Housing Construction Eliminates Precast Slabs

The elimination of precast slabs in housing construction is mainly based on two aspects: safety factors and policy guidance.

Safety Factors

• Almost zero earthquake resistance: Precast slabs have poor integrity, similar to building a house with building blocks. After the brick walls are built, cement slabs are directly placed on top with few firm steel bar connections. During an earthquake, the floor slabs and walls are prone to instant separation, with entire slabs falling directly without any crack warnings or deformation buffers, leaving little chance for escape. In past earthquakes, precast slab houses have suffered severe collapses and high casualty rates.
• Extremely fragile connection points: Precast slabs are simply connected to the walls, and the gaps between slabs are simply filled without ring beams or structural columns, resulting in the entire house lacking a rigid framework. When the foundation settles or the walls crack, the slabs will shift and loosen. Over time, the connection points weather, the steel bars rust, and their strength decreases. In old houses, after living for two or three decades, the floor slabs may become precarious and prone to chain collapses with even slight external forces.
• Frequent use of substandard materials: In regular precast slabs, the steel bars are thin, but small workshops use thin steel wires instead of steel bars to save money. The concrete grades do not meet the standards, and the thickness is insufficient. Although they look like cement slabs, they actually crack easily when hit. Precast slabs are brittle and can break instantly when overloaded without any warning. Daily activities such as stacking heavy objects, hitting the floor during renovations, and long-term aging can all cause sudden collapses.
• Poor sound insulation: The sound insulation of precast slabs is very poor. You can clearly hear what is happening upstairs, even with a single bottom slab, which affects the privacy and comfort of living.
• Prone to cracking and water leakage: The gaps between precast slabs are placed on the walls. Even with ring beams, they are far less safe than cast-in-place structures. Although they are usually filled, they will eventually crack and leak water over time, causing inconvenience to residents' lives.

Policy Guidance

• The "15th Five-Year Plan for Urban Renewal" issued by the State Council in 2026 proposes to renovate more than 500,000 sets (rooms) of C- and D-grade dangerous housing, precast slab houses, and non-complete housing, steadily promoting the governance and renovation of precast slab houses rather than a complete demolition.
• The "Notice on Several Measures to Further Support Urban Renewal Actions" jointly issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in January 2026 sets two limits on "demolition": within an urban renewal unit, the demolished floor area shall not exceed 20% of the current total floor area in principle; the demolition-to-construction ratio of the project shall not be greater than 2, limiting large-scale demolitions and constructions.
• Whether to demolish or not mainly depends on the housing safety appraisal report issued by a qualified institution. According to the "Standard for Dangerous Housing Appraisal" (JGJ 125 - 2016), houses are classified into four grades: A, B, C, and D. Grade D houses have inadequate load-bearing structures and are overall dangerous, so they should be demolished as much as possible; Grade C houses have partial load-bearing structures that do not meet safety requirements and are locally dangerous, so they can be repaired and reinforced, rebuilt, renovated, or demolished and rebuilt on the original site.