BS 85500 Flood Resilient Construction consultation response
The British Standard Institute (BSI) public consultation for the revised guidance document BS 85500: Flood resilient Construction – Improving the flood performance of buildings – Guide closed on 7 April 2024.
The PCA, along with its members had the opportunity to pass comment on this revised document. The guidance principally establishes design and material considerations, to reduce the impact damage caused by flooding to new and existing properties in flood regions. This document also provides a standard for resilient construction to flood risk buildings, effectively minimising the unoccupancy time after a flood.
Key comments
Many of the comments made by members were textual changes, but suggested design considerations for inclusion in the document by the BSI committee, are:
- The potential impact assessment for SuDS designs on developments
- Performance specifications for resilient materials
- Consistency and clarity of the annotations to the illustrative figures.
Going forward
This document is very much needed to provide a standardised approach to the established CIRIA guidance C790B Guidance on the Code of Practice for property flood resilience. We look forward to its release later in the year.
View the document