All apartment blocks in Scotland need sprinkler systems. Read how we helped a small conversion, near the Highlands, get their water supplies approved.
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The email to Building Warrant
Hi {redacted}
The Scottish Technical Standards refer to a now withdrawn standard: BS 9251: 2014. BS 9251: 2014 is no longer an acceptable standard to work to. Incidentally, both the English and Welsh building standards have similar issues. The English standard refers to an undated BS 9251, which often leads to the question as to why not the 2014 standard. Whereas the Welsh regulations refer to BS 9251: 2014 ‘or equivalent’, despite the standard now being withdrawn and no longer accepted by the regulators.
This standard was withdrawn in 2021 and is no longer accepted by the regulators, who oversee the sprinkler market (such as FIRAS, LPCB, etc). Any company who installs sprinklers needs to be third party accredited or audited to obtain legitimate components, such as sprinkler heads and pipework. Any company who is not third party accredited would be unable to purchase those components and so unable to install to BS 9251: 2014 or any other relevant standard. Any components they do have are unlikely to be legitimate because vendors will not sell to them.
Building Control will be looking for an up to date equivalent. This would either be BS EN 16925: 2018, or BS 9251: 2021. BS EN 16925 is actually a more stringent standard than BS 9251. By page count alone, BS EN 16925: 2018 is 92 pages, while BS 9251: 2021 is only 74. BS 9251: 2014 wasn’t even half that size. BS EN 16925 also requires a flat minimum density for ordinary hazard areas (which you don’t have) of 5mm/min, whereas BS 9251: 2021 allows for a lesser requirement of only 4 heads operating. BS EN 16925 also offers increased traceability when it comes to design and as built information.
BS EN 16925 is stricter in some areas which allows it to be more forgiving in others. In your case, this is beneficial because we would be able to reduce the tank size by two thirds.
If a block of flats was over 18m tall, I would always encourage BS 9251: 2021 because this standard introduced Category 4. However, your building is nowhere near that height. Although, I understand that BS EN 16925 is currently being reviewed to introduce an equivalent category in any case.
BS EN is a shared European standard, whereas BS is solely a British Standard. This means that BS EN standards are subject to a wider range of scrutiny. Commercial sprinkler systems always use the BS EN (12845) rather than relying solely on BS.
Building control will be looking for confirmation that the system has been properly designed, installed, and certified. All of which we are able to provide for you. I can also speak with the architect and building control about this, if that helps. The alternative is a 30 min supply, which will increase the size of your tank by a factor of three. I don’t see that as necessary and I’m not convinced that building control will either.
Please see the below for further information:
BS 9251: 2014 was withdrawn in 2021.
BS 9251: 2021 replaced BS 9251 in 2021. This is a current standard.
BS EN 16925: 2018 was introduced as an alternative in 2018. This is a current standard.
The Scottish Building Standards state:
