Natural tiles the way to go

By Patrick Beja

The beauty of a building is in the finishing and its compound.

Natural stone tiles from the Coast have been used to decorate many apartments, hotels, villas, cottages and private homes in the country and abroad, creating a perfect finish.

Stone slabs excavated from Galana, Mazeras, Mariakani, Maji Ya Chumvi, Lunga Lunga and Shimba Hills are now increasingly finding their way into the construction industry.

Natural tiles can also be used for interior design particularly for floors and walls.

It is now common to find the stones used in cladding outside walls of buildings, finishing decoration, paving of gardens, paths and car parks.

The tiles have been used in new buildings not only at the Coast but also in Nairobi, Naivasha, Nanyuki and as far as Uganda and Tananzia, among other places.

At the Coast, they have been used in most beach hotels for decoration of floors, walls and pavements.

natural beauty

In Nairobi, they are found on the walls of major supermarkets around the city and a number of apartments.

For ages, the natural stones have given beauty to the main Cathedral in the Westminster in Europe.

"People have come to know of the beauty in natural stone tiles. And they are longlasting," says Mr Sam Kamere, a dealer at the Coast.

Kamere says the stone is sourced from miners in the Coast region and prepared for the domestic and export market. It is then cut into slabs of different sizes.

The slabs are then polished before being loaded onto trucks for distribution to various markets.

Kamere who is the director of Nuts of Africa Limited says he has been dealing in natural stone tiles for the last seven years.

"This kind of stone is only found in Coast Province and this is why we have set base here. We transport them to upcountry markets by trucks," he says.

The firm has since set up a factory at Msambweni in the south Coast where the slabs are prepared for sale.

great finishing

"We cut the stones with machines at the Msambweni factory and polish them. We produce about 1,000 square metres of polished stone daily," he says.

The main drive has been to diversify the range of building materials and provide unique finishing to business premises and homes.

According to Kamere, the company has grown by leaps and bounds and caught the eye of developers and contractors.

"The challenge now is to deliver the materials in time to contractors, interior designers and developers, particularly those upcountry and outside Kenya," he says.

According to Kamere, they have started exporting to Denmark where the industry has developed a taste.

"We have began negotiations so as to export to other countries in Europe," he says.

The firm now plans to put up a showroom in Nairobi to display the Coast natural stone tiles.