Improving facade safety through Periodic Facade Inspection (PFI) Regime

The PFI Regime requires a Competent Person (i.e. Professional Engineer or Registered Architect), who can be assisted by a Facade Inspector (FI), to conduct facade inspections on older buildings every seven years.

By BCA

With building facades subject to weather elements, Singapore’s large and ageing high-rise building stock is at risk of facade deterioration. Each year, Building and Construction Authority (BCA) receives nearly 30 reports on falling facade elements and has done so for the past three years.

To ramp up the safety of building facades and reduce the likelihood of facade failure, amendments made to the Building Control Act passed in Parliament on 6 March 2020 will now require buildings more than 20 years old and over 13 meters tall to undergo regimented facade inspection every seven years. The criteria was set to focus on older buildings with 20 years being the typical lifespan of common building materials as well as high-rise buildings, which pose a higher safety risk. Landed houses are exempted from these requirements.

The change will be introduced under BCA’s new Periodic Facade Inspection (PFI) Regime, which aims to facilitate the early detection of facade deterioration and allow defects to be rectified in a timely manner. The inspection will thoroughly check and cover facade elements and other exterior features such as sunshades and cladding boards in HDB blocks.

The PFI Regime requires responsible parties to appoint a Competent Person (i.e. Professional Engineer or Registered Architect), who can be assisted by a Facade Inspector (FI), to conduct the facade inspections. Both Competent Persons and FIs must complete and pass a Certificate of Facade Inspection course approved by BCA.

The Competent Person will conduct a full visual inspection and representative hands-on inspection for each elevation of the building facade, leveraging technology such as drones, borescope and scanning equipment for more efficient inspections. Appropriate rectification works will be proposed if deterioration is detected and such works must be carried out within a specified period.

Under the Regime, BCA is expecting more than 4,000 buildings to be inspected each year. BCA will also introduce an inspection framework with guidelines and strengthen R&D efforts to look into more effective and productive ways to carry out facade inspections.

Read about other amendments to the Building Control Act, including basic accessibility upgrading for older buildings.