GREENVILLE ESTATE NAIROBI- SUPERIOR BUILDING FINISHES

GREENVILLE ESTATE NAIROBI- SUPERIOR BUILDING FINISHES

Greenville estate located in Nairobi boasts of superior building finishes.
These finishes have been carefully selected by the Architects to ensure that they offer the best performance and value to home owners.

EXTERNAL WALLING.

The front wall of Greenville Estate next to the external parking has hand-dressed masonry stone wall finished to a smooth texture.
The masonry walling on the first 3 stone courses from the ground floor is bush-dressed. This gives a unique pattern and also helps to prevent dust from making visible stains at the external wall bottom. This assists in making it easier to help maintain a clean external walling appearance hence lowering the cost of cleaning and maintaining the wall.

The upper part [after the first three courses] has smooth-dressed masonry walling. The stones have been carefully selected and stone color chosen-only the blue-gray stone has been used for this.

This stone is very hard hence offering a very long lasting walling that is completely water-proof. The stone also has a color and texture that is very appealing to the eye.
A small masonry extrusion at the end of each unit serves to demarcate each individual maisonette boundary and also increases the aesthetics by making the wall more interesting as opposed to being simple and plain.

BALCONY RAILINGS.

The Greenville balcony railings have been specially designed with a combination of normal steel balustrade railing and 150mm wide wooden planks.

The planks are painted dark-green. These give Greenville estate a unique character. The steel railings prevent small children from falling off the balcony since they are spaced close to each other.

WINDOWS.

The windows have a 150mm wide plastered frame so as to articulate the window openings thereby resulting with a unique appearance exclusive to Greenville Estate only. This fame is painted the same color with the roof.

CAR PARK AREA, DRIVEWAYS AND WALKWAYS.

The external car park area, driveways and walkways have a machine-cut masonry stone finish. The 200mm thick machine – cut stone walling offers more strength than cabbro road works. This can support even the heaviest of Lorries without cracking hence will require no maintenance in the long run.
The stone paving also enhances the beauty of the estate since it gives out a natural feeling.

The parking space under each individual house has the masonry paving along the two car tracks.
This frees most of the ground floor surface so that greenery and natural ground is maintained.

Floor finishes.
The floor finishes are made of patterned high quality ceramic tiles with each room having its own unique pattern and color.

ROOF.

The roof material is natural clay roof tiling. This tiling has no added color thereby making it very safe for the rain water surface runoff to be harvested for consumption.
The clay roof tiles also long lasting and become more aesthetically appealing with age therefore the more the house grows old, the more beautiful it becomes.
The roof for each maisonette has been separated to as to demarcate the boundaries of house ownership. This enables the house owner to know their boundaries when fixing roof aerials or repairing .

CONCLUSION

Greenville Estate finishing materials have been carefully chosen to offer the building owners the best performance over time. These materials will require little or no maintenance hence saving on periodic costly regular building maintenance costs.

These materials also increase the value of the Greenville Estate home since they enhance the aesthetics, save on maintenance costs and offer convenience such as safe rain water harvesting among other factors.

Francis Gichuhi Kamau.
Architect.
http://www.a4architect.com

GREENVILLE ESTATE NAIROBI- PERFECT HOME AND OFFICE

GREENVILLE ESTATE NAIROBI- PERFECT HOME AND OFFICE

Greenville estate offers practical 3 bedroom residential maisonette units at an affordable price.

Advantages include:

1. Abilitiy to separate the 3 bed roomed maisonettes into two different 1 bedroomed units each with its own external entrance. This helps incase the owner would like to re-sell or rent a part of his house. This also offers flexibility to the owner in case they want to use part of their residence as an office.

2. Landscaped 24 hour irrigated gardens.
3. 2 No. Car parking spaces per house.
4. Secure community with electric fencing.

HOME OFFICE

The Greenville estate unit design enables people who might require home offices to operate at ease with their offices within their residential quarters.
With the current never-ending rise in fuel costs and traffic jams, home offices are becoming part of the norm especially in the developing world.

The Greenville Estate home owner can use the first floor living room, kitchen and bedroom as a 1 bed roomed unit and use the second floor master bedroom as the office.
The other second floor bedroom can either be used as an extension to the office or as a second bedroom depending on the owner’s space needs requirements.
Visitors to the office can be directed to the second floor where they do not have to come in contact with the first floor living room area.

SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT

Use of home offices apart from saving on transport and office rental costs will also save the environment on the carbon that could have been released into the atmosphere if the home owner had travelled to a town office.
This helps make the world a little bit more ‘Green’.

INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY

Home offices also offer convenience and flexibility to the home owner in that he or she can work odd hours such as very late within the comfort of their home.

This unique design conceptualized by the architectural firm of http://www.a4architect.com will go a long way in making the Greenville Estate home owner more comfortable in their work environment which in turn will lead to higher productivity levels.

CONCLUSION

The advantages of working from home are numerous such as flexible time schedules including very late at night, extra time to spend on families, savings on office rent , transport and meals costs.

Another great advantage of working from home is that you give your customers a perceived sense of security in that they are sure to find you at the same location next time they visit hence higher trust levels as opposed to customers who visit offices in tow office setups.

The Greenville Estate maisonette has been designed to facilitate such a home office whereby visitors to the office are separated from the visitors to the living room area completely with each having a separate external entry point.

The home office advantages should go a long way in increasing the home owner’s productivity levels hence a great investment in the long run.

Francis Gichuhi Kamau

Architect

http://www.a4architect.com

+254721410684

THE GREENVILLE HOUSE PLAN: 3 BEDROOMED MAISONETTE THAT CAN BE EASILY CONVERTED TO 2 SEPARATE 1 BEDROOMED UNITS.

THE GREENVILLE HOUSE PLAN:
3 BEDROOMED MAISONETTE THAT CAN BE EASILY CONVERTED TO 2 SEPARATE 1 BEDROOMED UNITS.

The Greenville house plan has been designed by the firm of http://www.a4architect.com.

The typical unit comprises of a 3 bedroom maisonette with ground floor housing the parking, first floor housing the lounge, kitchen and one bedroom and the second floor housing two ensuite bedrooms.
This unit has been specially designed such that the first floor lounge, kitchen and bedroom can be converted to a separate one-bed roomed unit and the second floor ensuite bedrooms can be converted into a separate one-bed roomed unit whereby the master bedroom becomes the lounge, the master bathroom becomes the kitchen and the other bedroom remains the same.
This unique ability to easily convert the 3 bed roomed maisonette into two separate 1 bed roomed units has several advantages.

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf
RE-SELL

High-Return Investment Plan.

The owner of the Greenville 3 bed roomed maisonette unit can easily re-sell the unit as two separate 1 bed roomed units in future. Property as an asset increases in value. Therefore, over time, the property value of the bulding wll have increased and the owner may want to capitalize on this. The owner can decide to either sell off one or both units or live in one unit and sell the other depending on their specific needs and requirements. This re-sell after the value of the property goes up makes alot of business sense to the owner .It is therefore a very solid investment plan for property speculators.

Urgent Financial requirement solutions.

The ability to re-sell a part of the house should give the Greenville house owner a great sense of financial security in case an urgent need for money comes up. Such occasions can be caused by many factors that are beyond human control such as sudden unprecedented medical costs after an accident.

COLLATERAL FOR LOANS

The Greenville house plan also comes in handy when the owner of the 3 bed roomed maisonette requires collateral for a bank loan. The ability to hold two title deeds for each one bed roomed house within the maisonette assists the home owner greatly in that they can easily use the title to secure a loan from a bank without risk of losing a basic human need: shelter.

We all have heard of harrowing tales on how some home owners have been kicked out of their houses after auctioneers have been called in after home owners have defaulted on bank loans.

All these house owners initially borrow the money thinking that they will be able to comfortably repay it back but the eventuality is different. With the Grenville house plan, owners of the 3 bed roomed maisonette can rest assured that incase the unfortunate loan default happens, they can only loose half their house since they can use the one-bedroom house title as collateral and continue enjoying the un-encumbered title for the remaining one-bed roomed unit.

RENTAL INCOME

The Greenville house plan is useful in enabling the maisonette owner to rent out a one-bedroom unit as they continue to live in the other one –bed roomed unit.
The rent can be used to offset the monthly mortgage repayments or to subsidize on the daily living expenses.

MAXIMUM SPACE UTILISATION AFTER CHANGE IN FAMILY UNIT SIZE

Family unit sizes are dynamic in that they change over time. Currently, urban family sizes are becoming smaller with an average of two to three kids per family. The large five to seven average number of kids per urban family that was very common years ago is now slowly becoming extinct.

The basic unit starts with a single man or woman .The size increases as a spouse moves in with the other to make it two people. At this stage, a 1 bed roomed house is enough to cater for the space needs. Later on, kids are born into the family and this also attracts house helps hence the need for more than two bedrooms.
The kids grow and move out of the house at a later stage. The need for house-helps decreases. The family unit decreases in size and the family can now comfortably live in a one-bed roomed house.

The Greenville house plan assists the owner to make maximum use of space that they are not using. For example, when the family unit decreases after the kids have moved out, the home owners can easily sell off or rent the extra space created. This extra space becomes useful and adds to the financial kitty for the family.

CONCLUSION

The Greenville house plan designed by http://www.a4architect.com will enable many a Kenyan family obtain value from their home in terms of less risky collateral, added rental income and high-return investment after re-sell. The classic story of a family unit being evicted by auctioneers after using the home as collateral for a bank loan will hopefully be a thing for the past.
The Greenville house plan addresses these issues whereby the home owner can go home and rest assured [pun intended] that their investment is safe.

Francis Gichuhi Kamau B.Arch. U.o.N M.A.A.K[A]
Registered Architect.
http://www.a4architect.com

EXTERIOR WALL FINISHES FOR TALL BUILDINGS

EXTERIOR WALL FINISHES FOR TALL BUILDINGS

Exterior wall finishes for tall buildings are a very important part of the building. They are responsible for giving the building its uniqueness among other factors such as shape.
They are also very critical in determining the building safety in times of disasters such as earthquakes.
For example, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco, U.S.A where 5 people were killed when the brick facade collapsed on the side walk.
In Kenya, we have witnessed the collapse of the Sunbeam Supermarket canopy in 1996 resulting to several deaths.
During a conference on building structures held at Grand Regency hotel, Nairobi in the year 2006, the current Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Roads, Engineer M.S.M Kamau gave a speech on the role of Structural Engineering in Buildings. He noted that most people assumed that the role of Structural Engineers in Buildings was only limited to the building frame and structure which should not be the case. He said that Structural Engineers have a role to play until final completion of buildings including finishes and gave an example of external wall finishes. He explained that to the layman, external wall finishes such as wall tiles look simple to fix but to the structural engineer, they mean that their self-weight should be taken into consideration and the mechanism of holding the tiles to place carefully structurally analyzed to ensure that they do not fall on passersby below and cause injuries.
He explained that a single tile could be weighing up to 5 kgs of which if not fastened to the wall adequately using the required strength, this could cause serious injuries to passersby below.

From NAIROBI CBD BUILDINGS

The tiles above are quite heavy and if not structurally designed by a qualified structural engineer to hold in place, can fall on an unsuspecting pedestrian below.

CERAMIC TILES.

Ceramic tiles of various sizes are used to clad the exterior of tall buildings.
As stated above, it’s important that all building industry consultants including structural engineers get involved in the decision to use ceramic tiles on the exterior walls.
Large tiles which are heavier require care infixing to avoid them falling down and casing injuries.
The most used adhesive in Kenya that sticks these tiles to the walls is cement slurry-regularly termed as ‘wet-set’.
Other adhesives are available such as ‘thin-set’. This is a mixture of cement, sand and a chemical called methylcellulose. Methylcellulose holds water allowing the tile to be laid dry.
Organic adhesives.
These are manufactured by Construction chemical manufactures, mostly paint manufacturers and come in pails. These are pre-mixed and come with manufacturer’s instructions on use.

From NAIROBI CBD BUILDINGS

This building above, which used to be the famous Luthuli Fish and Chips and currently a shopping mall, has ceramic tiles wall finishes in the lobby area.
This building below-Corner House, considered to be the mid-point / centre of Nairobi CBD in Valuation profession circles also has ceramic tile exterior wall finishes.

From NAIROBI CBD BUILDINGS

The ceramic tiles are the small type. This type poses a minimum risk in injury if a tile falls off since the tile is small and light-weight. This is also easy to repair since only a small portion of tile can fall off at a time compared to a wide sized tile.

GRANITE AND MARBLE TILES

These are quite expensive compared to ceramic tiles. The advantage is in the aesthetics. Granite and Marble looks very appealing to the eye. Granite and Marble tiles also require little or no maintenance since these are naturally occurring.

From NAIROBI CBD BUILDINGS

From NAIROBI CBD BUILDINGS

The building above, located along Kenyatta Avenue has Granite tile wall cladding.
The main difference between Granite and Marble is the appearance. Granite is mostly gray in color and contains tiny specs and dots due to its igneous formation when hot lava cools off.
Marble appears in several colors and shades with colored streaks showing the sediments in the initial rock formation.

PAINT ON CEMENT SCREED PLASTER

From NAIROBI CBD BUILDINGS

This method is relatively lower in cost compared to Ceramic, Granite and Marble tiling.
A good example is the KENCOM building along Moi Avenue.
This method requires minimal maintenance, only the periodic painting. Painting on such surfaces requires specialized expertise in terms of supporting structures for the painters to stand on.
The advantage is that its easy for the building owner to easily change the color in case of rebranding as opposed to tile finishes.

From NAIROBI CBD BUILDINGS

COLOURED TEXTURED CEMENT PLASTER

From NAIROBI CBD BUILDINGS

This type of wall finish makes it easy to have a combination of colors and textures on a facade.
A good example is the Emperor Plaza building along Koinange Street.
Its quite costly compared to paint on cement plaster and ceramic tiles.

From NAIROBI CBD BUILDINGS

Textured cement comes in various textures.
Some paint manufacturers also offer a similar type of rough textured exterior paint.

PATTERNED REINFORCED CONCRETE

From NAIROBI CBD BUILDINGS

This type of exterior finish gives a unique appearance.
Such an example is K.I.C.C. Building and the Hilton hotel.
The ballast component in the reinforced concrete is carefully selected to the right size so as to leave the ballast-dotted outward finish.

HAND-DRESSED MASONRY WALLING

From NAIROBI CBD BUILDINGS

This type of finish is common in the buildings constructed in the early 1900s.
Currently, very few new buildings have this type of finish. This is because hand-dressing masonry stone takes alot of time and hence expensive in terms of labour costs. Most of these buildings were built during the colonial period whereby labour was virtually free since the colonies could have the natives work at little or no pay.

This type of finish is long lasting as can be attested by Kipande House, which has stood the test of the test of time.
Currently, there is availability of polished natural stone tiles in the market such as the tiles on the walls of the former U.S.A Embassy at Moi Avenue.

BRICK CLADDING

From NAIROBI CBD BUILDINGS

This type of finish is very long lasting, requires little or no maintenance and very cost =effective.
Such an example is the Stanbic Bank House along Kenyatta Avenue.
This type of finish gives the building a unique and natural feel.

GLASS

From NAIROBI CBD BUILDINGS

Glass facades make a building look modern. This type of all finish is cost-effective in that it acts as a building element [wall] and at the same time acts as the wall finish.
Disadvantage is mainly due to letting in heat and glare from the sun. This problem is usually solved by using a tinted toughened thick glass and adding window film to its surface.

CONCLUSION

There are many types of wall finishes for tall buildings available in the market locally and internationally. It’s up to the owner of the building to liaise with their Architect ,Structural Engineer, Quantity Surveyor and other relevant professionals in their Building Design team to choose the most appropriate wall finish.

Francis Gichuhi Kamau
Architect.
http://www.a4architect.com

How to Demolish a Building after a Disaster-Earthquake.

How to Demolish a Building after a Disaster-Earthquake.

Building demolition has become common now that cases of building collapse due to natural causes such as earthquakes and man-made causes such as poor workmanship are beginning to show up more commonly. Recently in Kenya, two high-rise buildings collapsed in Kiambu town .
Also, Haiti and Chile have recently been hit by a severe earthquake.

Lack of Enforcement of the Building Code by the Local Authorities in provision for earthquake design factors in Haiti-2010[7.0 on the Richter scale] and China-Sichuan-2008[7.9 on the Richter scale] is largely blamed for the disasters since earthquakes do not kill people…only badly designed buildings do.

These earthquakes which killed over 100,000 peole when compared to the Loma Prieta earthquake that struck the San Francisco bay area of California in 1989 with a magnitude of 7.1 on the Richter scale[higher than the recent Haiti earthquake-7.0 on the Richter scale], you will notice that only 59 people died as a direct result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake San Francisco earthquake.

From earthquake pics

Five people were killed on Bluxome Street near Fifth Street and Townsend in San Francisco as a brick facade collapsed onto the sidewalk and street.[You will notice that fatalities were caused by flying debris such as brick facades as opposed to people getting trapped in collapsed buildings as in the Haiti situation.

This is mainly due to the stringent enforcement of the Building Code in U.S.A as opposed to Haiti where the Building Code is not as effectively enforced.

From earthquake pics

China Sichuan Earthquake-2008

A well-designed building with a good earthquake Load Factor will withstand any typical earthquake without fatalities.
The earthquake loading factor should be high in areas which are seismically unstable and it’s the duty of the Government through the relevant Local Authority to ensure that these Building Codes are followed. For example, the earthquake Load Factor for Nakuru which is in the Rift Valley should be higher than in Nairobi.

Demolition Method.

In such cases whereby people are still trapped in the buildings, careful choice of demolition method is important so as not to injure trapped people.

In the Haiti earthquake, only around 70 people have been rescued alive so far and more than 100,000 dead. These figures show that a quick response to freeing trapped people from the collapsed buildings can go a very long way to save lives.
The method chosen should be very fast to implement, low-cost and should not require specialized labour.

1.Pneumatic and Hydraulic Breakers

These are suitable for demolishing pavements, roads and reinforced concrete slabs.
They can be mounted on the back-hoe Excavator or hand held.
Factors such as the size of the hammer and strength of the reinforced concrete will determine how fast the demolition work will be performed.
The main disadvantage of this method is that it requires specialized machinery,skilled labour and it generates noise, dust and vibrations.

2. Pressure Bursting: Mechanical Bursting and Chemical Bursting

Pressure Bursting has two categories: Mechanical Bursting and Chemical bursting.
Mechanical Bursting:

From earthquake pics

mechanical bursting of concrete slab

In this method, a splitting machine operating on hydraulic pressure is inserted in a hole inside the concrete slab and forces the slab open to crack it.

Chemical Bursting.

In this method, a crack agent is mixed with cold water to form a slurry mortar which is poured into a pre-drilled hole inside the concrete. It reacts chemically [hydration] and starts to swell, exerting pressure of more than 500kg/cm2 which is far much stronger than the concrete’s tensile strength.

From earthquake pics

holes drilled on concrete ready for chemical bursting

The holes are drilled along the desired cracking line. The holes are usually around 2 cm wide and around 10 to 20 cm apart. This pressure cracks the concrete after a certain period of time-usually between 6 hours to 24 hours.

The cracking time is dependent on the ratio of the chemical to the added water and by the temperature of the surrounding area. The higher the dose and temperature, the faster the cracking.

The advantage of this method is that it does not require machinery, skilled labour and does not create noise and dust.
The disadvantage is that there is risk of blow-out explosion from the holes within the first 3 hours as the chemical reacts if the chemical is the explosive type such as CRACK-AG.

Other non-explosive agents such as BETONAMIT CHEMICAL BURSTING will work without the risk of an explosion.
In earthquake situations such as in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, or in the Kiambu disaster in Kenya, this method would be very effective since in both situations, the financial ability to mobilize heavy machinery is not high due to their being in 3rd world economies.

3. Dismantling

This is done by slicing concrete elements and then removing them with the excavator or crane. This method is good for demolishing part of a building since it does not structurally affect the remaining structure.

From earthquake pics

concrete slab being broken piece by piece usng the ‘crunching’ method

By cutting concrete elements, and then removing them by crane, the demolition of an entire concrete structure may be carried out with a minimum of noise, dust, and impact on surrounding structures.

Frank Gichuhi
Architect.
http://www.a4architect.com
+254721410684

Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/construction-articles/how-to-demolish-a-building-after-a-disasterearthquake-1765067.html#ixzz14I5g1Y9p
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