Points to Check before buying a plot.

Points to Check before buying a plot.

1. Encumbrances. Check with the Ministry of Lands if there are any Caveats put on the plot.

2. Ascertain ownership.
Check with the Ministry of Lands who is the registered owner of the land. Its also prudent to check with the neighbors to get the physical appearance and current contacts of the owner.
In Kenya, there has been incidences where people steal the identity of the real land owner and sell to unsuspecting customers. By confirming the owner from the neighbors, this will reduce such a risk.

3. Ability to appreciate in Value.
Most land appreciates in value. The prospect of new infrastructure will play a big role in increasing the value of the land.
Currently, land in Juja, Thika, Kenya is appreciating very fast due to the construction of Thika road into a several-lane highway and construction of a by-pass on the behind side of Juja. There is also the fact that Wilson airport is planning to relocate to this area.
Land in Kitengela, Athi River and Syokimau is also appreciating very fast with the completion of Mombasa road Highway.

4. Check with the Meteorological department.
Check to see if the land sits on a wetland. Some land can be actually on a dried up seasonal river , lake or swamp. If you are not careful, once the rains start, the whole plot gets submerged or the building gets swept by the river floods.
Areas such as Runda and Membley estate, Thika road are prone to such plots. With a good structural design, the building can be raised with collumns to a level above the flood water level.

5. Check the soil type.
If you are planning to build a house, foundations with black cotton soil are more expensive since all the soil has to be excavated from the site. This is due to the fact that black cotton soil expands when it rains hence pushing the floor slab and foundation up. It then shrinks when it dries hence pulling the floor slab down.This expansion and contraction results in structural cracks.

If the black cotton soil is more than 1.5 meters deep, it becomes too expensive to excavate it. A good solution is to use the suspended foundation where collumns are sunk and footed at stable ground. The collumns are raised till just above ground level then the ground floor suspended on the columns. This reduces the excavation to only at the collumns.

Red soil is more stable so foundations can be laid on stable excavated ground 1.5 meters deep.

Areas with volcanic soils such as Nakuru will require a different type of foundation called a raft foundation for high-rise construction. Once the soil is excavated, a concrete slab is laid on the bottom and collumns emanate from there. This creates a very stable foundation to support the building.

Frank Gichuhi
http://www.prismafrica.com

Can your furniture cause cancer?

Manufactured boards are boards made from wood products such as ply wood, chip board and Medium Desity Fibre[MDF] board.

They usually come in a standard size of 4 feet by 8 feet.

Due to the scarcity of wood products, MDF boards have become common and are a good replacement to plywood, chipboard and blockboard.

MD boards are made by glueing wood fibres under intense heat and pressure.

The strength of the board is measured by the screwing strength of the section in Newtons. The average screwing strength is around 750-1000N.

The glue used is fomaldehyde based .
Research shows that formaldehyde causes various side effects to humans.
Check out this link
This has resulted to the grading of MDF in terms of formaldehyde level, E0 being the lowest and E4 the highest. Most MDF boards on sale in Kenya and around the world contain EI and E2 formaldehyde levels .

MDF boards are sold with or without the laminate. The laminate can be on one side or both sides. The laminate is finished smooth to various natural wood finishes such as peach, oak, teak and mahogany.

The strength of the MDF is directly proportional to its thickness, density and internal glue bond.
Most MDF is manufactured in thickness of between 8 mm to 20mm. The mdf laminate skins are usually 2mm thick.

For furniture use which is not structural i.e does not support alot of weight such as wardrobe door, 12mm MDF both sides veneered is recommended. For Furniture that supports heavy weights such as tables, doors, 16 to 20mm MDF boards thicknesses are recommended. Once your architect has information of the design and preferred uses for the boards, he will be in a position to advise you accordingly.
The thickness is also important if the MDF board is going to be grooved. If a groove is to be engraved, MDF of 12 mm and above is recommended.

Frank Gichuhi
http://www.prismafrica.com
Nairobi, Kenya.

How to repair Leaking and Flooding Basements

1. Now that the El Nino rains are here with us in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, many basements will begin leaking and solutions for this must be taken into consideration. Invite your architect to have a look at the basement and recommend the best solution.

   You will require this chemical:ISONEM MD 27 (Semi-flexible waterproofing compound).

   It is a semi-flexible waterproofing compound containing cement and acrylic binders. This cement based compound provides a waterproof coating, and transforms concrete, brick, etc. surfaces into new surfaces. If you are in Kenya,Uganda, Tanzania,Rwanda, You can contact http://www.prismafrica.blogspot.com in Nairobi for advice and sale of this.

2. Step 2

   Once its applied, it forms a semi-flexible layer and bridges the cracks.
   Its very useful for renovation of old surfaces on foundations and walls subject to sea water tanks, basements, damp locations, on places for which waterproofing and protection is desired against salt water, on concrete surfaces for protection against carbonization and chlorine, on concrete piers and screeds near sea .

3. Step 3

   It forms a carbonization-resistant cover, withstands pressure up to 7 bars Exhibits perfect adhesion capabilities, is semi elastic, and unaffected by pedestrian traffic Breathes freely and is unaffected by carbon dioxide and chlorine ions, does not get affected by sunlight and UV Is ecological, has no adverse effects to human health

   Packaging : 25Kg craft bag (powder) + 5 Kg can (liquid) Consumption : 2 kg/m2

How to Increase new customers through display stand designs.

How to Increase new customers through display stand designs.

Research has proven that the design of a display stand influences the number of buyers of a product.
A study carried out by the Small Business Association on the effects of display signage on restaurant customer base discovered that over 30 percent of new customers in a typical restaurant entered the restaurant because they got attracted to the display sign.
The most significant factor in attraction of new customers came from the display design.

Research also shows that over 70 percent of sales of a product in the supermarkets are influenced by the display design. That is to say if two same products from two different companies are placed side by side in a supermarket shelf, and one product is placed in a well designed display, the product in the well designed display will sell 70% more than the other.
Display stands must be designed to be unique and communicate strongly to the customer so that they stand out from the other competing displays around them.

We at Prism Designs work with our clients to come up with the best and most cost effective designs that attract and appeal to the customers’ eye.

The best display designs are the ones that influence the buyers without the buyers feeling pressurized to buy.
Currently, the displays in the market are so many and too common such that the customers do not seem to notice them. This is why unique and innovative display designs are very crucial to drive the sales up.

Well designed display stands also enhance a product’s brand and etch the product’s logo in the customer’s mind which makes a very powerful attachment to customers so as to influence potential later sales.

Overall architectural design of the complete building or shop is also a key factor in driving sales up because when well designed, this increases the audience and can target many more customers.

Simple but not simplistic.

Designs can be designed to look simple so as to easily communicate with the cognitive mind. Such designs may look simple but in reality, are very powerful tools of communication of a particular brand hence increasing sales.

A good display design will effectively show-case your products and let them stand out from the competition resulting I increased sale.

Article written by
Frank Gichuhi

Frank Gichuhi is an Architect working with Prism Designs.

Affordable Housing: Pre Built Homes:

Shelter is a basic human need and everyone needs to have a home.
The single largest investment in our lives is in a home.

Structural insulated Panel House at Chinese Road contractors Offices opposite Warren Concrete at Kasarani, Nairobi

However, several factors have pushed up the cost of a decent home very high in Kenya.
We have come up with the Prefabricated House solution to challenge this situation and make decent housing available to all.
Use of prefabricated technology whereby the house is prefabricated in a factory greatly saves on materials in that the customer only pays for the used materials as opposed to the normal traditional method whereby a lot of material is wasted on site.
Prefabricated technology also saves in labor since the house parts are easily fastened to each other during installation.The quality of construction is also kept high since the houses are made in an ISO 9000 2000 certified factory as opposed to the normal traditional method whereby the quality of construction and workmanship is not easily determined until the building is completed.
We use current global building technological advances, mainly Structural Insulated Panels on structural steel structures for wall, roof and floor. Structural Insulated Panels are made of two steel panels with polyurethane form insulation in between them and come in panels of 1.2 meters by 2.4 meters.
The room space design is flexible and can be customized to a customer’s requirements. Customers can select a house plan form our list or request a new house plan design according to their wishes. Once house plan design is agreed, the house is then installed in the customer’s land anywhere in Kenya.
We aim at providing genuine housing solutions to all in the most economically viable and environment friendly way.

Prebuilt Homes: Good Return on Investment.

Prebuilt homes are advantageous in investment in that due to their mobile nature, they can be transported to any location that the customer has land and erected .They can also be rented out to increase customer’s income.

Increase rental income.

If you want to improve your rental income easily, this is one of the best ways. Just have a prefab house installed in your backyard and rent it out at market rate. You can have the house designed to your specific requirement in terms of size, number of bedrooms, color and texture. These houses are far much cheaper to construct compared to the traditional houses costs in Kenya.

Quick Business space expansion

You may also be in need of more office space for your business and need a quick solution for expansion. The prefabricated house designs are flexible, quick to install and can be designed to suit all your requirements. Whether the land is in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Lokichoggio or South Sudan, these houses can be easily transported to the site and quickly installed.

Quality Assurance; ISO 9001-2000

These are houses that are manufactured in factories and assembled on site. The walls, roofs and doors are made of Structural Insulated Panels.[SIP].

The SIP Panels are made of two layers of steel with polyurethane foam insulation in between them. This results to a strong walling that is very energy efficient: when it’s cold, no heat can escape from the house and when it’s hot, no heat can penetrate from the outside into the house.

These houses are designed to withstand strong winds, typhoons and earthquakes and most manufacturers are ISO certified. In Kenya, the weather is not as harsh i.e. there are no winters and the temperatures are not so high during the hot season.
These houses are designed to withstand very hot temperatures and very cold winters. These houses are also designed to withstand earthquakes, strong winds and typhoons which are virtually non-existent in Kenya.

The SIP panels come in various finishes and colors. Customers can choose which color and texture they prefer.SIP roof panels can be finished with Asphalt shingles.

SIP panel homes can come in several storeys, usually 3 storey heights.

The above factors coupled with cost-effectiveness, time saving and ability to pre-determine the exact cost of construction make Prebuilt SIP panel houses increasingly advantageous over the traditional Brick-and –cement houses throughout the world.

Buying a new home: Checking out quality of finishes.

When buying your new house, finishes play a very crucial role to determine the value of the house. Your architect will be of great help in advising you on the most appropriate finish for a particular room.

Floor.

Floor finishes vary according to one’s taste, room use and budget.
In living rooms, the cheapest finish is cement plaster screed. This is cement plaster applied on top of the floor slab. It can be colored into different shades of red, green and blue.
Another cost-effective method is use of PVC tiles. These tiles can be arranged to a specific pattern and colors mixed to achieve a desired effect. They come in various thicknesses depending on the traffic that they will contain.
Ceramic tiles are also common in Kenya. These also come in various colors and textures. They are durable, easy to clean and cheap. These are fixed to the concrete floor slab using cement mortar.
Granito tiles are expensive and are mostly used in office floors and banking halls. They come in larger sizes 450mm by 450mm since they are designed to cover large floor spans.
Marble tiles are also in the range of granite tiles but more expensive. These are best suited in entrance porches or other highly visible areas.
Wood tiles are made of hardwood and are a very comfortable floor finish. They come on wood block, wood parquet or wood strips. They make the rooms feel warm and cosy. They are costly to purchase and should be avoided in wet areas.
Wood plastic laminate floor finish is a new floor finish that looks like wood strip finish. It’s much cheaper than wood. Care should be taken when this floor finish is being laid to leave expansion space at the edges to prevent it from bulging up during warm weather.
Mazeras tiles from Mombasa are good in creating the African concept. They are available in uncut natural shapes or cut rectangular shapes in Nairobi.

Wall.

For masonry wall, cement plaster is laid on the surfaces.
The surface is then painted with one undercoat and 3 coats of paint which can be gloss or emulsion. New surface finishes such as Crown Ruff n Tuff, stucco or wall master are available with a wide range of colors and textures.
Ukambani stone finish is also very aesthetically appealing especially around columns or entrance lobbies. A good example is at Kihingo Village in Kitusuru, Nairobi.

In wet areas such as kitchens or bathrooms, ceramic, granito or marble wall tiles are the best.
Wall paper is also a common wall finish in Kenya. This is available in various colors, textures and images.
Wood plastic laminate is also increasingly becoming a common wall finish especially in phone shops and banking halls.

Finishes are abundant and it remains the choice of the home owner to choose the best after shopping from several shops with the architect advising on costs and functionality.

Homes for Sale: Factors to consider before buying a home.

The most available units for sale in Nairobi, Kenya are usually 3 bed roomed houses. This is because home buyers usually have a long term plan envisioned to house a large family unit.With the onset of sectional properties act which allows people to buy individual units in an apartment, there are many apartment units for sale especially in the high income areas of Nairobi such as Kilimani, Hurlingham and Lavington.

Plinth area.
When buying a house, plinth area or floor area is very important. Compare floor area versus the cost of the house. The larger the floor area the better.

Other factors to consider are:

Foundation.
Check the type of foundation that your house rests on. The most common type of foundation in Nairobi is strip foundation .In areas with black cotton soil, all soil is excavated to prevent the soil expanding when the ground is wet thus cracking the ground floor slab.
In areas where the black cotton soil is over 1.5 meters deep, it’s cheaper to have a pile foundation whereby the soil is not excavated and columns are sunk till stable ground and the ground floor slab rests supported by the columns and beams.
In areas where the ground is unstable and the building is to go several stories high, e.g. Nakuru, raft foundation is utilized. This is a kind of foundation which has a slab resting on the excavated underground from there columns to support the other floors emerge.
Check whether the damp proof course is well laid. This damp proof membrane helps to prevent the ground floor slab from sucking wetness through capillary action. This wetness makes the inside of the room unusually cold and damp.

Walling.
Most walling in Nairobi is masonry stones from quarries in Njiru, Juja or Ngong. For external walls, check if the stones are 200mm thick. This is thick enough to prevent rain from seeping through the stone from the outside which can cause damage to the paint inside and cause dampness.
Ensure that the walls do not show signs of wetness where they rest on the ground floor slab. Also check for major cracks. If major cracks are visible, this shows that the foundation was not laid on firm ground so the self weight of the building has made the building lean on one side hence the cracks.
For the inside, check the quality of the paint work. In Kenya the paint is manufactured in 1st quality and second quality. Ask if its first quality.

Roof.
Check the roof trusses. For concrete and brick tiles which re heavy, trusses are spaces at 600mm centre to centre so as to be able to be strong enough to carry the heavy load. For concrete and brick tiles, the steeper the roof pitch angle, the better since this will prevent leaking.
For lighter roofs such as iron sheets or stone coated steel roofing sheets the spacing is wider-1.2 meters. For iron sheets, check the thickness of the sheets. Sheets come in various gaouges, 26 being the thickest, followed by 28, 30 and 32 the lightest. The light gauges don’t stay for long before vagaries of weather and rust takes a toll on them.

Selecting your House Plan room sizes.

House plans begin from a single roomed unit to a bedsitter to a 1 bedroomed,2 bed roomed, 3 bedroomed,to more complex plans as requested by a client .

Single rooms are usually a minimum of 3meters by 3 meters. This size is tied to the size of an average bed, 2meters by 1 meter. They are common among the low-income housing sector for rentals and around Universities and tertiary colleges which will need to house students.

These are not described in the current Building Code as residential units however, some councils in Kenya such as Nakuru Municipal council have passed bye-laws allowing for approval of these units.

Bedsitters are much larger; roughly 3meters by 5 meters and include a larger space which fits a small kitchenette and a living area.

One-bed roomed units consist of the living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. They are usually at a minimum of 30 meters squared floor area. These and 2-bedroomed units are very common for rental units.

3 Bed roomed units and above are not common as rental units due to lack of demand. Another easer method of selecting these kinds of house plans is to search for house plans on the internet and then asking your architect to customize the plan to our area Building Code and Kenya Local Authority regulations.

The Kenyan Building Code describes minimum sizes and dimensions of habitable spaces. For bedrooms, the minimum dimensions are 2.5 meters by 2.5 meters. For Kitchens, the dimensions are 2 meters by 2.4 meters.
The minimum floor to ceiling height is described as 2.35meters for a habitable space.
Once all the minimum floor plan dimensions are met, the house plan is approvable by the local authority.

Your architect ensures that the house plan meets all the minimum requirements as set out in the Building Code and from here, you can describe to him any flamboyant shape as you may desire.

Budget control using House Design Types in Nairobi, Kenya.

It’s possible to achieve a great house design with a low budget. To achieve this, one must invest keenly on the architectural design.
A good example is Allan Donovan’s House in Kitengela which is designed with a West African concept in mind-flat roof with pigeon holes on the parapet wall.

See http://www.africanheritage.net/ for more images.
Another example is the Hacienda Eco City Development in Mombasa which is also coincidentally designed with a West African/Islamic architectural concept with a flat roof and pigeon holes on the parapet walling. See pictures on http://www.haciendakenya.com/gallery.htm
The presidential State Lodge in Sagana, Nyeri is also a magnificent piece of architecture that has utilized architectural design to achieve greatness without necessarily using very expensive materials. It’s a plain rectangular house with hipped roofs and low aluminum casement windows.
Technological uses also affect budget. New lighter roofing materials such as stone-coated steel roofing tiles save on the amount of timber trusses used to support the roof.
The choice of foundation type will also affect the costs. Estates such as Jericho in Eastlands area were built on a raft type of foundation which is very cheap to put up. The ground floor slab rests on small sized beams which are laid on top of the ground so no excavations and foundation walling is done.
On superstructure walling, within Nairobi area, masonry stone is readily available hence not expensive. A cost-effective way to achieve elegance is to have the stones hand-dressed to a pattern of your liking. Hand-dressed stones bring out character to your house and will save you in terms of maintenance since they virtually require no maintenance at all.
Prefabricated houses are slowly coming into the Kenyan market. These houses are the solution to affordable housing in the developed economies such as USA, China and Europe and it’s a matter of time till they find their niche in Kenya.
In conclusion, architectural design and use of appropriate technology can greatly reduce the cost of construction of your house.