Use of suitable construction products

The planning and building legislation states that the developer shall use suitable construction products. The suitability is based on a case-to-case assessment, using product details found primarily in CE marking but sometimes in other ways also specified in the legislation.

While legislation for products is harmonised at EU level, national legislation applies for the construction works into which the products are to be incorporated. The Swedish planning and building legislation require that construction products only should be included in a construction work if they are suitable for the intended use.

The building regulations from the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket´s Building Regulations, BBR) set basic requirements for the complete building. In order to meet these requirements, it is necessary to use construction products with suitable properties. The properties shall also be known in relation to the building's capacity to meet the requirements in the building regulations. The Swedish building regulations are performance based and contain few product-level requirements and it is the developer who is responsible for choosing products with suitable properties.

The building regulations provide four ways to assess the properties of construction products, the primary one being CE marking under the European Construction Products Regulation. For other possibilities, please refer to section 1:4 and 1:42 of the Boverket´s Building Regulations.

Other applicable legislation

Other legislation may also affect the suitability of a construction product, such as the national choices to the Eurocodes which are found in the Boverket regulations Application of European Construction Standards (Eurocodes), EKS. Provisions regarding civil engineering works are governed by The Transport Agency, Transportstyrelsen.

Depending on the specific product, provisions from other agencies might apply. For example the National Electrical Safety Board, Elsäkerhetsverket, provides regulations on electrical safety which is an essential characteristic for some construction products and the Work Environment Authority, Arbetsmiljöverket, has provisions related to workers' safety.