Questions and answers

JengaCost is a construction cost estimator for Kenya. Pick one of 37 house designs, or describe your own, and it gives you plans, a 3D model and a bill of quantities priced at your county's rates, in minutes.

People planning to build in Kenya, including those abroad who are building at home, and the fundis, contractors, quantity surveyors and suppliers who work with them.

Yes, you can start free: the cost explorer, every design with its plans and 3D, and 2 saved projects with full bills. Pro is KES 1,500 a month, and a single extra project with its bill is KES 400.

By M-Pesa: the payment prompt comes straight to your phone. Where card payments are switched on, you can also pay by card or bank through Paystack.

It measures the building: the length of every foundation, the area of every wall, the roof and each door and window. Then it prices each quantity from a dated Kenyan rate library adjusted to your county, the way a quantity surveyor prepares a bill.

From JengaCost's Kenyan rate library. Every rate carries its survey date, a low-to-high range and its source, and the library is public on the price index. Where enough users have priced real bills, their median is shown alongside.

They are budget estimates, measured from the design and priced from dated, ranged rates. They tell you whether a house is within reach and where the money goes. They are not a contractor's quotation: prices move, and a site can bring surprises.

Materials have to travel further, labour rates differ, and some areas have fewer suppliers. JengaCost prices the same measured bill in every county with that county's adjustment, so the difference is visible line by line.

A bill of quantities lists every item of work in a building, how much of each there is, the rate for it and the amount. It is how Kenyan projects are priced, tendered and paid for.

Yes. For a design JengaCost draws, a project includes steel to order by bar diameter in 12 m lengths, mesh and binding wire, and a materials schedule: bags of cement, tonnes of sand and ballast, stones or blocks, timber, roofing, doors and windows.

Yes. Pro users can upload drawings for an AI take-off, which reads the plan into a measured bill. Anyone can import an existing BOQ from Excel (.xlsx) or CSV. You can also start from the closest catalogue design and change it.

Pro users can describe a house in plain words, or upload a photo of one they like, and the AI designer produces a concept: a to-scale plan that passes the app's layout checks, with 3D and a priced bill. It is a concept for budgeting, not a design for approval.

No. JengaCost's plans are concept drawings for budgeting and decisions. County approval needs drawings prepared and signed by a registered architect and structural engineer. JengaCost can put you in touch with them.

Professional fees, the land and its transfer costs, water and power connection fees, and furniture are not in the figure. Neither is anything the rate library cannot price yet, which is listed by name. Plot works are shown separately from the house.

Choose two to four houses, or one house at different finishes or roof forms. JengaCost prices each at your county's rates, sets them side by side, and ranks them by the priorities you choose: cost, space, value per m², speed or fewest unknowns.

Yes, and most Kenyan houses are built that way. Enter the cash you have and what you can add each month, and JengaCost splits the bill into stages. It shows when each stage can start once it is paid for, how long you save in between, and when the house is finished.

Contingency is money set aside for what nobody can see yet: bad ground, price rises, changes of mind. JengaCost lets you set your own percentage rather than choosing one for you. Ask your QS, and allow more for a difficult site or a long build.

Ground coverage is the share of your plot the building's roofed area covers. Counties set a limit for each zone. A house that covers more than the limit will not be approved where you drew it.

From a saved project, request quotes. Your bill goes to verified suppliers who sell what it needs, and each is sent only the lines they supply, with the quantities measured. Architects, QSs and structural engineers can quote fees from your brief.

Yes. Some suppliers supply imported to order and quote ex-works, FOB or CIF in dollars. JengaCost marks these as not delivered prices and ranks them by their cost on site, including duty, levies and VAT. The landed cost calculator works out the rest.

Apply on the Sell on JengaCost page with your trades, county and registration where you have one. Once verified, you receive quote requests for the bill lines you supply, and reply through a link without needing an account.