Standards & Accreditation

For many consumers, flooding and flood products are unknown territory, so deciding what is right for their property and lifestyle is a big decision.  In an attempt to help drive up standards in the sector, particularly in relation to Property Level Protection (PLP), we have asked advertisers to show the standards their products meet and/or the accreditation schemes they comply with by clearly displaying their certification on their own website.

We accept that not all businesses are able to do this, which may be due to a number of factors such as the prohibitive cost of accreditation for smaller companies or that their products may not fit the criteria for testing under some of the standards.  We have therefore created a separate category for any products that are not certified and these are listed under ‘Non Certified Products’.

We remain impartial and cannot offer any advice on which product may be most suitable for individual circumstances, but we would encourage people to look at all the products that are available across all the different categories.

Please note that standards and certification is rapidly evolving in property protection and from time to time the National Flood Forum will be upgrading the requirements in order that customers can be increasingly certain that the systems they purchase will deliver what they want.

So what do the different standards actually mean?

BS851188

The British Standards Institution (or BSI), is the UK’s national standards body.  The BSI Standard for Flood Protection products is based on the ‘publicly available specification’ known as BS 851188.  The most recent version of this specification was published in 2019 and all products requiring testing will now be tested against this version.  Testing involves, static water, waves and currents.  BS 851188 covers two different sets of products:

  • BS 851188-1 (2019) covers Flood Products
  • BS 851188-2 (2019) covers Flood Resistance Products

All products with a BSI Kitemark have been independently tested to these standards.

BSI Kitemark (Quick Reference Guide To Kitemarked Products | PDF)

The British Standards Institution (or BSI), is the UK’s national standards body.  The BSI Kitemark for Flood Protection products is based on the ‘publicly available specification’ known as PAS1188.  The most recent version of this specification was published in 2014 and all products requiring testing will now be tested against this version, which allows significantly less leakage rates.  Testing involves, static water, waves and currents.  PAS 1188 covers four different types of products:

  • PAS 1188-1:2014 – Flood Protection products. Part 1: Building aperture products
  • PAS 1188-2:2014 – Flood Protection products. Part 2: Temporary and demountable flood protection products
  • PAS 1188-3:2014 – Flood protection products. Part 3: Buildings & building skirt systems
  • PAS 1188-4:2014 – Flood protection products. Part 4: Demountable products

“All flood prevention products that have a BSI Kitemark are independently witness tested by BSI both at initial type testing stage and then on an ongoing basis (typically once or twice a year). This helps to maintain the on-going quality and performance of the products.” BSI website

Please note that PAS 1188 has been superceded by BS851188.

BS 12999 British Standard for Damage Management

Published in November 2015 this standard provides ‘a code of practice that can be followed by damage management practitioners and acts as a source of reference for third parties, incident owners, businesses and members of the public.’

‘It is a code of practice for the organisation and management of the stabilisation, mitigation and restoration of properties, contents, facilities and assets following incident damage.’

Order or download a copy for further information from the BDMA.

CEN

The European Committee for Standardisation, is an association that brings together the National Standardisation Bodies of 33 European countries.  www.cen.eu