of the surrounding field by an eighth of an inch, which you’ll feel underfoot and see in low-angle light.
If you can find the original product label or invoice, that’s the fastest path to an exact match. No label? Measure a full unit: length, width, and thickness in millimeters. Unilock pavers run from 50mm to 80mm thick for rooftop applications. An 80mm unit will never swap cleanly for a 50mm unit on a pedestal deck, and a 60mm paver will throw off the plane of a sand-set roof surface enough to catch a toe. We carry a working inventory of common Santa Clarita-sized units on the truck, and for older blends we source from Unilock’s regional distributor and match by batch where possible.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Unilock Roofing Is Failing
- Hairline cracks running across multiple units in a line. This usually means the support beneath the pavers is moving: a pedestal has collapsed, a sand bed has washed thin, or the deck substrate is flexing. One cracked unit is a bad unit. A line of cracked units is a system problem.
- Rocking or hollow-sounding pavers underfoot. On a roof deck, empty air under a paver means the sand or pedestal contact is gone. On a California roof with summer surface temperatures above 140°F, the thermal expansion will gradually widen that void until the paver snaps at a corner.
- White chalky residue bleeding from mortar joints or paver edges. That’s efflorescence from trapped moisture, common in Santa Clarita’s hot-dry-then-rainy seasonal swings. It’s not always structural, but on a roof surface it signals water moving where it shouldn’t be.
- Cap units shifting or overhanging the wall below. Caps on parapet walls take brutal direct sun and crosswinds. When the mortar bed degrades, a cap can move. You don’t want a 12-pound concrete cap finding its way down to a patio.
- Damp spots on the ceiling directly below the paver surface. By the time the interior shows a stain, the waterproof membrane under the pavers has failed. This is a call-today situation, not a watch-it-for-a-month situation.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For most Santa Clarita Unilock roof repairs, expect to pay between $400 and $1,800 when the work is repair-scoped: lifting and resetting a small area, replacing cracked units, re-bedding caps, or repairing a section of edge restraint. If the waterproof membrane underneath has failed and the pavers have to come up in a larger section, the job moves into the $2,000 to $3,500 range because membrane work is unforgiving; every seam has to be right before a single paver goes back down. Full roof-deck replacement falls under our Roof Replacement pricing, $8,000 to $20,000 in Santa Clarita, depending on square footage and access.
Every quote is a written price before any work starts. The paper lists the unit cost of the pavers, the labor, the disposal, and the sealant or mortar materials by name. You’ll never see a change order for “unforeseen conditions” after the crew arrives; we walk the roof, look at the failures, and name the price once. The work carries our 365-Day Done Right Promise: if it’s not done right, we make it right. No fine print, no renegotiation.
DIY or Call Us?
What you can do safely from the ground: photograph the problem area in morning light, measure a loose or cracked unit if you can reach it without climbing, and check whether the roof drain scuppers are clear of debris. Clogged drainage is behind a surprising share of Santa Clarita paver-roof failures, and clearing a scupper is a safe, useful task.
What you should not do is walk a wet paver roof, pry up units over a membrane, or attempt to re-mortar caps on a parapet edge. Rooftop work has real fall risk, and prying a paver on a pedestal or membrane system without knowing where the waterproofing sits can turn a $600 repair into a $3,000 membrane replacement. If you’re not sure, call us. We’ll come out, make an honest assessment, and the estimate is free either way. Reach us at (661) 542-4056.
FAQs
In Santa Clarita’s sun-and-swing climate, expect 20 to 30 years from Unilock concrete units on a properly built roof surface. The weak point is almost never the paver itself; it’s the pedestal, the sand bed, or the membrane underneath, which typically need attention at the 10 to 15 year mark. Call (661) 542-4056 and we’ll tell you honestly where your roof is in that timeline. Estimates are free.
No, not in a way that lasts. Concrete repair compounds on a cracked paver will telegraph the crack again within one Santa Clarita summer of thermal cycling. The correct fix is a unit replacement, matched for thickness and, where possible, batch. That’s exactly what we do. Call (661) 542-4056 for a written price.
A typical repair, resetting a small area or replacing a handful of cracked units, is a one-day job for our crew. Membrane-involved work runs two to three days because the waterproofing has to cure properly before pavers go back down. We’ll tell you the sequence before the first tool comes off the truck, including what’s protected inside the house while we work. Call (661) 542-4056 to schedule an assessment.
We stock a working inventory of common Unilock-sized units for the Santa Clarita market, plus we also carry parts for KraftMaid, Cambria, and Silestone on the remodeling side. Older Unilock blends get sourced from the regional distributor and matched by batch where it matters. If we don’t have it on the truck, we’ll show you the lead time in writing before you commit to anything. Call (661) 542-4056 to ask about your specific unit.
Written by Graham Stein, Owner, Elmstead Remodeling Santa Clarita at Elmstead Remodeling Santa Clarita, serving Santa Clarita and nearby areas.
