“I am not a Land Surveyor, I am a Quantity Surveyor” Many times I have found myself responding to people’s question of who I am in such a manner. As a result I have come to learn that though Quantity Surveying is one of the oldest trade/profession in the construction industry, many people have no clue who a Quantity Surveyor is or what he does. Having been trained and working as a quantity surveyor I...
Copied directly from http://www.coulsonharney.com/News-Blog/Blog/A-snapshot-of-the-new-land-laws Introduction The issue of land, its ownership, use and management is a highly emotive one in Kenya and was one of the key issues that drove the need for a new constitution. Following lengthy deliberations and a comprehensive public participation process, a new constitution (the “Constitution”) was...
Habida and Joash made a call to me a fortnight ago; the call came from Habida as she was the one I had happened to interact with him in a previous engagement. Joash is the husband to Habida and he happens to work out of the country most of the time. My meeting with Habida was a sheer coincidence where I was involved in the development of luxury apartments for her friend Keziah in the up market area of...
With skyrocketing prices of building materials, especially sand, cement, iron sheets, bricks and stones, developers are trying to look for the alternative materials to reduce the cost of construction. One such approach is the use of interlocking bricks. Interlocking blocks are slowly gaining acceptance, with sector players saying they bring the cost down by up to 30 per cent, compared to conventional...
21st September 2013 will be remembered by many as a day when one of the finest shopping malls in Kenya was hit by terrorists killing many and injuring hundreds. As a real estate consultant, i ask myself this question, “ How can a property manager “terror proof” a shopping mall?” Lesson from Israel Donald Story in an article titled, “How should malls address terrorism” draws some examples...
My training is in real estate and that’s where my passion lies. However, i have had a chance to study about oil and work in an oil exploration field. I have seen how different and meticulous this oil industry is. It’s in a level of its own. Standards. The oil industry doesn’t operate on minimum standards, it operates on best / highest standards. This industry doesn’t just prefer safety, it says,...
In the past few years, Nairobi has experienced many fires especially in commercial properties. The worst was the “Nakumatt Downtown” fire where many people died and many more were injured. There have also been several other fires that have just destroyed properties, sparing precious lives. The latest one is the JKIA fire that was blamed on an electrical fault. However, all is not lost. To limit the...
Electrical system failures and the misuse of electrical equipment are leading causes of workplace fires. Fires can result from loose ground connections, wiring with frayed insulation, or overloaded fuses, circuits, motors, or outlets. To prevent electrical fires, the occupants should: Make sure that worn wires are replaced. Use only appropriately rated fuses. Never use extension cords as...
Basic Requirements An exit route must be permanent. Each exit route must be a permanent part of the workplace. An exit must be separated by fire resistant materials. Construction materials used to separate an exit from other parts of the workplace must have a one-hour fire resistance-rating if the exit connects three or fewer stories and a two-hour fire resistance-rating if the exit connects four or...
Urban population in Kenya is rapidly growing posing a major challenge in housing that has seen majority of urban inhabitants reside in informal settlement commonly known as slums. With a deficit of 250,000 thousand housing units per annum, a new building technology in Kenya known as Expanded Polystyrene Panel EPS technology is expected to turn around construction industry. The technology that uses...