Author: A4KENYA

Prefabricated houses have began taking their niche in the competitive Kenyan real estate market.In China, Europe and America, prefabricated houses are already center stage due to their ability to reduce cost of labour. In Kenya and most of Africa, cost of labour is still quite low hence keeping construction using other traditional methods such as masonry stone quite low too.

Available types.

In Kenya, we have wooden prefabs, concrete panel prefabs, steel sandwich panel prefabs and expanded polysteryne cement sandwich panel prefabs.

Wooden prefabs.

Those of us who have visited or studied at University of Nairobi Main Campus have seen the famous prefab hostels. Having spent my University 1st year at Prefab Hostels, i can remember the wooden prefab houses and the living conditions inside. They tend to have very high noise transmission through the walls, are prone to decay in the wet areas, bathrooms, toilets and have a high cost of maintenance. These are probably the reasons why we dont see many developers opting to go the wooden prefab way . Wooden prefab method is slowly on the decline as a construction methodology in Kenya.

Concrete Panel prefabs.

These are structurally very sound and good for warehouse type of building.

These warehouses located in Ruiru,Kenya , for Butterfly Developers LTD, designed by www.a4architect.com , are constructed using the concrete prefab panel method.

This method requires that the developer invests in a crane to be able to comfortably lift the concrete panels high up during construction.
The panels are bolted together using nuts and bolts for high rise structures. For low rise, bungalow types, the panels are held together using steel groove rails at the bottom and at the top.

Expanded polystyrene panels.

These are made using expanded polysteryne sandwiched between cement plaster. Expanded polystyrene is the material found in Electronic goods boxes to cushion from external forces.

Expanded polystyrene is lighter than concrete, hence reducing labour costs since no cranes are needed to lift the panels into place.

Steel sandwich panels.

These have expanded polystyrene sandwiched between steel panels.

These are light, hence easily lifted by one person into place during construction, reducing overall construction cost. They come in various thickness sizes depending on the weather type of the area of the site so as to offer more insulation from the elements of weather.

Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau.
0721410684

4 Bedroomed house plan types usually fall in the range of 150 to 200m2 in plinth built up floor area. With average sized bedrooms, the floor plan will be in the 150m2 area range.

Laundry room.
Once a design moves past the 3 bedroomed floor plan range, the owner/developer usually also requires for other auxiliary rooms such as laundry rooms , TV rooms, 2nd living rooms and self contained bedrooms. Sometimes only the master bedroom has a bathroom, while other times all bedrooms are self contained depending on the needs and budget of the house owner.

Room sizes.

Once a house bedroom number increases past 3, this necessitates for larger room sizes since the house will most likely host many people inside. Thi living room size moves from the standard sizes to a minimum of 30m2 to accommodate. Same for kitchen and dining size. With the master bedroom en suite, this helps to offer use and assist the visitor toilet to ease the pressure in case several occupants want to use the toilet at the same time.

Roof.

The 4 bedroomed house plinth built up area of at least 200m2 for a bungalow is somehow wide. This makes the roof span quite wide, lifting the roof tip to ceiling height high enough to accommodate an attic space for extra room if need be. If there is no need for the attic room , the roof pitch can be designed to be less steep, say between 20 to 25 degrees, so that the roof tip to ceiling height is kept to at least 1.8meters high hence lower cost of roof trusses and roof surface cover.

Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau.
0721410684

Karen 5 acres for sale, Kufuga Road

https://goo.gl/maps/cypQUPUYout

Flat roof House designs

Ngong Kibiku Colonel Ngere Road House for sale.

3 bedrooms, all ensuite. Servant’s Quarters. Secure boundary wall.

Kes 14.5m

Contact 0721410684 for inquiries.

Karen, Mukoma road. 5 acre land for sale.

Call 0721410684

5 acre land for sale, Karen, Mokoyeti road.

https://goo.gl/maps/EoxsNgx9bX82

Call 0721410684 for details

Highrise Apartments and Flats, Juja, Kenya

Apartment buildings enable land owners to gain maximum utility from their land when land size is constrained.
Juja area has mostly 1/8th plot sided lands available for sale, on which buyers close to Thika road opt to construct high rise apartment flats.

This apartment at Juja was designed by a4architect.com

County Approval regulations.

Juja is located within Kiambu County. The Planning department allows for high rise apartments up to 5 floor levels in Juja area.
Ground coverage is set at 50 to 80%.
Juja Sub county planning offices are located in Thika town within the Ministry of Lands Thika building.
Building plan approvals for Kiambu sub county are done online at https://edams.kiambu.go.ke

Foundation.

The whole of Juja subcounty area has got very shallow soil, around 500mm maximum depth, with soft rock starting from there. This makes it an ideal location for machine cut stone quarry sites. Juja supplies Kenya with good quality machine cut stones. This shallowness of soil makes it a nightmare on enabling drainage for foul water in septic tanks. The foul water doesn’t have enough soil for it to drain from the septic tank into the soak pit, hence problems in sewerage.

Conservancy tanks.

Solution is to drill deep into the stone or construct a conservancy tank where sewerage is stored then occasionally taken out using lorries and dumped into county approved dump sites, which is a costly affair.

Differences between poly septic tanks and poly conservancy tanks

Conservancy tanks are constructed more stronger than septic tanks since they stay empty longer due to frequent emptying. Also, conservancy tanks are more airtight than septic tanks since the waste does not get treated.

Juja subcounty buildings tend to be more stable since the rock start is not deeply located, hence its safer to use less steel and less concrete on columns in the apartments.

JKUCAT

JKUCAT University , proximity to Thika road have provided the bulk of population that has necessitated for high rise buildings in Juja, with demand for tenancy/rental apartments quite high.

Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau.
0721410684

Bungalow house plans are mostly used where the land size is big enough to accommodate for horizontal building footprint spread at ground floor level.

1/8th acre land.

Lands that are in the 1/8th acre 50 feet by 100 feet or less are suitable for 1, 2 or 3 bedroomed bungalow sizes with small to average sided rooms. If the rooms are made larger, or more than 3 bedroomed are introduced, the space will begin to get squeezed, necessitating for a maisonette type where the bedrooms are stacked vertically upwards to form a 2 level house.

Staircase.
Bungalows of the same floor area with maisonettes tend to have more usable space since the space taken up by the staircase in maisonettes will be utilized as living space in a bungalow type house.

Style.

Bungalow styles come in various designs such as minimalistic types that look modern https://www.google.com/search?q=minimalistic+bungalow+house&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjV2daw87jYAhWKWRQKHS4lANIQ_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=623

European style bungalows are also a common style used in Kenya especially on the older houses that were built by the colonial settlers and later on by the Kenyans who were born in the 40s to 70s age group. https://www.google.com/search?biw=1366&bih=623&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=MEhLWu2wFcy5UafeuugI&q=european+style++bungalow+house&oq=european+style++bungalow+house&gs_l=psy-ab.3…113098.116063.0.116561.15.12.0.0.0.0.592.2333.0j2j2j2j0j1.7.0….0…1c.1.64.psy-ab..11.1.294…0i7i30k1j0i7i5i30k1.0.aupA9Wmkv54

The European style is mostly characterized by the steep roof slopes and use of rustic natural stone facades and timber.
This steep roof is designed to enable smooth flow of snow during winter in Europe, which over hundreds of years, has morphed into a characteristic design that is used elsewhere in other parts of the world regardless of the weather.
This is similar to the North African flat roof architecture style which is adapted to regions which receive low rainfall, hence no need to slope the roofs to enable faster rain flow, but the same style over hundreds of years has now been adopted and used in places where rainfall is plenty.

Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau.
info@a4architect.com
0721410684

Review of 2017 Construction and Real Estate industry, Kenya. What to expect in 2018.

2017 Construction industry in Kenya has been characterized by increased cost of construction in several segments such as labour, timber products, imported fittings.

Cement.

Cement and steel prices have remained stable throughout the year with no significant change. This is due to competition, with many new cement companies coming into direct competition. Savannah Cement has remained the most promising new entrant, eating into the existing market dominated by Bamburi and East African portland cement due to its superior quality and low prices.

Steel.
The banning of twisted reinforcement steel bars to be replaced with ribbed bars has also opened up new players into the steel market, bringing in much needed competition, with the dominant import source od origin,India, facing stiff competition from China as a new entrant as supplier of the raw material needed for smelting into steel products in Kenya.

New Building technology.

The last 3 years , there has been alot of influx of new prefabricated buildings manufacturers into the Kenyan market. This product has been marketed as low cost, pulling in alot of customers who are trying to look for solutions towards high cost of living. The reality is that these cost more or less the same as traditional stone houses, and after the 3 years, we have seen customers realizing that the savings is negligible, and we have witnessed in 2017, most of the prefabricated housing suppliers have now resulted into selling the prefabricated wall panels as opposed to offering the complete house as a product. The market for this is available since there are many people needing the panels for rapid housing in areas where permanent building is not possible eg on leased lands or in remote parts of the country.

New building material types are beginning to be more common place. pvc vinyl flooring , gypsum ceilings, aluminium windows and bituminous membrane roof covers are slowly begining to take their share of the market , edging out traditional building materials.

Earthbag building technology has also entered the market, with a few projects in Athi river and Nakuru.

https://orkidstudio.org/projects/nakuru-childrens-home/6/

http://pri-kenya.org/?p=2317

2018 Projections.

The capping of the interest rate at 14% will most likely be removed, and thereafter , banks will resume lending for construction purposes. This will result in a vibrant busy construction environment throughout 2018, especially now that the elections are done and dusted until 2022.

Demand for land round Nairobi city will continue to increase as foreign investors come in to buy land and construct. Joint Venture methods of financing will become mainstream ad the preferred mode of financing high rise real estate.

In architectural designs, a more modern minimalistic style look is becoming more preferred by house owners.

https://www.google.com/search?q=minimalistic+house+design&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi_mf2TqLHYAhVLvxQKHdFrCr8Q_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=623

New materials such as manufactured marble slate stones will become more common place in the market. Stone art shops will also increase in number from the current less than 5 as developers realise they need to be competitive to attract clientele to their developments for rent or sale.

Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau.
0721410684