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All fabrics used for Covers must meet the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire Safety) regulations (as amended). The law was brought in during 1988 following the terrible fire in Manchester, and has been credited with saving over 500 lives so far and preventing thousands more injuries. The Furniture Fire Safety laws in the UK are the most stringent in the world. One constant battle the authorities have is unscrupulous importers bringing in non-fire-safe suites from abroad and selling them cheaply in the UK. The requirement is basically that the fabric will resist a burning cigarette or match when over a flammable foam i.e. the charred fabric will form a barrier protecting what is beneath. The test for Stretch fabrics is simply that it will not itself catch fire, so it melts and shrinks away (because of the stretch), exposing whatever is beneath. For Re-Upholstery fabrics, everything supplied by the upholsterer must meet the requirements although fabrics supplied by the customer may not have to. However we would strongly advise against using non-complying materials for your own safety, and because it would significantly reduce the value of the furniture if you ever wanted to dispose of it. The law puts no requirement on an upholsterer to put any labels on any of the furniture he covers. | |||||
| There are three main ways that a fabric may be made fire retardant: By the inclusion of inherently fire retardant yarns In my opinion by far the best, as the drape, handle and usability of the fabric are unaffected. Unfortunately this is also the most expensive solution and the FR yarns are only available in a limited range of colours and textures so restricting design choice to some extent. By Back-coating this is where a Fire retardant coating is applied to the back of the fabric to give protection. It can sometimes make the fabric stiffer and drape less well. A more troublesome problem occurs where a design house stocks their fabric non-FR, then has your length treated to meet the regulations. Sometimes (not always by any means) the coating is rather heavily applied so that they can be sure it will comply. This can result in a stiff and unyielding fabric which is a far cry from what you saw in the pattern book. However many pattern books these days include an example of back-coating on one of the fabrics, usually at the back of the book. Dipping with fabrics with high natural fibre content can be dipped in a chemical which bonds to the fibre and gives a feel to the fabric not much different to the original. However the chemical can alter the colour of pigments and can reduce the strength of the cloth. When non-fire retardant fabric can be used: Recognising that the fire regulations could put severe restrictions on the use of fabrics (particularly as at the time the regulations were launched the art of FR treating of fabrics was in its infancy) a provision was made for certain fabrics to be used over a 'barrier' cloth. In essence if a fabric contains over 75% natural fibres, then it need not be FR treated if the piece of furniture is upholstered first in a barrier cloth. This is a Fire Retardant cloth with a higher degree of fire resistance than that required for normal domestic furniture. There are also certain accepted practices for cushions - generally scatter cushions under 20" x 20" (50cm x 50cm) do not have to be made out of FR fabric (so you can use a curtain fabric for instance), and loose dining chair cushions also do not have to be FR - although upholstered seats on dining cushions do. To complicate matters even further, the law makes special provision for pre-1950s furniture. This is to protect their antique nature and in fairness, the main villain of the piece polyether foam was not used in this furniture | |||||
| James Erskine Church Hill Place Edinburgh Scotland EH10 4BD Tel:044 01314473135 Fax:044 01314470408 Email:norman.laidlaw@james-erskine.co.uk Copyright © James Erskine 2012 | |||||
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