Is a sofa bed approved with or without the mattress?

In short. It depends which of the two objects you have bought. If the sofa takes a separate mattress, the type approval of the sofa is issued without the mattress, and the mattress carries a certificate of its own: there are two documents. If instead the mattress forms the seat and the back — the «ready» model — the piece is tested twice, as upholstered furniture and as a mattress, and takes the worse of the two classes.

Why the checks stop at this piece

Anyone looking for the answer online finds catalogues. «Fire-rated sofa beds, type-approved class 1 IM» appears on dozens of sales pages, and none of them says what that document actually covers. The real question — is the mattress inside the sofa included in the type approval of the sofa, or not? — is written down nowhere, and it is the first thing the fire service command looks for in the file of a bedroom with a sofa bed.

The answer sits in a circular of the Italian fire service department dated 16 October 2002, number 13, and in the resolution attached to it: a document nobody reads from the buyer’s side.

Two different objects that go by the same name

The circular opens by drawing a distinction, and the distinction is the whole page.

A sofa bed, or an armchair bed, is the upholstered piece inside which a separate approved mattress can be placed. Here the approval is issued for the product without the mattress: the mattress is an object in its own right, it goes in and comes out, and it carries its own document.

A ready sofa bed, or ready armchair bed, is one in which the mattress itself forms the seat and the back. There is nothing to insert: the mattress is the sofa. The circular requires a product of this kind to be placed on the market as a finished product, and allows the seat and the back to be made of separate or different mattresses.

Two objects, two testing regimes, two kinds of file. The same commercial name.

The model with a separate mattress: two documents, not one

If the piece is of this kind, a type approval of the sofa in class 1 IM is both correct and insufficient: by construction it says nothing about the mattress. The attached resolution is explicit: the same test procedures apply to the removable mattress as well, and the furniture and the mattress receive separate certificates.

This is not a formality. The technical rule for hotels, at point 6.2 of the decree of 9 April 1994, requires upholstered furniture and mattresses to be class 1 IM, and it names the two categories separately: a sofa bed belongs to both. When the mattress document is missing, what is missing is not an attachment: it is the reaction to fire class of one of the two surfaces people sleep on.

Hence two symmetrical mistakes: accepting the approval of the sofa in the belief that it extends to its contents; or buying the mattresses separately, from another supplier, and not asking for their documents because «the sofa is certified». The requirement does not move; only the person answerable for it changes.

The «ready» model: two tests, and the worse one wins

For ready models, resolution no. 35 of 15 October 2002 sets a rule with no equivalent elsewhere in reaction to fire. The product is tested twice: as upholstered furniture, with any removable cover, and as a mattress without its removable cover. The class assigned is the worse of the two results.

The logic is simple: the same object is in service in two configurations, closed by day and open by night, and it would make no sense to classify it in the one that performs better. For the buyer it means the class cannot be reached by working on only one of the two parts: an assembly that as a sofa would pass without difficulty is classified by its worse face.

The line you can check in ten seconds

The circular requires the type approval to carry, under the heading «impiego» (intended use), the designation DIVANO-LETTO. It is the quickest check in the file: if under intended use the certificate says «mobile imbottito», «poltrona» or «materasso», that document is not the type approval of a sofa bed, whatever the delivery note says. Why the declared use counts for more than the name of the product is covered in the guide on approval for a different end use.

One series, many models: which drawings are needed

Sofa beds may be approved individually or as a series, following the note of 30 December 1993: the route by which a bespoke piece can comply without a fresh filing. The circular adds a condition of its own: every possible configuration has to be illustrated with plans, elevations and sections showing the position of the mattress and any supporting structure.

Extension from models or series already approved is also allowed, within the limits of circular no. 27 of 21 September 1985: differences of size, shape, colour and pattern of the covering, with a written undertaking from the maker to use the same filling, interlayer and covering materials as the reference model. Outside those limits you go back to the test.

And in healthcare buildings?

The 2002 circular arises from a requirement in the technical rule for healthcare buildings, the decree of 18 September 2002, which at point 3.2 names armchair beds and sofa beds expressly among the upholstered furniture to be brought to class 1 IM, asks for the same class for mattresses, and requires those materials to be type-approved under the decree of 26 June 1984, save for the cases in Article 10. For care homes there is the dedicated guide; for student housing, where a sofa bed often furnishes a common room, the one on student housing furniture.

What to ask the supplier, at order stage

Five things, asked before the order is confirmed rather than on delivery:

• which of the two types the piece is: with a separate mattress, or «ready»;
• if it takes a separate mattress, the type approval of the furniture and, separately, that of the mattress that goes into it;
• if it is «ready», the certificate carrying the designation DIVANO-LETTO under intended use, with the class assigned;
• the drawings of the configuration ordered, showing the position of the mattress and any supporting structure;
• the declaration that the pieces delivered conform to the approved model.

The full list of what must travel with the furniture is in the guide to the documents; what gets attached to the filing and what stays in the dossier, in the one on the test report.

How we work

We make the upholstery in house, as we do the wood, the marble and the steel, and we treat a sofa bed for what it is: two objects and two files, settled on the drawing rather than on delivery. 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 supplier sends me the class 1 IM approval of the sofa bed. Is that enough?

It depends on the type. If the sofa takes a separate mattress, no: that certificate is issued for the product without the mattress, and the mattress has its own, to be asked for separately. If the piece is a «ready» model, a single document is correct, but it must carry the designation DIVANO-LETTO under intended use.

We buy the mattresses ourselves, separately. Does that change anything?

It changes who is answerable, not the requirement. The rule asks for mattresses in class 1 IM whoever orders them: if you buy them, you collect the documents, and they go into the dossier with the rest.

Can we replace the mattress after opening?

If it is separate, you replace it with another approved mattress and the new document goes into the dossier in place of the old one. On a «ready» model the mattress is part of the article that was tested: touching it is like changing a component of an approved upholstered piece, and the guide on reupholstering sets out where that line runs.

And if the brand standard asks for CRIB 5?

The comparison between the Italian class and the British system is in the dedicated guide. Whichever system applies, a sofa bed is still two things, and the question to the supplier does not change: one document for the furniture and one for the mattress, or a single document declaring the right intended use.

Talk to us The contract division

This page cites circular no. 13 of 16 October 2002, ref. DCPST/A5/360/3113, of the Italian fire service department («Type approval of sofa beds and armchair beds for reaction to fire») and resolution no. 35 of 15 October 2002 attached to it, read in the document published by the department. The definitions of sofa bed and ready sofa bed, the rule of the two tests with the worse class assigned, the DIVANO-LETTO designation under intended use and the drawings required for the configurations of a series come from those two texts. The requirement of class 1 IM for upholstered furniture and mattresses in accommodation premises is at point 6.2 of the Italian decree of 9 April 1994; for healthcare buildings, at point 3.2 of the decree of 18 September 2002, which refers to type approval under the decree of 26 June 1984 and to the cases in Article 10. Series type approval is that of the circular letter of 30 December 1993, ref. 15580/4190; the limits of extension are those of circular no. 27 MI.SA of 21 September 1985, ref. 19648/4190. No prices, no response times, no company case histories, none of our own certifications cited. Assessing an individual case is for the professional who signs the filing and for the competent fire service command.