Our sliding gate keeps jamming. Is the gate bent?

Usually the track, not the gate. Black cotton along this corridor swells and shrinks seasonally, and a track founded in shallow concrete rides that movement. The fix is a proper foundation below the active zone: otherwise the gate is realigned every year.

Can our old railings just get a taller top rail?

Not usefully. Raising a balustrade means new standards, because the existing posts are sized and fixed for their original height. Welding an extension on top puts leverage onto a fixing that was never designed for it, which is worse than leaving it alone.

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. Most plots have a rear service entrance for material deliveries.

What is different about plumbing in Lavington

Lavington's black cotton along the James Gichuru corridor heaves seasonally, so a sliding gate track set in shallow concrete stops running true within a year.
Lavington balconies on the older houses have original railings at heights below current practice, so raising them means new standards rather than a new top rail.
Valley Arcade properties often retain original wrought iron worth restoring rather than replacing with new mild steel.

Railings and gates in Lavington

Lavington is mature houses on ground that moves, with a good deal of original metalwork still in place. Both facts shape the work.

Gate tracks and black cotton

The soil along the James Gichuru corridor swells and shrinks with the seasons, and a sliding gate track is exactly the kind of long, rigid element that shows it.

Set in shallow concrete, the track lifts and drops through the year and the gate stops running true. Founded below the active zone it stays put. That foundation is the cost people query and it is the reason the gate still works in five years.

Raising a balustrade properly

Original balcony railings in these houses frequently sit lower than current practice. Owners reasonably want them raised.

Welding an extension onto existing posts puts leverage onto a fixing designed for a shorter standard, which makes the balustrade less safe rather than more. Raising it means new standards, properly fixed, and that is what we quote.

Original wrought iron

Valley Arcade and the surrounding stock often retains genuine wrought iron: forged, not bent from flat bar. It is better metalwork than anything currently made to a domestic budget.

We would rather shot-blast, repair and re-galvanise it than replace it with new mild steel, and we will say so before quoting a replacement.

What we are usually called out for in Lavington

Gates and perimeter Sliding, swing and pedestrian gates built for the ground they actually run on. Mild steel railings Mild steel railings, galvanised and powder coated rather than painted, for balconies, stairs and boundaries. Window grills Grills made to each opening, with spacing that resists entry and at least one escape route per floor. Stainless steel railings Stainless balustrades in the right grade, welded and finished properly rather than assembled from kit parts.

Landmarks we work around here: Valley Arcade shopping centre, Lavington Green, James Gichuru Road, Kingara Road. See what railings cost.