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Safety Features to Look For in a High-Rise

Generally, high rise apartment buildings are considered to be safer in comparison to the other types of multifamily housing. They are not like low rise buildings, and also, they do not offer an accessible “run out of the door” safety route. In this case, emergency exits are used in cases of earthquakes, fires and natural disasters.

Nowadays, the number of high-rise buildings is increasing exceptionally. However, the safety features have to pass through intense scrutiny, especially by the interested buyers. A few major things are discussed below that one needs to look for, during assessing the safety features of the high-rise buildings.

Material:

The high-rise building must be constructed with the materials that have the fire resistance power and not easily inflammable, for example, fire resistant covered steel, fire resistive concrete and heavy timber. Usually, the little combustible materials are used for making floors, masonry etc. But they should be finely coated with fire resistive coatings, in order to protect the building from sudden accidents.

Protection equipment:

In terms of the safety of high-rise buildings, protection equipment is the next big thing that is installed there. Safety measures such as automatic extinguishing equipment, fire detector equipment, fire alarm, smoke detector and automatic sprinkler etc. are some of the basic requirements for every high-rise building.

Evacuation Plan:

Evacuation plan design and implementation are the most important steps that can be taken for security purpose. There must be an unblocked emergency exit door in every floor. Earthquake drills, fire drills and safety procedures must be practiced on a regular basis. These drills are must-have equipment for the high-rise buildings. High-rise apartments should also own flashlights and safety kits.

Elevator system:

In order to maintain the safety of high- rise buildings, the elevators should be separated into different banks, which serve different levels like low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise. The number of the banks can be increased or decreased according to the size of the building. This helps in lessening the number of accidents that can take place in the elevator system. Otherwise this can lead to safety hazards. Usually, the configuration of the elevators should be as followed:

Low-rise bank: These elevators serve from ground to 12th floor
Mid-rise bank: These elevators serve from 13th to 23rd floor
High-rise bank: These elevators usually serve from 23rd to the top floor
Service /Freight elevators: These elevators serve from ground to top floors.

High-rise survival kit:

High-rise survival kits can also be a good option that can help you in surviving from fire. A high-rise survival kit can include a wet towel (should be placed at the base of a door), foil wrap (that can be used to cover vent openings), duct tape (can be used to place over vent openings and doors), whistle (can work as a signal for help), flashlight (in case of power failure, this can also be used as a signal for help), etc.

To sum up, it can be said safety is the top priority no matter whatever the situation is. Hence, before moving into a high-rise apartment, the owner has to assess the apartment’s rules, regulations and of course, the safety features.