All furniture made since 1988 has to comply with the UK’s strict fire safety laws which have been credited with saving over 500 lives and countless thousands of potential injuries.  

(That said in recent years there has been increasing concern amongst Trading Standards officers that rogue traders are importing non-safe suites and selling them cheaply in markets etc.) 

When you have Covers or Re-Upholstery for your furniture the fabric should comply with these same regulations and there is plenty about that in the link on ‘What you need to know about fabric’.  There you will find information about the requirements and tests, and the important safety difference between normal covers and stretch. 

The other main consideration is the fillings.  Broadly the law requires that if an upholsterer replaces fillings, then he must replace them with Fire Retardant fillings.  The rub is he doesn’t actually have to replace the fillings, and it is dependent on the contract he has with you as to whether he does so.  

This is where the important difference between Re-Upholstery and Re-Cover comes in.  In the link on the ‘7 things you must know..’ I explain the difference – but importantly Re-Covering does not require any fillings to be replaced. 

To complicate matters even further, the law makes special provision for pre-1950’s 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. 

One of the main changes in the 1988 law was the banning of flammable Polyether foam and its replacement with the current non-FR foam which is considerably safer. 

One final and important consideration is that in addition to your own safety, you have a legal duty not to ‘supply’ non-compliant furniture – and this includes any furniture you have in premises which are let to someone else.  It will also affect re-selling of your furniture as no dealer can sell non-compliant furniture. 

Apart from the need to use the correct materials, for furniture to comply it must also carry the correct labels.  So naturally you're not going to want to go to the expense of re-upholstery only to find that the furniture does not comply because it does not have the necessary labels. (unfortunately the law puts no requirement on an upholsterer to put any labels on at all). 

It's for this reason that at Lynplan, Re-Upholstery means the removal of all the existing fillings – (unless in exceptional circumstances which we would discuss with you first) and replacement with FR materials, and the inclusion of the correct Fire Labels.  In this we are certainly the exception rather than the rule.

Important:  Comments about the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 (as amended) on this page and on this site are my opinion only, and no liability can be accepted for the information given.  Due to it's nature the Regulations and the interpretation of them by Trading Standards are complex, so if any issue is critical to you it is important you consult the regulations themselves or the very useful guide to the regulations published by BERR (formerly the DTI).

Picture at top:  Sofa with a Lynplan Tailored Cover in Waverley fabric, colour Zebra