Hello Wazuans, a friend and colleague of mine recently finished a personal house he was constructing in Thailand...he was kind enough to share his pictures with me and I'm too sharing them with my Wazua family. Look at the way way they construct their foundations. They use anchor points and use concrete panels for the second floor and top it up with a few inches of ballast. I think the foundation system can be very useful and cost saving on clay soil. @A4architect, what do you think of those systems - do we have that kind of const. method in Kenya?

Enjoy the pictures!

The site


Na kupima


Kuchimba foundation posts


















After finishing all the foundation posts/anchors, they place chumas to form the base and pour koroga










Then they bring just regular soil and fill it up








Now, here are the concrete panels I was talking about. Then they pour a few inches of koroga over that














Then they start roofing using aluminum or steel - I like this instead of mbao








Then the walling begins














Then the plastering begins












Up goes the ceiling framing




Then the tiling begins




Painting begins






And the final product = Amazing. Well done Mr. Fries, well done. I can't wait to visit







Okay folks, that's it! The guy did a wonderful and commendable work

Nice

@pennystocker. Here we mainly use British standards as opposed to Chinese/American standards .
Chinese/American standards have slowly began penetrating Kenya.
The extension to Karen Galleria is being constructed using Pre Engineered Building methods which are hinged on Chinese/American standards.

This is a suspended foundation. We use it here in Kenya mostly where black cotton soil is too deep for excavation.
Strip foundation commonly used here in Kenya is cheaper if soil/ground conditions allow.
Looks like in Thailand there are no natural masonry stones , hence use of more expensive reinforced concrete .

The collumns are the ones carrying the buildign/roof weight . In Kenya, most buildings this size, i.e Ground plus 1 level, use masonry stone walling to bear the weight which is cheaper compared to reinforced concrete.
The 1st floor slab is made of suspended floor slab panels. These save 10 to 15% of slab costs and are becoming common in Nairobi and supplied here
http://www.rifloindustri...?riflo=spendedfloorroof

In summary, construction technology is mostly determined by the location/available material.

Wow!! I'm very much impressed by this.... @a4architect, will give you a call one of these fine days we have a chat...wacha nimalize approvals.

The duration time is my question too as it is an impressive product without first looking into the costs.
As it is so well explained, the location [soils et al] and material availability would be the major issue to go that way, but a good concept top keep in mind.

@Chaka & Karqui - Took him about 6 months to complete everything!

Older 1920s to 1960s methods of construction used by the british in kenya still are the cheapest and most long lasting for bungalow/maisonette types. Such examples can be seen in the colonial bungalows in upper hill, kilimani, and other places inhabited by the british colonists.

The constructions are mainly characterized by minimal use of reinforced concrete and steel.

@a4architect.com a question. If i did the columns just like in this house and used interlocking blocks instead of masonry stones would i make any considerable savings on walling am assuming interlocking blocks can be used in urban areas not sure?

@bkismat that i know and i would engage an architect and structural engineer for that...my question is on overall walling costs not only columns!!

@jamplu..lets do a simple calculation.
In the pictures above, there are 15 collumns. Each collumn takes 1m3 of concrete. Lets assume concrete cost of kes 20k per m3.
This will be 20k x 1 x 15=300k.
Interlocking bricks cost say kes 1000 per m2.
Lets assume 300m2 as walling area.
This totals 300k plus the 300k for structure=600k.

Using masonry, the stone is both the walling and the structure.
Stone costs kes 1500 per m3.
For 300m2, this will be 450k.
Therefore masonry wall will save kes 150k compared to this method here in Kenya.