We are flooring a whole apartment block. What works best?

One specification across every unit, in something hard-wearing and individually replaceable. Tile or SPC both qualify. The advantage of a single spec is that you hold one stock of spares, and when a tenant damages a floor you replace a few planks or tiles rather than matching a discontinued line.

Should the stairs be the same as the apartments?

No, heavier. Common stairs and landings in a Roysambu block carry every resident several times a day, which is far more traffic than any individual flat sees. Specifying them the same as the apartments means recovering them in a couple of years.

Plumber in Thika Road, Nairobi

We cover Thika Road including Roysambu, Kasarani, Zimmerman, Githurai, Kahawa Sukari, Mirema, Garden Estate. Off the Thika Superhighway by service lane. Walk-up blocks, so material is carried up rather than lifted.

What is different about plumbing in Thika Road

Roysambu and Zimmerman blocks are walk-ups without lifts, so material is carried up stairs and box weight decides what we can realistically fit.
Landlords here floor whole blocks to one specification, which makes a hard-wearing tile or SPC the sensible choice rather than a per-unit decision.
Common stairs and landings in these blocks take more traffic than any apartment interior, so they are specified separately and more heavily.

Flooring along Thika Road

This corridor is apartment work, and apartment work at volume changes what the right answer is.

Carried, not lifted

The walk-up blocks at Roysambu, Zimmerman and Githurai have no goods lift and frequently no lift at all. Everything goes up the stairs on somebody’s shoulder.

That is not merely inconvenient. It rules out material that comes in unmanageable units, and it makes packaging weight a genuine specification question on a fourth-floor flat.

One specification, replaceable in units

Landlords here floor entire blocks at once, and the sensible approach is a single hard-wearing specification across every unit rather than a decision per flat.

The reason is spares. With one spec you hold one small stock, and a damaged floor in unit twelve is a few planks or tiles rather than a hunt for a discontinued line and a visibly different patch.

Common areas take the real punishment

Stairs and landings see every resident several times a day. Specifying them to the same standard as the flats is the commonest false economy in these buildings, because they wear out first and recovering them means closing the only route in and out.

We specify common areas up, and we specify the nosings properly, because that edge is where stair finishes fail.

What we are usually called out for in Thika Road

Floor and wall tiling Ceramic, porcelain and large-format tiling laid flat, with the labour and material costs shown separately. Vinyl and SPC installation SPC and vinyl plank laid over a properly levelled subfloor: quick, waterproof and genuinely good value. Floor repair Diagnosing why a floor failed before repairing it, so the repair is not the first of several. Carpet fitting Broadloom, carpet tiles and stair fitting, laid over a subfloor that has been prepared rather than swept.

Landmarks we work around here: Thika Road Mall, Kenyatta University, Garden City Mall, Safari Park. See every floor type priced.