Accommodation

What timing, We are planning to move to The Gambia later this year so will watch the responses to this thread with great interest. Our plan is to rent initially so any comments in that direction would be of interest to us. Don't mean to hijack your post Mags but the more activity there is on a thread the greater the chance of good responses.

Hi and welcome to the forum mags13!

I hope other members will be able to help you soon

Regards
Armand

Hi my name is Neil and I have been building houses for the last 10 years in Gambia, so if anyone want some help with that please do ask, thanks.

Hi Neil, We are currently thinking of buying near Gunjur, remodelling and building a sensible sized pool. I'm told the current favoured pool building method in The Gambia is a block work construction covered in fibreglass. I have no fondness for that material and would prefer tiles. Is there a reason why people don't appear to use them in The Gambia?

Hi, when i have a client asking for a pool I usually send them to specialist pool builders in the Gambia who use the fibreglass method, they seem to be working better to be honest. I have never built a pool myself but I know a lot of pools built from before the fibre glass coating method came into Gambia and they had leakage problems, I suspect this is due to 1, bad workmanship, 2,lack of technical know how which leads to the wrong kind of materials used. If you have a good knowledge of how to build pools from reinforced concrete and have the right materials (water proofing) I am sure it can be done.

hello neil,
im interested in building a wood framed lodge and was wondering if there is a good source of structuaral timber available at good prices.
i am from the uk and i have not so far seen the type of timber that is available here. any info would be appreciated.
thank you
Abdul

The mahogany timber which is available locally (called redwood) has a tendency to warp and twist after a while as the weather changes. I would suggest getting timber from nearby country like the keno or better quality mahogany which is also available in countries like Bissau to the south. I would also suggest finding ways to air dry it or machine dry it to reduce the chances of timber changing shape with the weather.