The tree is just a mature blue gum which from Karen (ST Francis Church) who were disposing off like 10 - 15 mature trees. The mbaos are deep brown to red.
One of these trees could yeild at least 4000ft of 6x2. However there is a cutting and curing process that could cost upto 15/ per ft.

Compared to wood strips at T&C (which are about 1500/- per sqM) these the tree option would cost you about 200/- per sqM or so.

I called them and theyve informed me that they are all booked which is possible as I booked mine in Dec.
I am sure if you go to roadside mbao dealers they can point you to the right direction.

Where theres a will there is a way.

Great talk here guys.

I have been thinking to get a good plot where I can do some flats in the near future. I am looking at a middle class area where rentals are good value but not necesarily up market e.g Donholm,Jamhuri,Satelite,Dagoretti corner etc. Does anyone have a clue of what a quarter/ eigth would cost?

I would really appreciate your responses

Pablo - thanks for the insights. pardon my ignorance but will you treat the blue gum timber on your own or there is a company that does this? How will you smoothen the surfaces of the timber given the huge amounts involved? Does any one know whether blue gum is recommended for roofing?

@Injere
My foreman also gave me a head ache telling me that a mature blugum will not work as its too hard for roofing. I told him if he doesnt want the job someone else will do it. Some of them are just lazy. Now we are using the same to do the roofing. To cut and smooth Ill use a carpenter in Kibera called Midha Furniture who has all the smoothing and cutting machines.

@Tito

To get an estimate of the materials for the slab this is what you do
1. Estimate the area the slab will cover in SqM
2. Multiply that by 0.15M which is the depth of the Slab. This gives you the Cubic Meters of Materials.
3. Add 10% or so to cater for beams.
4. Knowing the Cubic meters of material and that 1 cubic Meter of concrete weighs 2.4Tons then you get total tons of mixture. Using the ratio 1:2:4 for Cement:sand:balast you can get the materials.

Eg My slab was 14M x 12M = 168SqM
Multiply by 0.15 = 25.2CubicM
Add 10% =25.2x 1.1 = 27.7CubicM
No of Tons = 27.7 x 2.4 = 66.5Tons

Cement = 66.5/(1+2+4) = 9.5Tons or 190 Bags
Sand = 2 x Cement = 19 Tons
Ballast= 4 x Cement = 38 Tons.

This may be modified slightly by the foreman/engineer. For chumas you need the structural drawing to add up the Y12's, Y16's etc.

By the way I am not an civil engineer but when you dont have all the money in the world youll look for the info.

I hope QS's will forgive me for unleaashing their secret formular.

@Pablo- Excellent stuff! I will do maths as well!Will be interested to learn from your experience on the flooring wood blocks and TNG.Basically, I want to go the same route to be honest.

@Pablo? Eish!!, thats like "borrowing" a few seeds, planting your maize, beans, potatoes, wheat, napia grass, carrots dhania, then harvesting the crops later and returning the seed you borrowed, then take some of the harvest to exchange for cows and goats in ukambani, fatten the cows and goats, milk them and make your own cheese and yourghat and tea. Then siaga the maize and brew busaa, then cook some githeri and chapos and chipos, then go to kiamaiko and teach yourself how to slaughter and inspect a goat, then invite SKerians for a Mbuzi, and when someone takes githeri you tell them "all those ingredients are from my farm!", when we drink the busaa you go again "all the ingredients are from my farm!" when we eat the mbuzi "all the.......

I have seen that A4Architect has already updated his site with the info Pablo gave us. At least acknowledge where you got it from man. It is a copy and paste of Pablo's post!

mulika mwizi

http://www.a4architect.c...llast-in-concrete-slab/

@A4Architect

A few quick questions - is blue gum recommended/usable for wood flooring and T&G? My reading on the internet suggests that wood floors are expensive to maintain - is that in deed so? Does the type of soil matter - i have in mind black cotton which tends to get a bit damply quite often. I am welcoming anyone with experiences to share please.