I have this three piece suite to use in my home and there is no
label to prove that it has been flame retarded. I have been told that
you can buy chemical to spray on the furniture to comply with the regulations.
Is this correct?
This is not correct, remember that any treatment must be resistant
to a thirty minute water soak test as well as achieve the correct levels
of flame retardancy. In addition the foam, which can be deadly, may
not be combustion modified. Further, compositions of fabrics vary, synthetic
materials abound. We treat fabrics of differing compositions with a
chemical designed to protect that particular type of material. However
if the furniture is over 50 years old then you have no problem with
flame retardancy regulations.
I have purchased some curtain material for use in an hotel. I was
told that the fabric was already flame retarded. However, I put a match
to the edge of an off cut of material and it burned, have I been deceived?
Not necessarily, contrary to popular belief the curtain test is not
an edge test. It is true that some fire officers do on site tests by
putting the flame to the edge of a curtain material. They are trained
to keep the match flame a certain distance away from the edge. The British
Standard BS 5867 calls for a face burn with a controlled propane gas
flame for 15 seconds. It may help to fold a sample of the material and
apply a lighter flame to the fold, this is only an approximation of
the results achieved under controlled conditions in a laboratory.
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