Dont trust your Fundi so Much

Posted By: Blue Print Blog on 31st of October 2012

I understand, that putting up that house is not easy, especially with the rising cost of materials; prices nowadays soar by the hour. You buy steel at hardware at 9 am  you go back at 4 pm-same day same hardware - and the same steel costs slightly more..! Any time I hear songs like “bado mapambano...” or tunes like “Solidarity forever...” I know for sure the price of a building material is on target. Even M-pesa, which was my short cut of paying for materials and labor has been mopped in the Tax bracket, this is because I have to help calm the Teachers and Doctors nerves. Kenya Airways sang the same song recently, thank goodness their salaries are not paid by my tax, at least whoever the tune was addressed to opted for different approach to respond to their song before the end of the stanza 1, but that’s a story for another day. Anyone would wish to save or cut on costs, so that the saving would be carried to another element of construction. On site fundis purport to know short cuts to everything, he will brag of his many years of experience. How some of the specifications by the Engineer or Architect are unnecessary.Clients, many a time fall prey to this temptation and so end up ignoring or firing the Engineer so as to adopt the fundi’s design. I do not intend to display that Fundis are ignorant; I have to admit that I have learned a lot from them when it comes to construction methods, trust me they have hands on experience that’s worth learning. But this is not structural design! Like when he decides to change the class of concrete, or when he changes the reinforcement detail. Remember the Engineer designed the entire structure, not just a component of it! Get the difference; the fundi tells you what you want to hear, but the Engineer gives you the facts. You’d rather pay slightly more and have the Engineer supervise the work, than let the Fundi Compromise the structural integrity of the building. This is the reason many people are building towers of Babel which collapse even before their completion. If you built on black cotton soil, you undermined the strength of the reinforcement, you used a weaker class of concrete, the sand was dirty in concreting, the foundation stone was a yes a quarry stone but of the strength of a mud brick, simple things like the concrete was not cured! Yet, with all this concoction you are putting up a storey building! Surely you have no one to blame but yourself when your structure tumbles down or when the cracks you’ve sealed even with super glue still expand. My advise, please seek a second opinion before adopting your fundi’s advise, it may save the entire structure. Keep in mind that the day your dream house comes tumbling down, the fundi will be the first to take off if he survives the crash. In a court of law he will never be held responsible when the police, Kanjo, or the Ministry will be suing you. If he is a courteous Fundi at least he will offer apologies, but that’s the limit of his culpability. Not a coin More! Worse still, you have to continue paying the bank the loan you borrowed to erect the collapsed house. I hear the civil servants are composing another tune, oops I hope they’ll focus on other commodities outside construction this time round, when will an Engineer or Architect be appointed the Minister of Finance! For more insight on the construction industry, fundis and building materials, please visit our full site on www.fundimjanja.com