What does it cost to roof a three-bedroom house in Kenya?

Typically KES 280,000 to 650,000 and above, materials and labour together, with mabati at the lower end and stone-coated tile at the upper. Market ranges reviewed September 2026, not a quotation.

Why will you not quote a leak repair over the phone?

Because a leak can be one perished washer or forty metres of failed ridge with rotten purlins underneath, and nothing about the ceiling stain separates the two. We publish rates wherever an honest market figure exists. For leak repair in Kenya none does, so we inspect and then quote.

Which gauge of mabati should I use?

Gauge is thickness and the numbers run backwards, so gauge 26 is thickest. Box profile runs about KES 520 a metre in gauge 30, KES 580 in gauge 28 and KES 720 in gauge 26. On any roof carrying a tank or heater, the heavier sheet is the cheaper decision over ten years.

Do you fit roof trusses?

We do timber roof carpentry: rafters, purlins, fascia and barge boards. Most modern Nairobi roofs are framed in steel, which is a fabricator's trade rather than ours. Where a frame is timber the carpentry is ours; where it is steel we work to it.

Do you do carpentry as well as roofing?

It is the older half of the business. Hardwood doors and frames, fitted wardrobes, staircases and balustrades, built-in shelving, panelling, pergolas and decking, and repair and restoration. Our lead carpenter has forty-three years at the bench.

How do I reach you at the moment?

Through the form on this site. We are setting up a dedicated line and it will appear here when it is live; we would rather publish no number than one that does not reach us. A photograph attached to the form tells us more than a paragraph.

Which areas do you cover?

Across Nairobi: Karen, Runda, Muthaiga, Gigiri, Kitisuru, Lavington, Kilimani, Kileleshwa, Westlands, Parklands, Lang'ata and the Kiambu Road corridor. Each area page sets out what genuinely differs about working there.

Roofing and Carpentry Across Nairobi

Roofs traced properly before they are quoted, and joinery made by hand. We find where the water actually gets in rather than sealing the ceiling under the stain, and we say plainly when a roof wants replacing instead of patching again.

43 years at the bench

Leak tracing and repair · re-roofing in mabati and tile · gutters and fascia · flat-roof waterproofing · doors, wardrobes and staircases

No charge for a written quotation. Figures on this site are market ranges for Kenya, reviewed September 2026, and never a quotation until we have seen the job.

Get a written quotation

Tell us the shape of the project and we will come back with a realistic cost range before anyone visits. No obligation, and no site visit charge.

Start here

Most people arrive here with either a leak or a price question. Both are answered properly below rather than held back behind an enquiry form. If your roof is leaking now, start with the first one.

Roof leak and emergency repair Why the ceiling stain is rarely under the hole, what we check before quoting, and why a leak is one of the few jobs we will not price down a phone line. Gutters, fascia and downpipes UPVC from about KES 388 a linear metre fitted, and why a gutter slightly out of fall is behind most of the rotten fascia in Nairobi. Mabati and roofing sheet prices Box profile by gauge at current rates, what gauge 30 against gauge 26 actually changes, and what a whole roof costs fitted. Re-roofing and roof replacement A three-bedroom roof typically KES 280,000 to 650,000 all in, tile against mabati, and the point where repairing stops being the cheaper answer.

What roofing costs in Kenya

Sheet and tile, supply only. Fitting is separate, at roughly KES 600 to 1,200 per square metre for the covering.
Work	Rate	Notes
Box profile, gauge 30	KES 520 / metre	Thinnest common gauge, lightest duty
Box profile, gauge 28	KES 580 / metre	The usual domestic choice
Box profile, gauge 26	KES 720 / metre	Heaviest, longest service life
Plain iron sheet, supply only	KES 400 – 1,200 / m²	Varies by gauge, coating and brand
Stone-coated tile, supply only	KES 2,800 – 3,500 / m²	Five to seven times the cost of mabati

Indicative market ranges for Kenya, reviewed 2026-09, published so you can budget and compare quotes. They are not a quotation: your price is confirmed in writing after we have seen the job.

Whole-job ranges. Note that leak repair has no published Kenyan rate, which is why it is quoted after an inspection rather than before one.
Work	Rate	Notes
Three-bedroom bungalow roof, all in	KES 280,000 – 650,000+	Materials and labour; mabati at the lower end, stone-coated tile at the upper
Waterproofing a 100 m² flat roof	KES 120,000 – 250,000
Leak trace and repair	Inspection first	No reliable Kenyan published rate exists, and a figure quoted before seeing the roof is a guess

Indicative market ranges for Kenya, reviewed 2026-09, published so you can budget and compare quotes. They are not a quotation: your price is confirmed in writing after we have seen the job.

Full detail, including what the gauges change and why two quotations for the same roof differ, is on mabati and roofing sheet prices.

What we do

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 UPVC gutter from KES 388 per linear metre, fitted Guttering, downpipes, fascia and barge boards, which between them cause more roof damage when neglected than the roof covering does. Re-roofing and replacement Three-bedroom roof typically KES 280,000 to 650,000+ all in Stripping and replacing a roof, including the structure underneath when it needs it, and the point at which repairing stops being worth the money. Wooden staircases and balustrades Standard flight with timber handrail typically KES 200,000 to 350,000 Timber staircases and the balustrades that go with them, from a straight flight to a curved one, built as sections and assembled in the house. Office partitioning and fit-out Gypsum partitions from about KES 2,000 per square metre Partitioning, meeting rooms, reception joinery and workstations, on a programme that fits around a working office rather than closing it. Fitted wardrobes and dressing rooms KES 15,000 to 35,000 per running foot, premium from 55,000 Built-in wardrobes and dressing rooms configured around what you actually own, fitted to walls that are rarely square. Fitted kitchens KES 12,000 to 28,000 per running foot Kitchen carcasses and fronts made to the room, with the board specified where water and wear actually happen rather than where it shows. Hardwood doors and frames Mahogany doors from around KES 22,000, frames from 5,250 Solid timber doors, frames and architraves, supplied and hung, including into old openings that have stopped being square. Pergolas, gazebos and decking Outdoor timber structures, from a gazebo or pergola to a deck or carport, in species chosen for the position rather than the price list. Skirting, cornice and architrave The trim that frames every room, mitred to corners that are never ninety degrees, in timber or MDF. Wall panelling Typically KES 90,000 to 210,000 for 20 to 30 square metres Fluted, slatted and framed panelling, which changes a room more per shilling than almost anything else we fit. Built-in shelving and libraries Shelving that fits the alcove it is in and carries what you actually put on it, from a floating shelf to a full library wall. Parquet and wood flooring Parquet supplied and laid, about KES 90,000 to 150,000 for 60 square metres Parquet, solid and engineered timber floors laid over a substrate that has been checked first, which is where most floor failures begin. Floor sanding and finishing About KES 400 per square metre to sand, plus 300 to varnish Taking a tired timber or parquet floor back to bare wood and refinishing it, which is usually a fraction of the cost of replacing it. TV and wall units Typically KES 75,000 to 160,000 Fitted media walls with the cables, the ventilation and the viewing height worked out before anything is built. Timber window frames and shutters Timber windows and shutters, and repairs to original frames in houses where replacing them would be the wrong answer. Furniture repair and restoration Typically KES 8,000 to 30,000 per piece Repairing furniture worth keeping, which is most old furniture and almost no new furniture. Airbnb and short-let furnishing One-bedroom unit typically KES 246,000 to 1.3 million Fitted joinery for short-let units, specified for strangers and turnover rather than for a family that will be careful with it.

Six ways a Nairobi roof gets ruined

None of these is exotic. They are the faults we find over and over, several of them on roofs only a few years old, and every one of them is cheaper to prevent than to repair.

Patched above the stain

Water enters at a joint and runs along a purlin before it drops, so the stain is often metres from the hole. Sealing the ceiling side of it is the commonest wasted repair in Nairobi, and the same room is wet again a fortnight later.

Screws through the valley, not the crown

A fixing driven through the low part of the sheet profile sits exactly where water runs. It holds fine until the rubber washer hardens, then it leaks. It is a five-second mistake per screw and we find it on roofs barely three years old.

Thin gauge on a roof people walk

Gauge 30 is cheaper than gauge 26 and perfectly adequate on a roof nobody touches. Put a tank or a solar heater on it and the route people take to service it dents, the dent holds water, and rust starts there.

A gutter hung level

A gutter needs a consistent fall to its outlet. Hung level or with a dip it holds standing water, sags further under the weight, pulls its brackets out of the fascia, and soaks the timber it is bolted to.

One downpipe for a long run

It behaves perfectly in ordinary rain and overflows in the storms that matter, which is why owners so often report a leak that only happens sometimes. Nairobi rain arrives in bursts, so peak capacity matters more than average.

A quotation that covers only sheets

Ridge caps, flashings at every abutment, valley gutters, fascia, guttering and making good the ceiling are the roof too. A quote without them is not cheaper, it is incomplete, and the difference comes back later as extras.

On the joinery side the material decides how long fitted work lasts far more than the design does: see MDF, melamine, blockboard and marine ply.

Before the rains, not during them

Roof work in Kenya is strongly seasonal, and not in the way people expect. Search interest in roof leaks runs roughly fourteen times higher in March, at the height of the long rains, than it does in September. It climbs steadily from November through to March.

Interest in mabati, by contrast, barely moves across the year. So this is not a general construction cycle, it is people discovering leaks the moment it rains hard enough.

The practical consequence is straightforward. The cheapest time to deal with a suspect roof is while it is dry, and the hardest time to get a roofer onto it is the week half of Nairobi wants the same thing. If a ceiling marked last season and nothing was done, it will mark again.

Areas we cover

Each page covers what actually differs about working there, from estate delivery rules and permitted works hours to whether the roofs are tiled, sheeted or flat.

Gigiri Karen Kiambu Road Kileleshwa Kilimani Kitisuru Lang'ata Lavington Muthaiga Parklands Runda Westlands

The inside of a fitted wardrobe: hanging space, drawers and open shelving

Illustrative. This is not a photograph of our own work, and there is no portfolio on this site yet because we would rather show nothing than imply a job was ours.

Frequently asked questions

What does it cost to roof a three-bedroom house in Kenya?: Typically KES 280,000 to 650,000 and above, materials and labour together, with mabati at the lower end and stone-coated tile at the upper. Market ranges reviewed September 2026, not a quotation.
Why will you not quote a leak repair over the phone?: Because a leak can be one perished washer or forty metres of failed ridge with rotten purlins underneath, and nothing about the ceiling stain separates the two. We publish rates wherever an honest market figure exists. For leak repair in Kenya none does, so we inspect and then quote.
Which gauge of mabati should I use?: Gauge is thickness and the numbers run backwards, so gauge 26 is thickest. Box profile runs about KES 520 a metre in gauge 30, KES 580 in gauge 28 and KES 720 in gauge 26. On any roof carrying a tank or heater, the heavier sheet is the cheaper decision over ten years.
Do you fit roof trusses?: We do timber roof carpentry: rafters, purlins, fascia and barge boards. Most modern Nairobi roofs are framed in steel, which is a fabricator's trade rather than ours. Where a frame is timber the carpentry is ours; where it is steel we work to it.
Do you do carpentry as well as roofing?: It is the older half of the business. Hardwood doors and frames, fitted wardrobes, staircases and balustrades, built-in shelving, panelling, pergolas and decking, and repair and restoration. Our lead carpenter has forty-three years at the bench.
How do I reach you at the moment?: Through the form on this site. We are setting up a dedicated line and it will appear here when it is live; we would rather publish no number than one that does not reach us. A photograph attached to the form tells us more than a paragraph.
Which areas do you cover?: Across Nairobi: Karen, Runda, Muthaiga, Gigiri, Kitisuru, Lavington, Kilimani, Kileleshwa, Westlands, Parklands, Lang'ata and the Kiambu Road corridor. Each area page sets out what genuinely differs about working there.