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Sweden's Wet-Room Rules: A Performance Clause, Not a Membrane Spec

Since 1 July 2025 the new Boverket moisture-safety regulation replaced BBR 6:5 — but it's still a performance clause, not a membrane spec. Wet-room compliance in Sweden runs through the private industry rules GVK, BBV and Säker Vatten.

Boverkets föreskrifter, Fuktsäkerhet (in force 1 Jul 2025) Clause SE BFS moisture

The requirement

Since 1 July 2025, Sweden’s wet-room rule sits in a new Boverket regulation, not in BBR 6:5. The rule sets an outcome only. It fixes no membrane height and no floor fall. The real wet-room figures come from three trade rule books: GVK, BBV and Säker Vatten.

BBR 6:5 “Fuktsäkerhet” no longer applies. For years, most sources pointed to chapter 6:5 of BBR, short for Boverkets byggregler. That was the moisture-safety (fuktsäkerhet) chapter. On 1 July 2025, Boverket replaced BBR (BFS 2011:6) with nine new regulations. Each one covers one subject and carries its own number. Moisture safety now lives in its own successor regulation. It sits under the subject area of hygiene, health and environment.

What is left of BBR? Only “BBR 31”. Boverket is clear about what BBR 31 now holds: just the old energy-efficiency rules. It says nothing about moisture safety, wet rooms or waterproofing any more.

The grace period has closed too. Each new regulation came with a one-year transition window. A job could still use the old BBR figures if its building permit or notification was already in. That window ended on 1 July 2026. So the old BBR 6:5 text is not a live option for any new job. If a source quotes “BBR 6:5” as the current Swedish moisture rule, that source is out of date.

Still a performance clause, not a membrane spec

One thing did not change in the 2025 reform. Sweden’s moisture rule is still performance-based. It sets the outcome: the building must be designed so moisture cannot cause damage, odour or microbial growth that affects hygiene or health. It fixes no membrane height. It fixes no floor-fall percentage. It fixes no wet-room classification figure.

Other codes do this differently. Australia’s NCC fixes a 1800 mm shower-wall number. Norway’s TEK17 §13-15 lists specific duties. No BFS clause does that. The new regulation restates the same broad moisture duty BBR 6:5 always carried. Only the BFS number and the document around it changed.

Where wet-room compliance actually runs

The statutory clause gives no numbers. So in practice, Swedish wet-room work runs on private industry rules. The Norway and NZ pages on this hub describe the same pattern. The three rule books are:

  • GVK (Golvbranschens våtrumskontroll) — the wet-room branschregler of the resilient-flooring trade. They cover vinyl and similar sheet floor coverings.
  • BBV (Byggkeramikrådets branschregler för våtrum) — the tiling trade’s branschregler. They cover ceramic tile and stone wet-room finishes.
  • Säker Vatten — the safety rules of the plumbing and water-installation trade. They cover the pipework and fittings in a wet room.

Match the rule book to the finish. A tiled wet room is checked against BBV. A sheet-floored one is checked against GVK. The plumbing side always falls under Säker Vatten, whatever the finish.

One caveat. All three are paid, private publications. They are not part of the free statutory BFS text. So this page does not reprint their membrane heights, fall gradients or installation figures. The Norway page in this cluster treats Våtromsnormen the same way. A number copied secondhand from a paid standard is one this page cannot stand behind.

On site — what this means for you

  1. Do not quote “BBR 6:5” as the current rule. It has been replaced. The one-year transition window closed on 1 July 2026.
  2. Cite the moisture rule by outcome, not by a membrane figure. The clause asks for a moisture-safe design. It hands you no shower-wall height to build to.
  3. Get the real figures from the trade rule that matches the finish. BBV for tile. GVK for resilient sheet flooring. Säker Vatten for the plumbing. Check the current edition on each job.
  4. Confirm the current BFS regulation number before you cite it. Quote chapter and section to a client or building inspector from the live text only. Boverket’s PBL-kunskapsbanken is the place to check. The reform moved moisture safety out of BBR for good.
  • Part of the Swedish Building Regulations hub. The hub explains the full 2025 reform. It shows which of the nine new regulations replaced which part of the old BBR.
  • Building the stairs in the same reform? See Swedish stair rules. Same BBR-replacement pattern, with its own transition-window caveat.

Sources

  • Boverkets föreskrifter (BFS 2024) — Fuktsäkerhet, the successor regulation to BBR 6:5, in force from 1 July 2025 — performance-based moisture-safety requirement. Read it at boverket.se.
  • GVK (Golvbranschens våtrumskontroll) — resilient-flooring wet-room branschregler. See gvk.se.
  • BBV (Byggkeramikrådets branschregler för våtrum) — tiling wet-room branschregler. See bkr.se.
  • Säker Vatten — plumbing and water-installation safety rules for wet rooms. See sakervatten.se.

Read this first. BBR (BFS 2011:6), including its 6:5 moisture-safety chapter, was replaced on 1 July 2025 by nine new subject-split Boverket regulations; BBR survives only as “BBR 31,” containing only the old energy-efficiency rules. The one-year transition window that let a job still cite old BBR numbers expired 1 July 2026. Confirm the current BFS regulation number for moisture safety directly at boverket.se before citing chapter and section to anyone, and get your actual wet-room figures from GVK, BBV or Säker Vatten as appropriate — not from a fixed BFS clause, since none exists.

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