Can a bespoke sofa be fire-approved?

In short. An upholstered piece made to measure can comply, and it does not need a fresh filing for every size. The route is series type approval: one model is tested in the laboratory as the reference, and the other models in the series follow without repeating the tests, provided they differ only in shape, size and the colour of the covering. What cannot change are the materials.

The question, as the consultants put it

A designer writes on behalf of a nightclub owner who is having sofas made to measure. The maker, he has been told, will hand over certificates for the leather and for the filling, and for the fire service that will do. His colleagues answer no, and they are right: a product is not classified by summing the properties of its components, unless all of them are declared non-combustible, and the technical rule for that venue calls for type-approved products.

All of that is correct. Then comes the conclusion, and that does not hold: «so the owner cannot use sofas made to measure? Unless he takes on the cost and the time of a type approval... absurd.» The thread ends there, and nobody says the conclusion is false.

Why the components' certificates are not enough

Type approval concerns the manufactured article, not the materials taken one by one. The test is run on the combination of filling, interlayer where present and covering, because behaviour in fire depends on how those three react together rather than on how each reacts alone. Two test reports, one for the leather and one for the foam, describe two materials: they do not describe a sofa.

The exception exists and is almost never any use: an article made entirely of materials on the list of those deemed class A1 without being tested — natural stone, glass, fired clay, metals — is irrelevant for reaction to fire, and a sofa does not reach that list. On what happens to the certificate when a covering is changed there is the guide to reupholstering.

Series type approval: one test, many models

Here is the part that, from the buyer's side, is written nowhere. A circular letter from the Italian Ministry of the Interior dated 30 December 1993, ref. 15580/4190, headed «Series type approval of upholstered furniture», allows a whole series to be approved in a single step on the strength of the certificate for one model only, chosen as the reference.

The conditions are precise:

• the series has its own commercial name and contains only upholstered furniture, no other articles or materials;
• every model must be classifiable for reaction to fire;
• every model has the same filling, interlayer and covering components, and yields identical test specimens;
• outside these cases you return to the ordinary procedure, model by model.

The certificate, with the test report, the technical sheet and the drawings, refers to a single model, identified by the name of the series and by a code of its own. The application is accompanied by a declaration from the maker's legal representative confirming those conditions and by drawings of all the other models; the laboratory records on those documents the reference to the certificate of the reference model, so that the fire service can trace it during an inspection. The same conditions were restated by a circular of 18 June 2004.

What may change inside the series, and what may not

Shape, size and the colour of the covering may change: the model declaration attached to the circular speaks of models differing only in shape and/or size and/or colour of the covering. It is consistent with an older circular, of 21 September 1985, under which the dimensions and shape of an armchair do not affect the test result, nor do the colour and pattern of the fabric, and the material of the frame is irrelevant for classification.

What may not change are the filling, interlayer and covering components. If one of the three changes, the test specimen is no longer identical and that model falls outside the series.

This is why «made to measure» and «type-approved» are not in contradiction. A sofa thirty centimetres longer, with a differently drawn arm, in the same fabric in another shade, stays inside the series and stays covered. The same sofa in a leather the designer sourced from another supplier does not.

One case to keep in mind: where a model in the collection has already been approved on its own, extension to the others does not travel this route and must be requested under the ordinary procedure.

When made to measure really does leave the series

Then a new test is needed, and the calendar is the one in the 1984 decree: adding up the terms it sets down, from application to certificate comes to around six months. It is the same calendar faced by anyone having to classify furniture that is already installed and uncertified. In a hotel contract six months is not a delay: it is a season. Which is why, on a contract project, the choice of materials is not a matter of taste to be settled at the end.

What to ask the supplier before signing

Four documents, and they are asked for at order stage, not on delivery:

• the type approval certificate for the reference model, with the test report;
• the declaration from the maker's legal representative on compliance with the conditions of the series;
• the drawings of the models in the series, including the one covering your contract;
• the declaration that the pieces delivered conform to that approved model.

If all that arrives is a test report for a fabric and one for a foam, what you are holding is not the type approval of a sofa. The full list of what must travel with the furniture is in the guide to the documents.

And in public entertainment venues?

The technical rule of 19 August 1996 requires class 1 IM for armchairs and upholstered furniture, and requires the materials to be type-approved under the decree of 26 June 1984. There is then a detail that gets misused: that same rule allows, where improving systems such as smoke extraction or automatic suppression are present, the use of materials one class above the one prescribed — but it expressly excludes upholstered furniture, which stays in class 1 IM in every case. On when class 1 IM is required in hotels there is the dedicated guide.

How we work

We make the upholstery in house, as we do the wood, the marble and the steel, and the approvals sit on our own models: a project that starts from them adapts to the dimensions of a bedroom without opening any file. When a piece falls outside the models, the route is decided before the drawing, because that is the only moment when there is still a choice.

In a hotel contract the value that weighs most is time: goods that comply, are certified and arrive on schedule mean an opening that does not slip. The moment all of this gets checked is the mock-up room; the route of a contract is in the Contract section, and the contacts reach whoever follows it.

Frequently asked questions

The maker says the leather and the filling are certified to class 1 IM. Is that enough?

No. Those two documents concern two materials, whereas classification is made on the manufactured article. The document to ask for is the type approval of the sofa, or of the reference model of the series it belongs to, with the declaration of conformity.

Can a bespoke sofa fall within a series that is already approved?

Yes, and that is the normal route. As long as only shape, size and the colour of the covering change, and the filling, interlayer and covering components stay identical, the model sits inside the series and needs no new test. The maker does have to have set the series up that way from the start.

How many models can a series contain?

The circular sets no number; it sets a condition more binding than a number, namely that the models must yield identical test specimens. Twenty sofas made with the same materials sit inside one series; two sofas with two different foams are two filings.

What if the designer insists on a fabric the maker has no approval for?

That piece leaves the series and returns to the ordinary procedure, with the laboratory times that entails. Which is why, on a contract with a deadline, the choice of covering has to be set against the available approvals before the specification is closed.

Talk to us The contract division

This page cites the circular letter of the Italian Ministry of the Interior of 30 December 1993, ref. 15580/4190 («Series type approval of upholstered furniture») and circular no. 27 MI.SA of 21 September 1985, ref. 19648/4190, on characteristics not essential to type approval; the conditions of the series are also restated by a circular of 18 June 2004. The reference to class 1 IM and to type approval in public entertainment venues is to point 2.3.2 of the Italian decree of 19 August 1996, where the allowance for improving systems expressly excludes armchairs and upholstered furniture. The list of materials deemed class A1 without testing is Annex C to the decree of 10 March 2005. The terms of the testing procedure are those of Art. 8.1 of the decree of 26 June 1984, and they are maximum terms rather than typical times. No prices, no response times, no company case histories. Assessing an individual case is for the professional who signs the filing and for the competent fire service command.