Hong Kong adopts stricter scaffold net fire-safety standard
Hong Kong has implemented GB 5725-2025, a new national standard for scaffold safety nets with tighter flame-retardance rules, following last year's Wang Fuk Court fire. Dip-coated nets now face stricter limits, and contractors must test nets made after September 1 under the new requirements.
Hong Kong has adopted an updated national safety standard for scaffold protective nets, imposing stricter flame-retardance requirements for certain types of netting as scrutiny of construction-site fire safety continues after last year's deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po.
The Buildings Department began applying GB 5725-2025, “Fall protection—Safety nets,” on September 1, the same day the mandatory national standard took effect in mainland China, replacing the previous GB 5725-2009 version. Registered contractors using nets manufactured on or after September 1 under the GB 5725 standard must have their flame-retardant performance tested in accordance with the new version. Contractors must also provide designated laboratories with the nets' manufacturing date and production method so appropriate tests can be applied.
The change follows the November 26, 2025 fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, where scaffolding outside several blocks caught fire during major repair works, prompting heightened attention to safety and flame-retardant performance of materials used on external scaffolding.
Unlike the 2009 standard, which did not classify safety nets by manufacturing method, GB 5725-2025 divides them into three categories: twisted-woven safety nets, brushed warp knitted safety nets, and dip-coated safety nets. It also introduces corresponding structural requirements and marking rules.
The most significant change concerns flame resistance. Under the previous standard, flame-retardant nets were subject to a uniform limit of four seconds for both afterflame time—the period during which a material continues to burn with a flame after the ignition source is removed—and afterglow time, when flameless burning continues. Under the new standard, twisted-woven and brushed warp knitted safety nets must continue to meet a maximum afterflame and afterglow time of four seconds, but for dip-coated safety nets, both limits have been tightened to two seconds.
The updated standard also requires product markings to identify the net's manufacturing process, intended use, dimensions, and protection grade, allowing contractors and testing laboratories to identify the type of net and apply corresponding requirements. Other revisions cover testing methods for impact resistance, penetration resistance, weather resistance, and the relationship between breaking strength and elongation.
Ho Ping-tak, chairman of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Bamboo Scaffolding Workers Union (Tung-king), welcomed the tighter requirement for dip-coated nets. Ho said the flame-retardant properties of dip-coated nets could deteriorate more quickly after prolonged exposure to sunlight, while the material itself could become more brittle. He said distinguishing them from warp-knitted nets and imposing a stricter flame-retardance threshold was a safer approach, and suggested Hong Kong authorities conduct more frequent spot checks on dip-coated nets.
Ho said the clearer identification of manufacturing methods would also allow contractors to select nets according to site conditions. “For walls that are frequently exposed to sunlight, drawn-filament nets can be used, while dip-coated nets can be used on walls without much sunlight. It gives contractors another option,” he said. More than a month after the new standard came into effect, Ho said there had been no significant change in the supply of safety nets or in scaffolders' day-to-day work.