Standards
Care home and nursing home furniture: which fire class is required?
In an Italian care home above 25 beds, upholstery and mattresses must be Class 1 IM and unupholstered chairs Class 2. Which documents to ask for.
Guides
The answers, in full
The questions we are asked most often by designers, general contractors and site managers, answered by the people who make the pieces. No theory: what you need to know before writing a specification or signing an order.
Standards
Class 1 IM or Crib 5? Which certificate hotel furniture actually needs
Class 1 IM and Crib 5 are not the same: what Italian homologation asks for, what BS 7176 asks for, and why one certificate does not replace the other.
Contract
Why a sofa has no Euroclass
Euroclasses do not exist for upholstered furniture: where the line runs between furnishing and construction product, and how to specify it.
Standards and documents
The approval names a different end use: does it count?
What a Class 1 IM approval actually certifies, which differences between certificate and delivery leave it valid, and which ones void it altogether.
Contract
Which paperwork comes with hotel furniture
Test report, homologation, declaration of conformity: which documents must arrive with hotel furniture, who signs what, and what if one is missing.
Contract
Who takes the measurements for hotel furniture
Site survey, shop drawings and tolerances: who is answerable for the dimensions of bespoke hotel furniture, and when the survey should happen.
Standards
How to write a furniture specification clause for a hotel
"Fire retardant" and "contract grade" specify nothing. The four parts of a verifiable clause, with ready wordings, material by material.
Contract
What a hotel mock-up room decides
A mock-up room is not a preview: once approved it becomes the standard every other room is judged against. What to decide, and what to record.
Contract
How much does it cost to furnish a hotel room
A hotel room starts at 4,000 euro: what that figure includes piece by piece, what pushes it up, and why the price differs between who makes it and who resells it.
Materials
How many Martindale rubs does a hotel sofa need?
Upholstery is tested at 12 kPa and a rub count without its pressure is not comparable; the real requirements sit in EN 14465, and swapping the fabric voids the Class 1 IM certificate.
Standards
Pillows, cushions and bed linen: which ones need a reaction-to-fire class?
Two different lists: Italy's 1994 hotel decree does not name pillows or bedding, while the 2015 Fire Prevention Code lists them item by item.
Contract and certification
Does reupholstery void the fire certificate?
Recovering or re-padding a certified armchair: when Italian Class 1 IM approval lapses, what may be replaced, and what the file must contain.
Standards
Student housing furniture: what Italian rules actually require
Which Italian rules actually apply to furniture in student housing, which reaction-to-fire class is required, and how to write the specification.
Contract
What fire certificate does marine upholstery need?
The IMO certificate does not belong to the fabric but to the cover-and-filling combination. What to ask a supplier, and why treatments expire.
Materials
Custom leather sofas: which leather to choose
Aniline, semi-aniline or protected, what “spessorata” means, and how the choice changes between home and hotel.
Contract
When to order hotel furniture to open on time
A hotel FF&E programme phase by phase, counted backwards from the opening date, and the three places where the time actually goes: none of them is manufacturing.
Contract
Class 1 IM furniture for hotels: what is actually required
Where Italian fire regulations require it, why an approved fabric is not an approved sofa, and which documents to ask your supplier for before delivery.
Site
Fitting furniture on a live site: who coordinates, and who answers
On a live site the fitting firm needs suitability documents, a POS and coordination by the execution coordinator; once the site is closed article 26 and the DUVRI apply.
Contract
Supply and install, or a works contract? What warranty you have on the furniture
Eight days and one year in a sale, sixty days and two years under a works contract: how the order is classified and what warranty follows.
Contract
The furniture handover report: what to write in it
An unreserved signature accepts the defects you can see: the twelve lines of a report that holds, and how to write a reservation.
Contract
Is the balance due on delivery or on acceptance?
Under Italian law the price falls due when the work is accepted. Why an advance and a payment for a portion do not carry the same weight.
Standards
Does my hotel follow the 1994 decree or the 2015 Fire Code?
Italian hotels still have two fire-safety routes. How to tell them apart in the documents, and what actually changes for the furniture.
Standards
Is my fire certificate still valid?
An Italian type-approval lasts five years and lapses on any change to the product: how to read the conformity mark, and the four checks to run at order stage.
Standards
Italian student housing: what furniture the decree asks for
The decree sets the square metres, not the furniture, and the call does not reimburse it: minimum areas, no bunk beds, and furnishings that must appear on the drawings.
Materials
The fabric is pilling after six months: is it a defect?
The EN ISO 12945 pilling grade measures a change, not an appearance, and three machines give grades that do not compare; the specification has it assessed at 2,000 cycles, not fifty thousand.
Standards and documents
The furniture arrived without fire certificates: what now?
Article 10 of the 1984 Italian decree allows furniture already installed to be classified, but it points to the same Article 8.1 stages: the laboratory time is a fresh type approval’s, so it is no shortcut. What actually differs between the routes.