← Azarea

FAQ

The questions we get asked most.

If yours isn't here, WhatsApp us. We reply within 2 hours during Nairobi business hours.

I'm not in Kenya. How do we work together?

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The same way we work with local clients — WhatsApp, Zoom, and email. Every design review, site photo, and material receipt comes to you digitally. If you fly in, we meet in person. Most of our overseas clients never visit the site during construction. They don't need to. We do, every week.

Who stamps and approves the drawings?

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Eng. John Njuguna, EBK Reg. No. A3090. Every structural drawing Azarea produces is reviewed and stamped by him before it goes to the county. This is not optional — Kenyan law requires a licensed consulting engineer to sign structural submissions. Our design work is done by us. His stamp makes it legal. Together, that's how your building gets approved.

How long does a project take?

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For a typical 6-unit residential block: 2-3 weeks for concept, 3-4 weeks for full design, and 2-4 weeks for county approval. That's 7-11 weeks from first call to construction-ready drawings. Construction itself takes 8-12 months, depending on the build and the contractor. We give you a written schedule in week 1.

How do you charge?

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Per project, not hourly. A fixed fee, quoted in writing before we start. Structural design, MEP, BoQ, and approval support are quoted as one package. Construction management and procurement are billed as a fixed percentage of project value. There are no hidden fees, no revision surcharges, no 'facilitation costs'.

What software do you use?

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Revit and AutoCAD for design and documentation. ETABS and Prokon for structural analysis. Lumion and Enscape for architectural renders. Excel for BoQ. Every file we produce is yours — the DWG, the PDF, the source model. Delivered on project completion, kept in your archive permanently.

How does open-book procurement work?

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We source materials at trade prices from suppliers we've worked with before, pay them directly from your project account, and send you the receipt within 48 hours of every purchase. Our fee is a fixed percentage agreed in advance. Any discount we negotiate below the market price goes to you, not to us. You can audit every shilling.

What if something goes wrong on site?

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That's what construction management is for. Weekly site visits catch problems before they get expensive. If a slab is poured wrong, we identify it the same week and the contractor fixes it at their cost — not yours. If you're not on site at all, you have photo documentation of every stage of the build.

Do you only work in Nairobi?

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Nairobi, Kiambu, and Kajiado are our core counties. We've also worked in Machakos and Nakuru. Anywhere in Kenya is possible — site visits outside our core counties are quoted separately, and we tell you upfront what the travel cost is.

Still unsure? Ask us directly.