I wish to know the depth one should go when building on black-cotton soil?

@Echo, you must get to the hard surface- mawe or rather where the black cotton soil ends and marram starts. Thus there is no standard lakini it depends on the specific area and the gradient and marshiness of the place.

I am in a dillema. I am putting up a 4br maisonette that is slightly unique in that the upper floor walls only go up by 1.1m and then I have dormer windows and part of the room is in the roof. When doing the ground floor, we put a 450mm thick ring beam which includes a 150mm thick slab. House is on red soil, measures 18m by 9.5m. To me, this ring beam seamed extra thick compared to what I see on other buildings lakini since it was indicated in the architectural drawings we went ahead and put it. Sasa, I am almost at the 1.1m mark and the fundi insists there must be another ring beam before we secure the roof. This second ring beam is not indicated in the drawings and I have seen houses with roofs that are not sitting on a ring beam. Pesa inakwisha bwana and I am wondering if this second ring beam is necessary. Please give me your inputon this.

@Pablo,

where are your offices?

@Pablo,

I would still like to seek your counsel.

Do you have any tips regarding roofing? I am approaching that stage in about 3 weeks time hence any word from one who has gone before would be quite helpful.

I am currently shopping for a reasonable vendor who can give me a good range of products to choose from. So far have been in touch with Duratile and Metrotile but would like to compare more.

Sitaki kuumiza mfuko sana, if you get my drift.