The questions we are actually asked

Yes — Rubavu and Karongi on Lake Kivu, Musanze and Kinigi for the volcano lodges, Nyungwe, Akagera, Huye. Upcountry work is scheduled in blocks so the travel cost is shared between sites in the same week.

Six to ten weeks for a standard cabin once the drawing is signed, and three to four if we already have the section in stock. The long pole is imported timber: 35–42 days at sea plus 5–10 days overland from Mombasa or Dar es Salaam (Sino Shipping).

Gladly, and the earlier the better. The three things we need in the build drawing are a drain with a fall, a mechanical extract route and a cable run to the board. Everything after that is finishes.

Yes, if parts are obtainable. Roughly half our service calls are for somebody else's installation.

A 9 kW heater pulls full load for the twenty to forty minute heat-up, then cycles at a third to a half of nameplate — an evening is closer to 4–6 kWh than to 9. A chiller in Kigali runs less than the same unit would at the coast because the nights are cool.

Two years on our build and workmanship, and the manufacturer's terms on heaters, generators and chillers, which we register for you. Service visits keep both valid.

Yes — we build a demountable specification with a bolted frame and a single service connection point. It is the standard in Kacyiru, where most housing is on corporate leases.

English and Kinyarwanda. Drawings, quotes and the operating manual come in whichever you prefer.

Six to ten weeks for a standard cabin once the drawing is signed. The imported timber is the long pole: sea freight to Mombasa or Dar es Salaam runs 35–42 days, then 5–10 days overland to Kigali. If we have the section in stock at the Gisozi workshop, it is three to four weeks.

Up to about 8 kW, yes, if the house supply and cable can carry it. Above that we ask for a three-phase connection — REG supplies 400 V three-phase and the meter fee is the same RWF 56,000 for single or three phase, so the cost is in the cabling, not the meter.

Electric for anything in the city: it is controllable, it does not need a flue through a tiled roof, and nobody has to carry wood up a terrace. Wood-fired makes sense at a lodge in Musanze or on Lake Kivu where the fire is part of the evening and firewood is already on site.

On a level terrace, a basalt or brick plinth is enough. On a slope, we use galvanised steel posts fixed into the retaining wall and level the floor frame off them — no new concrete platform, no load added to a wall that is already retaining soil.

In panels, carried by hand where a truck cannot turn. On the narrow red-earth streets in Kiyovu and Rebero, a flatbed parks at the nearest turning point and the crew walks the wall panels down. We check the route on the site visit and price it honestly.

Pale timber will silver on the sun side within two or three years unless it is re-oiled. Charred timber holds its colour far longer. Neither affects the structure — it is a look, and we tell you which one you are choosing.

It is a different thing. You will sweat, you will sleep better, and you will not get the 90 °C heat or the löyly. If you have the power and the space, build the real cabin. If you do not, an infrared cabin you actually use beats a Finnish sauna you cannot install.

On a covered balcony, yes, with a sheltered socket. Open to the rain, no — the panels and the control board are not built for it.

At around 2 kW for forty minutes, a session is roughly 1.3 kWh. Check your current REG tariff band and multiply — it is closer to running a kettle than to running an air conditioner.

Sometimes. It needs a drain, a serviceable spot for the generator within about 10 m, and a ceiling we can pitch. What it almost always needs is stripping back to the slab — tiling over an existing floor that has no fall is how you buy the problem twice.

Guests from the region ask for steam more often; guests from Europe ask for sauna. A hotel with one thermal room usually does better with steam; with two rooms, build both and put the cold plunge between them.

The membrane wants a full day between coats and a day before tiling. We do not compress that. A steam room finished in a hurry leaks in the second rainy season.