UJENZIBORA

Design and Build Contractor.

Category: Cost Information

Architecture / Construction Management / Cost Information / Project Management / Quantity Surveying

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Basic Factors to Consider When Cost Planning Your Building Project

The general premise I would wish to take emanates from the intriguing question, “If a man wants to build a house, does he not first sit down and estimate the cost?”

It is thus imperative that one needs to “sit down” and contemplate or wrap his mind around the entire building project to determine whether it is worth his while to embark on the journey of construction.

While undertaking Cost Planning for your building project, it is important to keep in mind that the final cost of the house will be affected by both Design Factors and Economic Factors.

Design Factors

The design factors like shape and size of the building, complexity of the design, circulation space of the building, the height and the structural design of the building will have a bearing on the final cost.

It is also worthwhile to note that the workmanship and quality of materials to be used as determined by the specifications will have an impact on the cost. Most persons wishing to build are surprised at how varying one item like the type of finishes can have a high impact on their construction budget. Every building material has a substitute which could be cheaper or more expensive but plays the same function.

For example, among Roof Covers, we have corrugated roofing sheets(Mabati) , Makuti and thatched Grass, Box Profile Sheets, Stone Coated Tiles, Clay Tiles and Shingles. All play the same function but are priced differently. They also require different levels of expertise which has a bearing on the final cost of roofing.

The one you pick will have its own specific cost implications like Timber Spacing, Initial Cost and Maintenance Costs. Read: Which is the Best Roofing Material?

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Economic Factors

There are other hidden factors that will have an effect on the final cost of doing the building project. For instance, the interest on borrowed funds and price fluctuations caused by inflations or market forces can affect an initial cost plan of a project.

The source of the building materials, that is, whether available locally or imported will also affect the overall cost plan. There are some designs that may necessitate sourcing of skilled laborers and this would add to the overall cost. Building with machine cust stones is cheaper than building with Bush-Hammered Stones. Read: Ujenzibora Guide on Walling.

Political Factors

There are Political factors in terms of how stable a neighborhood is or the safety index of a neighborhood. One can readily tell that a high-end zoned neighborhood where the development is controlled could be cheaper in terms of security measures to be incorporated in the cost plan but relatively expensive since one has less free-play in the design variables.

Upon completion of the design and comprehension of all factors affecting the cost plan, the tasks, timings and costs are summarized in a Developers Budget or a Project Baseline Plan that will set out for you the roadmap towards home ownership. The Developers Budget will have a breakdown of the following items:

  • Construction Cost
  • Cost of Land Purchase
  • Cost of Finance
  • Professional Fees
  • Legal Fees
  • Preliminary Costs
  • Management Costs
  • Marketing Costs (If Development is for Sale)
  • Anticipated ROI (Return on Investment)

The Construction Project Workflow will also be reflective of all the factors that will affect the Building/Infrastructure Project from Inception to Completion.

One truly needs to be meek and confident enough to “sit down” when it comes to making a decision to build a House!

I trust that in your meditation to build, you shall consider the aforementioned lest people pass by your incomplete Building Project quoting Scripture:

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he has sufficient to finish it?

Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,

Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”- Jesus Christ, Luke 14:28

Qs. David Nahinga

Twitter: @UjenziBora / @dnahinga

 

Affordable Housing / African Architecture / Cost Information / Design / Ujenzibora

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3 Design Solutions for Micro-Parcels. Why Think Small is The New Think Big.

Greetings!

There are many people who own micro-parcels and feel intimidated because they lack the know-how of what is possible.

First, I will define a micro parcel as the “legally smallest piece of land one can own under the current laws.” This post is therefore for people who own an eighth of an acre or a sixteenth of an acre.

Why Think Small is The New Think Big. 3 Design Solutions for Micro-Parcels

Basic Rationale

The next frontier in residential housing is in the construction of tiny houses on micro-parcels. Countries which are ahead of the curve have pioneered new construction methods like 3D Printing a house in 8 hours to Modular Construction. But where should the revolution start?

TRIGGER 1: COST CONSTRAINTS

Most would-be homeowners are restrained by lacking the financial resources necessary to build. In part, this is because there are no solutions on the table.

Most of the available capital and intellectual resources in the industry are committed to those who are well able.Unfortunately, the budget of the “Small Guy” does not meet that threshold.

To arrive at viable solution, we not only need to think outside the box, but without it.

It is also obvious that people who can only afford an eighth of an acre or half of it are the majority in terms of Land Buyers. “The ants weigh more than the elephants,” says Fiona

TRIGGER 2: SPACE CONSTRAINTS

Most micro-parcels are either an eighth or smaller than an eighth. This presents a major constraint on space upon which one can build.

TRIGGER 3: IT MAKES BUSINESS SENSE

If one builds a house that can generate income as long as it is functional, it makes sense to build it affordably and within budget. This reduces the payback period. The technology wave is such that a generation is rising that is at Home Everywhere. That generation is constantly checking out affordable spaces on www.airbnb.com and similar sites offering affordable short-term accommodation. #ThinkSmall can help one build a Start-Up House that can be rent out for profit. If you work with a budget of KES. 3,000,000.00 to build, you can comfortably break even after 375 Bookings of the Asset. Immediately thereafter, the investment will start generating profits.

At a conservative estimate of 100 bookings per year, one can cover the cost of the Start Up House. This is looking at a house as an investment vehicle.

A DESIGN APPROACH TO PROBLEM SOLVING

Taking a design approach to solve the problem, we have designed a series of 2 Bedroom Maisonettes that can fit on an eighth or a 16nth of an acre under a series called #ThinkSmall. We believe that this presents a New Frontier of Opportunity for those home owners who have small pieces of land but still want to fulfill their dreams of home ownership.

 

3 MAISONETTES YOU CAN BUILD ON A MICRO-PARCEL

Compact I : Contemporary 2 Bedroom Maisonette with Kitchen, Lounge and Balcony

Compact 1: Ujenzibora House

 

Maximal : Contemporary 2 Bedroom Maisonette with Kitchen, Lounge and Balcony

Maximal House Ujenzibora

Gyan House : Contemporary 2 Bedroom Maisonette with Kitchen, Paarking Lounge and Balcony

Gyan House: Ujenzibora 2 Bedroom Maisonette

Gyan House: Ujenzibora 2 Bedroom Maisonette

FENCING SOLUTION

While researching on this area, we realized that the typical perimeter wall methods increase the complexity of the challenge that small parcel owners face. While a perimeter wall serves as a physical barrier to intruders, if build with solid masonry blocks, it can end up blocking all the light and impeding air-circulation. This can dramatically compromise the quality of living on a micro-parcel.

ClearVu Wall Solution

ClearVu Wall Solution

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To solve this challenge, we have proposed two approaches:

a) Using Columns and Steel Barriers such that you have the physical barrier of a wall and a lattice of steel that allows see-through and free air circulation.

b) Using an advanced fencing technology called ClearVu developed by Cochrane. Since an opaque barrier is the least desirable design solution for micro-parcels, CleaVu solves that problem.

Affordable Housing / Construction Management / Contracts / Cost Information / Decision Making / Finances / Ujenzibora

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Revealed: 7 Ways a Quantity Surveyor Can Help Your Building Project as a Cost Editor!

To attain knowledge add things every day. To attain wisdom subtract things every day. – Lao Tzu

Why a Cost Editor?
“Editing- which involves the strict elimination of the trivial, unimportant, or irrelevant – is an Essentialist craft.”
Everyone who reads a newspaper that has a lousy editor knows the feeling of being wasted.

But seldom do we reflect on the role of a good editor. A good editor leaves everyone focussed on the main issues of the story without being bogged down in unnecessary details.

When it comes to construction works, a Quantity Surveyor plays the vital role of a Cost Editor because he has carefully trained his/her eye and mind to see details. Here are 7 ways this can happen, leading to savings both in time, cost and bringing out the Lead Story in your Project.

According to Miliken, The Bills of Quantity is a fundamental instrument which has existed and developed over 300 years. It is to the discerning investor, what a pen is to a Copy editor.In my experience as a Quantity Surveyor, Bills of Quantities are entirely justified where the anticipated savings outweigh the fee charged to produce them. The role of the Quantity Surveyor as a Cost Editor in both big and small construction projects is emerging as an exceptional and an indispensable skill. Here are 7 Ways Why!

1.0 Elimination
A book editor or a film editor makes it easier for the reader to keep an eye on what is important. They do this by eliminating everything but the elements that need to be there.

A Quantity Surveyor as a Cost Editor can help your project by reviewing both the design and rationale for inclusion of certain elements. For example, in a recent building project, we proposed removal of 7 Square metres of corridors and saved the client 245,000 Shillings. The house worked just fine without the overdesign of circulation space. This was not apparent to the Architect of the Project.

2.0 Providing a Measurement Tool
A bill of quantity is a measurement tool. It captures the Lead Story of the project. It has brief description of every part of the proposed project. A recent Study revealed that where contractors are given a chance to estimate the cost of a project without a Bill of quantities, they increase costs by a factor of 10% to take care of Quantities Risk. In that sense, the very act of having a Bills of Quantity in your project can save you up to 10% of the cost of construction.

3.0 Substitution
A Quantity Surveyor prepares a Bill of Quantity for infrastructure projects (Building or Civil). A bill of quantities is a document used in tendering process which includes the materials, parts, and labor with respect to their costs. During this process of preparing the Bill of Quantities, a QS can propose substitution of the materials, methodology for construction and more affordable alternatives thereby leading to significant cost savings.

4.0 Prioritizing or Phasing.

When an author has a very long story and the publication does not have enough space, the editor decides which parts of the story to cut and publish later. In building construction, we call it Phasing a project. To achieve this, a Quantity Surveyor asks questions, listens to all the consultants (Architect, Engineer, Client Contractor et cetera), and connects the dots in order to distinguish the essential few from the trivial many. As a Cost editor, he can propose budgetary allocations that match the current financial constraints of the project. He can also help the Client to prepare cash-flow projections and phasing of the project!


5.0 Making Trade-Offs
A book writer may have many characters they want to fit in a story. They could also have many plots, twists and turns. Without a Copy editor, the whole storyline can get lost in the confusion of trying to include everything. A great editor asks, “Will this character or plot twist or detail make it better?”

The true value of a Quantity Surveyor is in helping the Client and the project Team re-discover what really matters in the project within the time, cost and quality expectations. In this case, they can suggest meaningful trade-offs, substitutability of building materials and best practice from past projects.

6.0 Time Estimation using The Labour Constant.
The Contractor’s prices for the various work items in the Bill of Quantities reflects the amount of time the estimator has allowed to complete each unit of work. This is refereed to as a Labour Constant for the particular item. It is easy for the Estimator Quantity Surveyor to help the project team calculate how long it will take to complete both individual work items and the entire project. This can help the project team to design a planning framework and formulate programmes for constructing the building.

7.0 Identifying Gaps.
A book editor or a film editor fixes gaps which break the main story line.
One of the major benefits of employing a Quantity Surveyor to measure is that, during the process of preparing Bills of Quantity, a QS will often spot gaps in the design information and will query the design team as to what is missing , will press then to finalise the outstanding information or suggest fixes.

Lastly, In the words of French writer and Poet, Antione de Saint-Exupery, “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

References:
1. McKeown, Greg. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less Ebury Publishing.
2. Cunningham, T. (2016) The function and Format of Bills of Quantities: an Irish Context. Report prepared for Dublin Institute of Technology, 2016.

Architecture / BUILDING SOLUTIONS / Cost Information / Quantity Surveying

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The African Courtyard House by Architect Glenn Wilson

In keeping with our value proposition of providing affordable housing solutions, we are pleased to introduce The African Courtyard House designed and conceptualized by a team of designers led by Glenn Wilson Boerstler and Ujenzibora Investment Ltd.

In the year 2013, we set out on a journey to create a series of affordable housing solutions to be implemented in our “Design & Build Package”. We launched the Firstep House: Affordable Housing for Every Beginner  as a first in the series and The African Courtyard House becomes the third deposit after The Minima House.

Even though at first we received minimum participation, The Ujenzibora Housing Challenge continues to receive excellent submissions.

Project Inspiration:

The first and most important concept explored in this design is the concept of shelter (shown through elements of African Architecture).  I have chosen to design with this tradition in mind. The clean lines provide a modern aesthetic while the color and materials complete the link to the vernacular architecture tradition.

Proposed African Courtyard House (A ReThink of Vernacular Architecture fit for Rural Areas)

Proposed African Courtyard House (A ReThink of Vernacular Architecture fit for Rural Areas)

Courtyard Concept:

The house is based on a courtyard concept. There are two courtyards that represent the family’s social life as well as more private family functions and traditions. From the street entry one arrives through a wide plank wood gate by either by foot or car. The walls that surround the entire home are 3040mm in height. The entry courtyard provides sheltered car parking, a formal public courtyard, enclosed storage at the base of the tower and access to the guest bedroom and bath above.

African Courtyard House : Ground Floor Plan

African Courtyard House : Ground Floor Plan

Directly on axis to the wood entry gate is the main entry portico to the house itself. One enters the Great Room of the home which is a tall volume containing the Living Room, Dining room and Kitchen. The home is a bifurcated plan that encloses and inner private courtyard. This courtyard represents an outdoor Living Room accessed on three sides.

The other two arms of the house include the bedrooms. To one side of the courtyard is the Master Bedroom Suite. The Suite includes a master bath with views into a private courtyard. The other arm includes two smaller bedrooms with a shared full bathroom.

In our “Design-And-Build” Package, we have removed the complexity costs and process which have proved to be very tedious and confusing to home owners. For people who already have Land and Clean Title/Ownership Documents, to Construct The African Courtyard House the payment terms are as follows:
1. Committment Fees – 8% of Building Cost – Contract Signing & Design Modifications
2. First Installment, Second and Third Installment – 60% of Building Cost – Construction up to roof level
3. Last Installemnt – 32% of Building Cost – Complete Construction
The installments can be varied in agreement with the client.

Upon project completion, the owner gets a Hand Over Report and As-Built-Drawings which can be used later for property valuation, history or referencing.

Message from Architect Glenn
“Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this. I enjoyed the cultural aspects and African vernacular architecture I researched. A few of the results of this research are posted as inspirations for you to share in the development of the concepts presented herein.

Again, thank you for posting this exciting competition for my colleagues and I to design. I sincerely hope that you find the results you have expected and hoped for. The process of working on this home for you was very gratifying and informative. A note on my graphic approach. I became an architect because of my interest in the arts, in particular drawing. Drawing is an important component of my design process. I hope the graphics adequately illustrate  these ideas.”

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