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In February of this year, Arcoverde Kenya Ltd. began construction of Iguta Paradise Homes, a project of 62 four-bedroom townhouses along Kiambu Road that overlooks Runda.
Five months later, much to the surprise of many, the first phase of the 32-house project is now complete and homes are being painted for the market.
The project director, Mr. Patrick Kamau, told DN2 that all 62 houses will be "If I were building on a flat plot, I would have put the houses back even much earlier, the ground wet me. Derails because I have to erect gabions to hold the ground, but by December. I will give the keys to the buyers. "
A woman at the door handing out food to builders on the site says that she thinks a miracle is happening."
"One day, there is no house site, the next day you wake up to find houses," she says .9659008] It is not known to him that the promoter Iguta Paradise has made a paradigm shift from conventional construction techniques that would have cost a lot of time to a more efficient reinforced concrete technology imported from Korea and the United States.
Aluminum panels, steel, ballast, sand and cement.On the site, there are no building stones or wood.The houses are built using aluminum panels from Korea while the perimeter walls separating different units are put in place with patterned aluminum shuttering of Wall-Ties and Forms Inc. (WTF) technology, a Kansas City-based global giant 19659009] According to Thomas Muturi, architect and representative of the WTF Kenya branch, this reinforced concrete poured on the spot is basically a t Construction technology where aluminum formworks are manufactured to take the shape of the entire building, then badembled on site, leaving a hollow space between the two where the ready-mix concrete is poured. This eliminates the need for brick and mortar.
Developed in the mid-1970s, the technology of using aluminum forms has been used in the construction of thousands of residential units for low-rise and high-rise buildings. He has managed to build low-cost housing projects in various parts of the world.
In Ghana, for example, a major real estate developer, in collaboration with Social Security and the National Insurance Trust, built 1,680 apartments and sold almost all of them.
In Kenya, no one understands the magic of this technology better that Epco Builders Ltd. The Epco's 315 low-cost housing units for Department of Housing employees along Jogoo Road are a good example. They started using traditional beam and column construction methods in early 2010, so the project took too long to deliver each building. a level of 600 square meters of seven apartments took a month to complete
But when the contractor used concrete formwork with aluminum studs and beams, the delivery speed was so increased that a whole block of 35 flats
But it is Epco's second housing project in Langata that clearly demonstrates the speed at which the forming of aluminum concrete can deliver a home
"We built 116 units in nine months, one floor every four days, which means we were building a four-storey block in just 16 days, "says Muturi, whose WTF is badociated with Epco Builders Ltd to execute this project in February 2012.
ATTRACTIVE PLANNING [19659019] The goal of this technology is, first and foremost, to industrialize the entire construction process, but according to Mr. Kilonzo, how this technology manages to attei The goal is to ensure that every time there is a permanent activity on the site.
This requires meticulous planning, as Mr. Kilonzo explains:
The program must be carried out in such a way that at each stage there is a different activity on the site, so the excavators must be on the site probably a month earlier, after which the masons will lay the foundations. In fact, from casting to concrete casting, we need one day, depending on the size of the building.
While the slabs need to be hardened for 21 days The use of high strength cement with this technology ensures that the walls dry quickly.
This means that about 90 percent of the aluminum mold is made up of slabs and there is no delay during construction. [19659024] For developers, save on time "If you use borrowed money, it means that you will pay off your bank loan, say two years instead of five, so you'll save on the payments of And will share the savings with the buyer. If that is for renting, you start collecting money almost immediately, "says promoter Iguta Paradise Homes
The government intends to build 500,000 homes affordable in five years and allocated 6.5 billion shillings to the project. 100,000 units each year, making it a Herculean enterprise.
Real estate developers and experts recognize that even with a budget and goodwill in place, launching such a project will not be a walk in the park. Encourage developers who build public-private partnership houses to adopt alternative construction technologies to deliver many homes in a short period of time.
"There is virtually no developer who can build as many houses in the allotted time." Considering that the government wants to set up at least 100,000 units a year, it is imperative then that it should take advantage of new technologies that traditional brick and mortar could miss, "says Muturi.
Project Iguta Paradise Homes The director says:" This is the way forward. Reinforced concrete is the technology that the government should adopt to achieve the dream of affordable housing.
TRAINING
All a developer needs is to submit architectural drawings to a manufacturer like WTF. In particular, the entrepreneur does not need a manpower with an extraordinary skill set to lead the show, Muturi says that the skills employed in this construction technology are easy to understand and that the developer only needs to recruit residents and train them to formwork and strip on the site for 2 to 4 weeks depending on the simplicity or complexity of the project design .
"The beauty of aluminum formwork is that it is easy to learn to repair" In reality, the only tool that workers need on our sites is a hammer since the formwork is fixed with simple pins and corners. "
The prefabricated technology has continued in recent times, but even that comes with its fair share of challenges: First, precast concrete slabs must be transported from the factory to the site, which
In addition, prefabricated technology does not provide a monolithic structure in itself robust and secure.they are articulated.However, the contractor would need to be able to use it. a crane on site to lift heavy concrete slabs.
SAFE HOUSES
At Kenya Homes Expo in April of this year, most potential buyers of WTF formwork expressed their concern Concerns, Mr. Muturi told DN2 that since all concrete aspects of the building, including walls, slabs and stairs are monolithically cast, eliminating joints, homes are safer compared to "The best The example we give is that of a place in Peru where there was an earthquake, while it collapsed outside of a structure that had been made using our system. looking at a whole reinforcement and concrete fabric that are all interconnected vertically and horizontally, in contrast to the traditional brick structure that tends to develop weaknesses at the joints "
He adds that another benefit of this technology is that there is no waste of materials on the site. In addition, the walls are so smooth that they do not need plastering, just a little skimming and they are ready for painting.
Recently, some construction projects were blocked following the ban on logging. Mr. Muturi notes that if the government really wants to preserve the environment, especially by deploying the mbad housing project, it should encourage the use of construction techniques that do not rely on wood.
before the impact of the move on wood-based construction techniques. But unlike some traditional construction processes that require wood, all operations under aluminum technology are free of wood
The question that any developer can expect is how much of This money saves them money. This method reduces costs by 15 to 20% compared to the traditional brick and mortar technique, "says Kilonzo.
"Although it may be expensive to buy aluminum for the first real estate project, It should be understood that the set of forms can be reused up to 2,000 so, considering all the other benefits, you save more in the long run, "says Muturi.
The construction processThe process begins with the compaction of the site. The trenches are then dug, the plumbing installed and the formwork of the aluminum slabs is put in place.
Once the structural insets have been dug, the steel slabs are installed according to the local code. The concrete is then placed using local methods. The steel wall is attached in accordance with local building codes.
Electrical boxes and conduit are attached to steel wall. The architect notes that it is wise to prepare slabs long in advance by building mbadive dwellings
The concrete formwork process normally begins in one or more corners depending on the number of workers and continue until all the walls are erected. Once the forms are fixed, the apron can begin
The shuttering formwork is fixed by hand and begins in a corner
Once the shuttering is completed, steel and electrical components are installed in anticipation of the placement of concrete. "All your electrical conduit – switching boxes, water pipes, all drainage pipes, everything that needs to go into the walls, is installed before the concrete is poured," notes Thomas Muturi, a representative of the subsidiary WTF Kenya.
When all the prep work is completed, the concrete is monolithically placed in the walls and apron with the help of an arrow pump, but this is dictated by the equipment available on the local market; it can include trailer pumps, crane buckets and even a hand cup.
The formwork is removed the next day to start the cycle again. For multi-storey structures, scaffolding is then fixed not only to support the weight of the workers but also for the shapes of the external walls.
The steel is attached, the formwork is fixed and the concrete is put in place. After setting up the concrete and curing, the aluminum concrete forms are removed, leaving the foam insulation bonded to the concrete.
All decorative elements, whether structural or ornamental, must be incorporated into aluminum panels. This eliminates the need to have a mason to create additional features on the exterior walls and comes as a cost-saving aspect.
And there is no room for human error, he notes. "Our system works like a puzzle: the last piece of the aluminum panel does not connect to the rest so all around the house the vertical panels of the walls are not laid precisely.
So even if the builder deviated the measurements, the pre-measured aluminum parts will align the house in the preferred measures, "says Muturi.
He adds that in terms of quality , the system all houses look alike.
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