The Building Standard Will be Increased to Meet New Safety Requirements and Usage

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The Building Standard Will be Increased to Meet New Safety Requirements and Usage  

On August 15th, 2023, the cabinet in principle approved the Draft Ministerial Regulation No. .. (B.E. ….) issued by virtue of the Building Control Act B.E. 2522 (1979), where this Draft Ministerial Regulation will amend some provisions as set in the Ministerial Regulation No. 39 (B.E. 2537). The main purpose is to improve certain requirements on fire safety systems as well as requirements on the type and number of bathrooms and toilets to be appropriate in accordance with the current usage of each type of building. Many factors were considered to set new requirements.   New terms and definitions have been established, such as public building, which means a building that individuals can live or use for the benefit of public assembly, for the activities of official, political, educational, religious, social, and so on. In addition, the terms, i.e., separator, sanitary ware, water closet, urinal, bath, toilet, and bathroom also have been set.

The type of building has been revised to be as follows:

  1. Row unit houses, row houses, townhouses, semi-detached houses;
  2. Public building except theatre and service place, assembly building, restaurant, office, government office, factory, and commercial building;
  3. Common residential building with 4 or more units, condominium units, and dormitory;
  4. Warehouse; and
  5. Other kinds of buildings except items 1, 2, 3, and 4 with a height of 3 floors or more.

Several requirements have also been amended and added, and the examples of requirements below may be applied in full or in part to any of the aforementioned buildings as specified in the Draft Ministerial Regulation.

  1. Buildings must have fire prevention procedures.
  2. Buildings must have a portable fire extinguisher or fire extinguisher with component, characteristic, number, type, size, capacity, and installation in accordance with the Announcement of the Ministry of Interior.
  3. Buildings must have an alarm system with the number and location as specified. Furthermore, the buildings, with a total area of 2,000 m3, must have the said alarm system on each floor. (The fire alarm system must be able to detect the smoke and give a signal or sound to warn people in the building of fire and must be the emergency equipment both automatically activated and manually operated.)
  4. Buildings must have the building plan of each floor presented in a spot where it is simple to see and show the location of rooms, fire extinguishers, fire escape ladders, elevators, and the building plan itself. If the buildings have room for storing items, such as fire extinguished materials, or hazardous or flammable materials, such buildings must comply with the standards as specified by Clauses 6/1 and 6/2 of this Draft Ministerial Regulation.

The toilet and bathroom located in the aforementioned buildings are determined to meet the requirements of the building such as required material and equipment, cleanliness, privacy, minimum space of not less than 0.80 meters width, and ventilation system are also designed to be adequate and appropriate for the number of users. Furthermore, this Draft Ministry Regulation also specifies the distance between the bathroom and any location in the building.   The Draft Ministerial Regulation will be submitted to the Council of State for its consideration and after that it will be returned to the cabinet for its final consideration before publishing in the Royal Gazette.

Author: Panisa Suwanmatajarn, Managing Partner.

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