Apartment balcony – safe place, dangerous place

Each apartment building in Hanoi has 1-2 designed balconies with balustrades with average height from 1.3 to 1.4 meters. Many families with young children have to install a safety net.

Apartment safety net is expensive After the incident took place on the afternoon of February 28 in an apartment in Hanoi, many families hired workers to install protective nets for balconies, windows, and corridors. The price ranges from 130,000 to 250,000 VND / m2. Apartment 60B Nguyen Huy Tuong (Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi) is one of many buildings that recorded accidents when children fell from a balcony on a high floor. The apartment where H. fell two days ago is located on the back, adjacent to 62 Nguyen Huy Tuong building. People said that when she discovered the incident, the little girl climbed over the railing of the apartment. The corrugated iron roof where Mr. Manh jumped to support baby H. sank in a corner. The people at the building are still not completely shocked by the incident. “My house is in the front, until last night my children told me to know the incident. I have lived here for 4 years. Right from the moment I got the house, I installed a protective net to pull from the railing to the ceiling outside the balcony so that when the children come to play, we will be more secure ”, Ms. P., resident on the 10th floor, said know. According to observations, the handrail of the apartments is about 1.3 m high, the distance between the bars is 15 cm. The apartments in the opposite apartment building are also in the state of houses with protective nets and no houses. According to Zing’s survey around Hanoi, the apartments of an apartment building on Nguyen Chi Thanh street (Ba Dinh district) have a rather low railing design, but out of 6 apartments on the photo, only one apartment is installed. protective mesh system outside the balcony. Designing an X-shaped handrail in an apartment on Hoang Dao Thuy street. In N3B building (Thanh Xuan district), many apartments have installed protection systems outside the railing, the rest have iron frame systems, with aluminum and glass frame doors. Most apartments in an apartment on Nguyen Chanh street are fitted with protective nets, some are ceiling-mounted, some only have a plastic mesh system below to facilitate clothes drying. People live in apartments or leave pots of plants on the balcony for decoration. If there is no protection system on the railing, the young children will easily climb up thanks to these potted plants. “I just moved here to live. From the beginning, the building management has talked to the apartment owner about installing a protective grid system. The apartments here have a balcony near the kitchen, and a backpack for drying clothes. Although there are seldom children at home, I still install it from the beginning to ensure safety, partly to prevent theft, ”said Ms. Thu Giang, living in an apartment in Long Bien district. To avoid small children climbing on flower pots on the balcony sticking to the railing, Mr. Cuong (Long Bien) installed a safety net system early from the time of repairing the apartment. Mr. Cuong also installed a protective net on the window in the children’s bedroom. According to the Vietnam Construction Code on housing and public works – safety of life and health issued by the Ministry of Construction in 2008, the minimum height of handrails is specified: Houses, offices, schools school, office and public works of loggias and terraces at the position of 9 floors or more, the minimum height is 1.4 m. For works used by children under 5 years old, the balustrade must be constructed not for children to easily climb over and the gap must not exceed 10 cm wide. With handrails or loggias used with glass material, the glass is protected by a fixture, ensuring it is solid, no gaps are inserted into the 7.5 cm-diameter sphere, difficult to climb over to prevent prevent falling.