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Techo-Bloc Home Additions & ADU: The Woodland Hills Owner’s Guide
If you’re planning a home addition or ADU in Woodland Hills and want Techo-Bloc hardscaping worked into the design, a full project typically runs $45,000 to $130,000 depending on square footage, foundation work, and how much Techo-Bloc material is incorporated into driveways, walkways, and retaining walls. Most owners call us after realizing their existing Techo-Bloc pavers or wall blocks have shifted or sunk, and they don’t want to invest in a major addition without fixing the base first. We stock Techo-Bloc-compatible components and can match existing patterns from the Blu 60, Industrie, and Raffinato lines.
What usually brings people to this page is pretty specific. They’ve got a Techo-Bloc patio or driveway that’s settled, a retaining wall that’s starting to lean, or they’re planning an ADU and the city wants a paved access path that meets current codes. Sometimes it’s simpler than that: they’re adding square footage and the new foundation will butt right up against old pavers that need to come out, get re-based, and go back in so the transition doesn’t look like an afterthought.
Which Techo-Bloc Models This Applies To
Techo-Bloc makes a wide range of paving stones, wall blocks, and edge restraints, and the right match depends on what’s already on your property in Woodland Hills. The most common lines we work with are Blu 60 (a smooth, modern paver often used for driveways), Industrie (a larger-format paver with a more textured, industrial finish), and Raffinato (a classic cobble-style stone for patios and walkways). Each of these has different thickness specs, typically 60mm to 80mm for residential driveways, and the wall blocks run anywhere from 3.5 inches to 6 inches in face height depending on whether it’s a decorative garden wall or a structural retaining wall.
Here’s the compatibility gotcha that catches people: Techo-Bloc color blends are not guaranteed across production runs. If your existing pavers were installed five or more years ago, a new pallet of the same named color can be visibly different. We always pull a sample from your yard and order from the same manufacturing batch when possible, or we plan a layout that works with slight variation rather than fighting it. As an independent contractor, Mason Remodeling Co Woodland Hills is not affiliated with Techo-Bloc, but we purchase directly through authorized regional distributors and can source current-stock product faster than if you tried to order it yourself. For homeowners doing a kitchen remodel alongside their addition, we can also coordinate cabinetry and surfaces from KraftMaid, Cambria, and Silestone so the hardscape and interior finishes don’t come from two different universes.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Techo-Bloc Home Additions & ADU Is Failing
- Pavers sinking or “birdbathing” near the foundation. This usually means the base material underneath has washed out or was never compacted properly. In Woodland Hills we see a fair amount of this on older homes where the original patio was laid directly on native soil with no crushed rock base.
- Gaps opening between pavers and the house slab. This typically points to inadequate edge restraint. Without a solid edge, pavers drift outward over time, and once that gap opens, water gets in and accelerates the problem.
- Retaining wall leaning or bowing at the face. Block walls lean when drainage was pushed short behind them. During a dry Santa Ana stretch it looks fine, but the minute we get a real rain, the hydrostatic pressure builds and the wall starts to move.
- Joint sand washing out after every rain. If your paver joints look like little valleys every spring, the base is settling unevenly. Re-sanding alone won’t fix it; the pavers need to come up, the base gets re-graded and compacted, and then the pavers go back down.
- Efflorescence or white mineral streaking on wall blocks. This is a moisture problem, not a product defect. It means water is moving through the block instead of being directed out through proper weep holes and drainage stone.
See the difference
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For a full home addition in Woodland Hills, you’re looking at $45,000 to $130,000. That range covers everything from a modest bump-out to a sizeable ground-floor expansion, and it includes site prep, foundation work, framing, roofing, rough and finish electrical and plumbing, drywall, paint, and any Techo-Bloc hardscape that needs to be removed, re-based, and reinstalled as part of the project. If you’re adding an ADU, that’s a separate animal entirely: $90,000 to $220,000 depending on whether it’s a garage conversion, a prefab-style structure, or a ground-up build.
Where the price moves is the site work. If the existing Techo-Bloc base is solid and we’re working around it, that’s one number. If we’re pulling up 1,200 square feet of pavers, importing new crushed rock, re-compacting, and re-laying every stone, that’s a different number. We don’t do change orders mid-project. You get a written price before work starts, and that’s the price. The labor to install new Techo-Bloc pavers or wall block generally runs $12 to $22 per square foot for labor alone, with materials on top of that. The 365-Day Done Right Promise applies to the whole project: if something’s not right within a year of completion, we come back and fix it at no cost to you.
DIY or Call Us?
There’s a reasonable amount of Techo-Bloc work that a patient homeowner can handle. Replacing a cracked paver here and there, re-sanding joints on a patio that’s otherwise stable, resetting a couple of wall caps, that’s all doable with a rubber mallet, a level, and a weekend. Retaining walls over 3 feet tall are a different story. The wall itself can weigh several tons, and if the base or drainage was done wrong, the failure isn’t a loose block: it’s a structure that can topple. That’s not a project to learn on.
For anything connected to a home addition or ADU, the answer is simple: the concrete, rebar, and drainage work ties directly into your house’s foundation and the city’s permit inspection process. If the base under your Techo-Bloc is compromised and you pour a slab over it anyway, you’ve just guaranteed a teardown later. Call (831) 290-6866 and we’ll come look. You’ll get a clear read on what’s salvageable, what isn’t, and what it costs to do it right.
FAQs
A properly installed Techo-Bloc paver surface on a solid compacted base lasts 25 to 40 years or more, even in our dry heat, which is honestly easier on pavers than freeze-thaw climates. The pavers themselves rarely fail; it’s almost always the base underneath that gives out. The UV exposure in Woodland Hills will fade surface color over time, but Techo-Bloc’s manufacturing doesn’t rely on a painted-on color layer, so the fade is slow and even. If your base is failing, call (831) 290-6866 and we’ll tell you the exact scope of repair before you spend a dollar.
Yes, in most cases. We can spot-repair settled sections by pulling the pavers, re-grading the base, and re-setting the same stones, which costs a fraction of a full reinstallation. The deciding factor is the condition of the base material and whether we can still source a color match for any replacement pavers. If more than roughly 30% of the surface is compromised, full removal and re-installation is usually the better long-term investment.
The Techo-Bloc work itself, whether it’s a new driveway, a patio, or a walkway tied into the addition, usually runs 3 to 7 working days depending on square footage and access. The scheduling typically places hardscape at the end of the project, after all heavy equipment has rolled through the site and the new foundation has cured. When we price your project, we’ll give you a week-by-week schedule so you know exactly when the pavers go in.
We don’t warehouse pallets of Techo-Bloc product on-site, but we maintain accounts with regional distributors in the Valley that stock current runs of Blu 60, Industrie, Raffinato, and the standard wall block lines. For most service calls and small repair jobs, we can have the needed product on-site within 3 to 5 business days. For larger projects we order from the manufacturer directly so the batch and color lot are clean across the whole job.
Written by Isaac Pruett, Owner, Mason Remodeling Co – Woodland Hills, CA at Mason Remodeling Co Woodland Hills, serving Woodland Hills and nearby areas.
