Products for Nairobi’s new landmark apartment block

Chryso^® Eastern Africa is supplying a vital admixture for the concrete mix used for the construction of Nova Apartments, a new R180 million luxury apartment block in Nairobi, by the main contractor, Aggregate Construction.

Trevor Sawyer, Country Manager for Chryso^® Eastern Africa, says waterproofing products from a.b.e.^® – part of the Chryso^® SA Group – will also be used for the construction of the new landmark building in Muthangari Drive in Westlands, Nairobi.

Sawyer says the CHRYSO^® Group products selected for use on the new prestige Elmridge Developments project are:
* CHRYSO^® Fluid L – a high range water-reducing, super-plasticising admixture;
* duraflex ^® – a cementitious flexible waterproofing slurry; and
* abe^® ecofelt membrane – a polypropylene saturation membrane, used to reinforce the duraflex ^® waterproofing.

Chryso^® Eastern Africa is supplying a total of about 60 000 litres of CHRYSO^® Fluid L admixture to Aggregate Construction for the concrete required to build the multi-storey apartment block, scheduled for completion in October next year. Sawyer and Aggregate Construction’s Paresh Hirani worked in close collaboration to optimise the content and performance of the concrete mix for the project which was started in August last year. Sawyer was on site right from the first cast and Chryso^® Eastern Africa also supplied the main contractor with a Chryso^® dosing system to ensure consistency in the concrete mix.

CHRYSO^® Fluid L offers several benefits to a concrete mix. Included are:
* Substantially reducing the water content without negatively affecting the mix’s consistency; and
* Significantly increasing the slump/flow of the concrete mix and its workability.
CHRYSO^® Fluid L is compatible with all types of cement on the Kenyan market, including the main stream Pozzolanic cements.

The technical representative who is assisting Mau West Ltd for the waterproofing part of the project is Geoff Dagger, a.b.e.^® Technical Sales Representative at Chryso^® Eastern Africa.

For the waterproofing of the swimming pool, podium, balconies and bathrooms, duraflex ^® with abe^® ecofelt membrane reinforcement to cover a total area of about 5500m² will be supplied to the specialist waterproofing contractors, Mau West Ltd. Both the main contractor and specialist waterproofers are leading Nairobi-based companies.

Dagger says duraflex ^® is a ready-to-use flexible slurry based on a special synthetic resin dispersion and a blend of selected cements, mixed with carefully selected graded aggregates. duraflex ^® is non-toxic, self-curing, and effective on both the negative or positive side (positive side waterproofing applies to sides with direct exposure to water, while negative side waterproofing applies to the opposite or interior side from which water occurs.) The product has high bonding strength, and offers strong resistance to abrasion as well as chloride ion penetration.

Dagger says the abe^®ecofelt membrane reinforcement will maximise duraflex ^®‘s performance because ecofelt has internationally proved to be one of the best saturation membranes in waterproofing. “ecofelt has a highly porous fibre structure, manufactured by needle-punching the fibres to form a uniformly structured sheet,” he explained.
The architects for Nova Apartments are Beglin Woods Architects Kenya, which have already won an Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) “Best Concept” award for the luxury residential apartments and penthouses of the spectacular new development. The Beglin Woods acclaimed design for the 17 storey Nova Apartments include an indoor/outdoor swimming pool, spa, gym, cinema, convenience store and expansive open grassed area with water features and jogging track.