The leak is on my balcony, not the roof. Do you do that?

Yes, and it is the same work. A balcony or terrace is a flat roof over the room below, detailed the same way and failing the same way: a tired membrane, a blocked outlet, or a threshold detail that lets water track back under the door. It is one of the most common jobs we see in Kilimani.

Can you tell whether the neighbouring site caused our leak?

Sometimes, and it is worth establishing before any work starts. Dense construction here genuinely does damage sound roofs, with debris, foot traffic and dislodged flashings. We document what we find and photograph it, so if a claim needs making you have something to make it with.

Roofing & Carpentry in Kilimani, Nairobi

We cover Kilimani including Kilimani, Yaya, Lenana Road, Argwings Kodhek, Dennis Pritt, Wood Avenue, Kirichwa Road. Off Argwings Kodhek and Lenana Road. Almost all of it is apartment blocks, so access is by service lift with the building's permission and a parking bay booked for the delivery.

What is different about roofing and carpentry in Kilimani

Kilimani is overwhelmingly new apartment stock, so the roofs are flat concrete with water tanks standing on them and the failures are membrane and drainage failures.
Balcony and terrace leaks are as common here as roof leaks, because a terrace is a flat roof over someone's living room and is detailed the same way.
Construction density in Kilimani means neighbouring building work regularly damages a sound roof, and establishing that before quoting saves an argument later.

Kilimani is flat roofs and terraces

Kilimani has been rebuilt as apartments, and that means the roofing work here is almost entirely flat concrete roofs, terraces and balconies. There is very little mabati.

That shifts the whole diagnosis. Sheeted roofs leak at joints and fixings. Flat roofs leak because a membrane has aged, because an outlet is blocked and the water has nowhere to go, or because a threshold or upstand detail was never right and has been letting water track backwards since the building was finished.

A terrace is a roof

The most common call we get in Kilimani is not about a roof at all, it is about a balcony or terrace leaking into the flat below. It is worth being blunt that this is the same job. A terrace is a flat roof with furniture on it, and it fails in the same three ways, with the added complication that the threshold into the living space is usually the weak point.

Tanks, and the traffic to them

Kilimani roofs carry water tanks, and somebody visits them. The route from the access hatch to the tank is where we most often find a membrane worn through, because the same two metres get walked every time. A protective walkway on that line costs very little against repeated repairs in the same spot.

Neighbouring construction

Building density here is high enough that a genuinely sound roof gets damaged by work next door: debris dropped, flashings dislodged, and trades crossing a roof that is not theirs. If that is what has happened, it is worth establishing and photographing before anybody starts repairing, because it changes who should be paying.

The joinery side

The same flats generate steady fitted work, most of it driven by letting: wardrobes, kitchenettes, and replacing the gypsum ceiling that a leak ruined. Because Kilimani units turn over quickly, lead time usually matters more than specification here, and we quote it that way.

What we are usually called out for in Kilimani

Roof leak repair Finding where the water actually gets in, which is rarely where the ceiling stain appears, and fixing that rather than the symptom. Gutters, fascia and downpipes Guttering, downpipes, fascia and barge boards, which between them cause more roof damage when neglected than the roof covering does. Re-roofing and replacement Stripping and replacing a roof, including the structure underneath when it needs it, and the point at which repairing stops being worth the money.

Landmarks we work around here: Yaya Centre, Argwings Kodhek Road, Lenana Road, Adlife Plaza.