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Belgard Home Additions & ADU: The West Palm Beach Owner’s Guide
Belgard home additions and ADU construction in West Palm Beach typically runs $45,000 to $130,000 for a full addition, while a detached ADU lands between $90,000 and $220,000 depending on square footage, foundation work, and finish level. Most homeowners call us when they’ve outgrown their existing floor plan and need a permitted structure that will survive Florida’s wind codes, not just a room tacked on the back. The trigger is usually the same: a growing family, a parent moving in, or a work-from-home setup that’s been squeezed into a corner of the garage too long. If the walls are closing in and you’re weighing a move versus building out, this page gives you the straight numbers and what actually happens on a West Palm Beach site.
We install Belgard-compatible hardscape elements around new additions and ADUs (pavers, retaining walls, permeable driveways that meet Palm Beach County drainage rules) and we spec Belgard products into the project from day one. Bradford Remodeling Co West Palm Beach is an independent contractor, not a Belgard company, which means we’re free to tell you when a particular Belgard line is worth the money and when a simpler substrate saves you a few thousand without losing anything that matters.
Which Belgard Products This Applies To
Belgard’s catalog splits into two families that matter for West Palm Beach additions and ADUs: the paving stone and wall systems (Cambridge Cobble, Mega-Arbel, Urbana Stone, and the Diamond line) and the permeable paver systems (Aqua-Bric, Eco-Dublin, and the newer Plaza series) that Palm Beach County code officials want to see when your addition expands impervious coverage. The compatibility gotcha most homeowners miss: Belgard’s permeable pavers require a specific open-graded aggregate base rather than standard sand, and if your existing patio or walkway was built with a sand-set base, you cannot simply add permeable pavers on top. The water has nowhere to go. That’s the kind of detail that costs owners real money when it’s ignored.
For identifying what you already have, look at the paver itself. Belgard stamps a subtle product code on the bottom edge of most manufactured pavers. If the code is worn off (common after five-plus Florida summers and pressure washing), measure a single unit. Mega-Arbel runs 6×9 inches, Cambridge Cobble 6×6 and 6×9, and Plaza pavers come in 24×24 and 24×48 slabs. Match the dimensions and you’ve narrowed the family. We keep a reference set of these dimensions on the truck because running back to the yard for a wrong-size match costs everyone time.
On OEM versus aftermarket: Belgard’s own pavers are concrete-extruded under high compression, rated at 8,000 psi minimum for traffic-rated surfaces. Good aftermarket equivalents exist (Unilock and Techo-Bloc both make compatible 6×9 cobble and slab sizes), but color matching across brands never lines up perfectly. If you’re patching a 20-year-old Belgard walkway, the new Belgard paver will already look brighter than the old one. Mixing brands on top of that makes it worse. For structural additions, stay with one manufacturer per surface area.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Planned Addition or ADU’S Hardscape Is Already Failing
Before you build a new bedroom over a failing patio, here’s what we see on West Palm Beach sites where the hardscape wasn’t done right the first time:
- Pavers sinking in a bowl pattern near the slab edge. This almost always means the previous contractor’s base was too thin or the site wasn’t compacted in lifts. Building an addition over it locks that failure in permanently.
- Water pooling against the foundation after a hard rain. West Palm Beach gets 60-plus inches of rain a year. If the grade slopes toward the house instead of away, every inch of rainfall is working against your new concrete.
- Pavers efflorescing white or flaking on top. That’s salt and mineral migration through the paver, common when drainage is bad and water sits in the base layer. It won’t stop on its own.
- Tree roots lifting the walkway or patio within 5 to 10 feet of a mature oak or palm. Anything with a 30-foot root zone near your addition pad needs a root barrier or the new slab inherits the problem.
- Expansion joints or soldier courses pulling apart. Movement means the base is shifting. If you see a crack or separation wider than a quarter inch, the base is moving more than the Belgard product is designed to absorb.
If any of these describe what you’re standing on today, the addition quote has to include base remediation. We won’t put a $90,000 ADU on a failed base and hand you a one-year guarantee on top of it. The substrate is the structural part. The pavers are the wearing surface.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For a full home addition in West Palm Beach, installed pricing runs $45,000 to $130,000. Detached ADU construction runs $90,000 to $220,000. Where your project lands depends on square footage, whether you’re going stem-wall or slab-on-grade, what wind-load hardware the county requires (Florida product approvals and NOA numbers are non-negotiable here), and your finish level. A 400-square-foot unpermitted bump-out and a 750-square-foot permitted ADU with a kitchen and bath are not the same project.
| Scope | West Palm Beach Installed Range | What Moves the Number |
|---|---|---|
| Home addition (permitted, tied into existing structure) | $45,000 – $130,000 | Square footage, roof tie-in complexity, utility rough-in distance |
| ADU construction (detached, site-built) | $90,000 – $220,000 | Foundation type, kitchen/bath count, hurricane strapping and impact windows |
| Belgard paver driveway or patio (new, alongside addition) | $3,500 – $18,000 | Permeable base vs standard base, paver line selected, drain specs |
Every one of our quotes is a written line item: materials separated from labor, the Belgard product specified by name and series, permit fees listed as pass-through (we pull them, you see the actual cost), and the substrate work called out separately so you know exactly what you’re paying for. The price we write is the price you pay. No change order appears because the original scope was soft.
All work carries the 365-Day Done Right Promise. If the addition, ADU, or hardscape fails inside one year, Bradford returns and corrects it at no charge. It’s in writing before the first tool leaves the truck.
DIY or Call Us?
Here’s the honest split. What a homeowner can safely do before calling a contractor: measure your existing pavers (length, width, thickness), note where water pools after rain, photograph any cracks or settled areas, and pull the survey if you have one so the setback conversation starts accurately. That’s all useful and costs you nothing.
What you should not do: open your own walls, pour footers without plans, or pull a permit on a project with structural tie-ins to your existing home. West Palm Beach’s wind zone means additions and ADUs get engineered strapping, anchor bolts at specific spacings, and exterior sheathing nailed on a schedule. Get any of that wrong and the inspector catches it, the money gets redone, and the schedule blows out by weeks. Even setting pavers over a bad base is throwing away the material cost.
If you want a straight number and a full scope for your addition, ADU, or Belgard hardscape, call (728) 203-9809. Curtis Lane will walk it with you, if he hasn’t already figured out the base problem from your description.
FAQs
How long does a Belgard paver patio or driveway last in West Palm Beach? Twenty-five to thirty years is realistic for a properly installed Belgard paver surface in South Florida, assuming the base was built with the correct aggregate depth and drainage. We see failures in year five to seven when the base was sand-only or the compaction was skipped, both common with low-bid installs.
Can you fix a failing paver installation instead of replacing it? In many cases yes: we can lift and reset the affected area, add base material where the grade has settled, and re-sweep the joints. If the base is uniformly too thin or the drainage pattern was designed wrong from the start, spot repair just moves the problem to the next section. Call (728) 203-9809 and we’ll tell you which one you have.
How long does a home addition or ADU take to build in West Palm Beach? A modest addition typically runs four to seven months from permit submittal to final inspection. A detached ADU with a kitchen and bath usually runs six to ten months. Palm Beach County plan review and the multiple inspections required (foundation, strapping, rough-in, insulation, final) are the schedule drivers, not the framing itself.
Do you stock Belgard products at your West Palm Beach location? We carry a working stock of Belgard paver samples and color chips in the office, and we order full pallets directly from the Belgard distributor for every project so the dye lot is consistent. We do not keep whole pallets sitting in inventory because Florida humidity and UV break down unused pavers faster than you’d think.
Written by Curtis Lane, Owner, Bradford Remodeling Co – West Palm Beach at Bradford Remodeling Co West Palm Beach, serving West Palm Beach and nearby areas.
