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Unilock Fence Installation: The West Covina Owner’s Guide
Unilock fence installation in West Covina typically runs $3,500 to $9,000 for a complete perimeter project, with most homeowners landing around $5,500 for a standard 150-linear-foot yard. That price includes excavation, base prep, the Unilock fence system itself, and finish work. We keep Unilock pavers and wall units on hand for repairs and rebuilds, so if a section of your fence wall has shifted, cracked, or started leaning after a wet winter, we can usually get eyes on it within a few days and a written quote in your hands the same day we measure.
Which Unilock Models This Applies To
Unilock doesn’t make a single “fence” product. What most West Covina homeowners call a Unilock fence is actually a structural segmental retaining wall or freestanding screen wall built from Unilock wall units. The most common lines we install and repair around here are the Lineo Dimensional Stone, U-Cara Multi-Face, Brussels Dimensional System, and Estate Wall. Each has a different face texture and cap profile, and the pin-and-clip or lip-style connections differ between series, so you can’t always mix one product line into another without visible joints and alignment problems. The best way to identify what you have: look for the Unilock logo stamped on the underside of a cap or the back of a unit. If that’s worn off, measure the face height. Brussels Dimensional runs 4 inches; Lineo and U-Cara run closer to 6. If you’re replacing a damaged section, we source genuine Unilock stock through local West Covina and greater LA distribution. For older discontinued colors, there are a handful of quality aftermarket match units that blend well, but color match on aged Unilock is never perfect. We tell you that up front because nobody should find out after the wall is rebuilt.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Unilock Fence Installation Is Failing
- The wall is leaning outward at the top. This almost always means the base course is settling or the original build skipped a proper compacted gravel footing. In West Covina’s clay-heavy soil, freeze-thaw cycles aren’t the issue, but wet winters like 2023’s absolutely are. Waterlogged clay expands and shifts, and a wall with no drainage stone behind it starts tilting.
- Gaps are opening between the stacked units. That’s the facing shifting independently of the course behind it. It happens when the pins or clips shear, which is more common on taller walls or walls built directly against a slope with no setback. If you can slide a butter knife between two units that used to be tight, the connection is done.
- Caps are loose or wobbly. Caps usually fail because someone used the wrong adhesive, or none at all. A loose cap on a freestanding fence is a safety issue: it’s a 15-to-30-pound piece of concrete sitting at head height. We re-set caps with a polyurethane construction adhesive rated for exterior concrete, and we pin them where the Unilock design allows it.
- White, chalky streaking across the face. That’s efflorescence, which is normal to a degree but gets worse when water is trapped behind the wall with nowhere to drain. Once we fix the drainage path, the efflorescence slows down. Cleaning products help, but they don’t solve the root cause.
- The entire wall droops in one section. If it looks like someone stepped on the top of the wall and bent it, you have a base failure, not a surface problem. It means the original trench was too shallow or the base material wasn’t compacted in lifts. The only permanent fix is to dismantle that section, re-excavate, and rebuild from the base course up.
See the difference
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After
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
In West Covina, a full Unilock fence installation runs $3,500 to $9,000 depending on footage, wall height, access, and how much of the old base is worth salvaging. A partial rebuild, where we dismantle and re-stack an existing wall with new base rock, runs lower, typically $1,500 to $4,000 depending on the section. The bigger cost drivers: whether we need to haul off old units and base material, whether the wall is over 3 feet and needs engineering or a permit in the City of West Covina, and whether your property backs up to a slope where access is tight. When we quote, the written number includes materials, labor, haul-off, and the compaction and drainage work. Our 365-Day Done Right Promise covers the installation for a full year. If a section shifts or a cap loosens because of how we built it, we come back and fix it. No invoice. You’ll also get our written price before any work starts, so the number you approve is the number you pay.
DIY or Call Us?
You can safely inspect a Unilock fence yourself. Walk it every spring. Look for the leaning and gaps above, check caps by hand, and run a level along the top to see if a section is starting to roll. What you should not do is try to dismantle a section that’s leaning. Once pins shear or the base shifts, the units are under uneven load, and pulling one out by hand can bring a few hundred pounds of wall down toward you. There’s no spring tension or electrical risk here like a garage door, so the danger is blunt and real but avoidable. If the wall is over 3 feet tall, it’s working as a retaining structure, and West Covina may require a permit for the rebuild. We handle that. Call (341) 217-4204 and we’ll schedule a free on-site look, take measurements, and get you a written number for the repair or full replacement.
FAQs
A properly built Unilock fence should last 25 to 40 years in West Covina, with caps being the first item to need re-adhesive around year 10. The wall units themselves rarely fail from age; it’s the base, drainage, and connections that determine lifespan. Walls built on compacted gravel with proper drainage stone behind the face routinely outlast the homes they surround. Walls built on raw soil in wet years start showing tilt in five. If you want an honest assessment of what’s already there, call (341) 217-4204 and we’ll tell you what we see.
Yes, most leaning sections can be dismantled and rebuilt using the original units, which saves real money compared to buying all new material. The exception is when the units themselves are cracked or spalled, or the pins and clips across the entire wall are sheared. In those cases, partial replacement is the smarter spend. Either way, we’ll show you the numbers for both paths before you commit.
Most West Covina Unilock fence projects run 3 to 5 working days from excavation to finished caps, depending on footage and access. A targeted repair section is often 1 to 2 days. Weather matters less here than it does in colder climates, but we do pause work during heavy rain because compacting wet base rock gives you a wall that settles later. We’d rather lose a day than build a wall that moves.
We keep Lineo and Brussels Dimensional caps and wall units in limited stock for common West Covina repairs, and we can pull from our local supply yard within a day or two for larger orders, including U-Cara and Estate Wall lines. What we don’t stock, we special order with the exact color code from your existing wall, and we confirm lead time before we schedule your rebuild. Call (341) 217-4204 for an exact match and a written quote. Estimates are free.
Written by Luca Romano, Owner, Sawyer Remodel West Covina at Sawyer Remodel West Covina, serving West Covina and nearby areas.
