Camphor, podo, cedar and teak: the scarce timbers

Older Nairobi houses, particularly in Muthaiga, Karen and old Lavington, are full of timbers that are difficult to buy now. Camphor, podo, Kenyan cedar and teak turn up in doors, frames, floors, panelling and staircases in houses built when they were ordinary stock.

They are not ordinary stock any more, and that changes the right answer when one needs work.

Why this page has no rate card

We publish market rates wherever an honest one exists. For these four we could not trace a reliable current Kenyan per-foot price for any of them.

Supply is intermittent, a good deal of what circulates is reclaimed rather than newly sawn, and what is available varies enormously in quality. Publishing a figure would imply we could buy at it, and we would then have to revise it in front of you. So there isn’t one, and anything we quote for work in these species is quoted after we have found the material.

What each was used for

Camphor is the one people notice, because of the smell when it is cut. Dense, durable and insect-resistant, it was used for doors, frames, chests and panelling. A camphor door is usually worth repairing almost regardless of its condition.

Podo is a softer indigenous timber, widely used for floors, ceilings, panelling and general joinery in mid-century houses. It dents and marks more readily than the hardwoods, which is why podo floors in older houses often look tired while being structurally perfect. It sands and refinishes beautifully.

Kenyan cedar was the standard for shingles, cladding, fencing and anything outdoors, because of its natural durability and its scent. Where a house has cedar external joinery it has usually outlasted everything around it.

Teak needs no introduction and was used where money was no object: external doors, garden furniture, boat fittings. Genuinely stable, genuinely durable, genuinely expensive when available at all.

What to do when one needs work

Repair rather than replace, almost always. These are solid timber components made to be taken apart and put back. Splicing sound material into a failed section is carpentry, and it keeps a component that cannot be bought.

Source reclaimed for a match. For visible repairs it is frequently the only route, and old-growth reclaimed stock is often denser and more stable than current milling. It needs checking for old fixings, splits and insect damage, and preparing it takes time that belongs in the quotation.

Accept a near match, knowingly. Where neither is possible, a similar-density hardwood finished to tone in is a legitimate answer. What we will not do is tell you it will be invisible when it will not.

Do not replace the set to get a match. It is the option that quietly appears at the end of a conversation about one damaged door, and it is almost never the right use of the money.

This is the work forty-three years at the bench is actually for. See furniture repair and restoration.