Some parquet blocks are loose. Can you just sand over them?

No. A loose block sands unevenly and then lifts again a month later. Each has to be lifted, the old mastic cleaned off, and the block re-bedded before the floor is sanded as a whole. It is fiddly and it is why a proper parquet restoration quote is not the same as a sanding quote.

Why do floors crack here specifically?

Black cotton soil along the James Gichuru corridor swells and shrinks seasonally, and that movement transmits into the screed above. It does not mean a floor cannot be laid: it means divider strips go in at closer centres so the movement is controlled rather than random.

Plumber in Lavington, Nairobi

We cover Lavington including Valley Arcade, Hatheru Road, Kingara Road, Jamhuri, Amboseli, Muthangari, James Gichuru Road. Off James Gichuru Road and Gitanga Road. Sanding is dusty and needs the room empty, so we sequence it before decorating.

What is different about plumbing in Lavington

Lavington houses around Hatheru Road have original mastic-laid parquet that lifts in patches and needs re-bedding before any sanding can start.
Black cotton movement along the James Gichuru corridor cracks screeds seasonally, so terrazzo laid here needs divider strips at closer centres.
Valley Arcade rooms are large enough that a timber floor laid without perimeter expansion provision will lift in the middle during the long rains.

Flooring in Lavington

Lavington’s houses are large, mature and mostly 1970s, and the flooring work here divides between restoring original parquet and laying new floors on ground that moves.

Parquet needs re-bedding before it needs sanding

Original Lavington parquet was laid in bitumen mastic. Over fifty years some of it lets go, and blocks lift or rock underfoot.

Sanding a floor with loose blocks is wasted money, the loose ones sand unevenly and lift again within weeks. Each has to come up, have the old mastic cleaned off the back and the substrate, and be re-bedded before the floor is sanded as a whole.

It is slow work and it is the difference between a restoration and a cosmetic pass. Quotes that look surprisingly cheap for a parquet floor are usually quoting the cosmetic pass.

Ground that moves

The black cotton along the James Gichuru corridor swells and shrinks with the seasons, and that movement reaches the screed. It is why cracks here appear in the same places year after year.

Terrazzo can be laid on it, but the divider strips go in at closer centres than they would elsewhere, so the floor cracks along the strips where it is supposed to rather than across the middle of a room.

Big rooms need real expansion gaps

Reception rooms here are large, and a timber floor across that span moves a genuinely significant amount between the dry season and the long rains.

A token 5mm gap at the perimeter is not enough on a room of that width. We calculate it and cover it with the skirting or beading: which is why a properly laid floor stays flat and one laid tight to the wall lifts in the middle.

What we are usually called out for in Lavington

Floor sanding and varnishing Sanding back and refinishing timber and parquet, usually far cheaper than replacing. Floor repair Diagnosing why a floor failed before repairing it, so the repair is not the first of several. Terrazzo installation In-situ terrazzo laid, ground and polished, with divider strips set where the floor actually needs them. Wooden floor installation Solid, engineered and parquet timber laid at the right moisture content, with movement allowed for.

Landmarks we work around here: Valley Arcade shopping centre, Lavington Green, James Gichuru Road, Kingara Road. See every floor type priced.