Fabric fire safety regulations: a specifier's guide

Fabric fire safety regulations: a specifier's guide

What applies where, what the test names actually mean, and what to ask before you order.

Fire performance is the specification detail that stops projects. A fabric can be right on colour, right on hand, right on budget, and still be unusable because it carries the wrong certificate for the room it is going into.

The rules differ by country, by end use, and by whether the item is going into a home or a public building. This guide covers all of it, from UK domestic upholstery through to marine and aviation interiors.

Last reviewed: [31 July 2026]

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The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, amended in 1989, 1993, 2010 and 2025, govern domestic upholstered furniture supplied in the UK. They cover cover fabrics, filling materials and composites, along with labelling and record keeping.

In scope: upholstered seating, sofa beds, footstools, ottomans, bean bags and floor cushions, headboards, mattresses, divans, pillows, nursery furniture, garden furniture suitable for use indoors, permanent covers, and loose and stretch covers. Second-hand and re-covered furniture must meet the same requirements.

Out of scope: curtains, carpets, bedclothes including duvets, pillowcases, mattress protectors and sleeping bags. Furniture made before 1950 is excluded, as is furniture intended for export.

One point is regularly misread. For scatter cushions and seat pads, it is the filling material that falls under the Regulations, not the decorative cover. That is why a cushion fabric with no rating is not, in itself, a compliance problem, while the same fabric on a sofa is.

If you are re-covering upholstery made after 1950, the Regulations apply to the work. Your upholsterer is obliged to comply and will usually specify what they need from the fabric.

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The Schedule 3 interliner route

A cover fabric that passes the cigarette test and is at least 75 per cent natural fibre (cotton, linen, viscose, modal, silk or wool) can be used compliantly if a barrier cloth is fitted beneath it. This is how most fine printed linens and silks reach domestic upholstery legally, and it is worth budgeting for at the outset.

A word on flame retardant treatment

Treatment means either soaking or back-coating, and it does not suit every cloth. Very fine weaves, voiles, some polyesters, acetates and certain velvets can be damaged by it, and treatment can alter hand, drape and colour. Always order a treated sample before committing a full order.

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The 1988 Regulations are being reformed. Amendments already in force since October 2025 removed certain baby and children's products from scope, removed the display label requirement on new products, and extended the enforcement window from six to twelve months.

A further consultation ran to 23 June 2026. The proposals move the regime towards a smoulder-based test, introduce more flexible testing routes, and adjust scope, with the stated aim of maintaining fire safety while reducing reliance on chemical flame retardants. Most significantly for specifiers, the consultation proposes removing the open flame ignition test, the first time that has been put forward since 1988. The industry response has been split.

The government response and transition timeline are expected later in 2026. Nothing has changed yet for products on the market today. We will update this page when the final position is published.

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Domestic rules are the floor, not the ceiling. Non-domestic seating is normally specified to BS 7176, which sets hazard levels:

• Low hazard: cigarette and match. Offices, schools, museums.
• Medium hazard: cigarette, match and Crib 5. Hotel bedrooms and public areas, restaurants, most commercial work.
• High hazard: Crib 7. Prisons, secure accommodation, certain healthcare settings.

Curtains and drapes in contract settings are specified to BS 5867 Part 2. Type B covers general contract use, Type C applies to higher risk areas such as escape routes and healthcare.

Wallcoverings are treated as an interior lining and classified under BS EN 13501-1, which gives a Euroclass from A1 down to F, with a smoke suffix (s1 to s3) and a flaming droplet suffix (d0 to d2). B-s1,d0 is the common contract requirement. You will still see the older Class 0 designation from BS 476 Parts 6 and 7 in legacy specifications. Decorative wallcoverings sold in the UK and EU carry their reaction to fire class under BS EN 15102.

The practical rule on contract work: the fire strategy, not the fabric book, decides what you need. Get the requirement in writing from the fire consultant before you order.

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There is no single EU-wide flammability law equivalent to the UK's Regulations for domestic furniture. Requirements are set nationally and, for public buildings, through building codes and the project fire strategy. Items falling outside specific rules are covered by the General Product Safety Regulation.

The test methods you will see quoted:

• EN 1021-1 and EN 1021-2: ignitability of upholstered seating by smouldering cigarette and by match flame equivalent. Routinely specified for hotels, restaurants and other public interiors.
• EN 13501-1: reaction to fire classification for wall and ceiling linings, the same Euroclass system used in the UK.
• EN 13773: classification for curtains and drapes, sorting fabrics into five classes based on flame spread, drawing on the EN 1102 and EN 13772 test methods.

For UK-based specifiers working on European projects, EN 1021 is a lower bar than Crib 5. A fabric certified to EN 1021-2 is not automatically acceptable on a UK contract job.

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The US operates a smoulder-only regime for residential furniture, which is a genuinely different philosophy from the UK's open flame approach.

16 CFR Part 1640 has been the federal standard since 25 June 2021. It incorporates California Technical Bulletin 117-2013, which tests the smoulder resistance of cover fabrics, barrier materials and filling. Labelling requirements followed from 25 June 2022, requiring a permanent label stating compliance with CPSC requirements for upholstered furniture flammability. Note that the federal rule refers to the 2013 version specifically, so later revisions of the California bulletin do not change the federal requirement.

There is no open flame test for residential furniture in the US. A fabric that passes TB 117-2013 has not been tested to anything comparable to Crib 5.

For contract work:

• NFPA 701: flame propagation for textiles and films. The standard requirement for curtains and drapery in commercial buildings.
• ASTM E84: the Steiner tunnel test, giving Class A, B or C for interior wall finishes including wallcoverings. Class A is the usual hospitality requirement. Room corner tests to NFPA 265 or NFPA 286 are sometimes called up instead for textile wallcoverings.
• California TB 133: a full-scale seating test still specified on some public occupancy projects and by some insurers, though its use has narrowed. Check whether your project actually requires it before pricing for it.

One chemical point matters for US specification. California restricts the use of added flame retardant chemicals in upholstered furniture, so US contract specifications increasingly ask for inherently flame retardant fabrics rather than treated ones. This is worth raising early, because it rules out the back-coating route that would solve the same problem in the UK.

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Gulf projects generally work to internationally recognised standards rather than a regional test regime of their own, with approval handled at project level.

In the UAE, the Fire and Life Safety Code of Practice is enforced by Civil Defence and draws heavily on NFPA standards. Civil Defence review forms part of design approval, and sign-off is part of bringing a building into use, so interior materials are approved as part of the project submission rather than certified once nationally. Saudi Arabia works to the Saudi Building Code, which sits in the ICC and IBC family, again with Civil Defence approval. Qatar operates through the Qatar Civil Defence Department.

In practice this means specifications on Gulf hospitality projects are written either to NFPA and ASTM standards or to British Standards, depending on the consultant. The question to ask before ordering is simple: which standard is the project approved against, and does the certificate need to be in the submission package? Getting a certificate reissued after material has shipped is slow and expensive.

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Yacht and private aviation interiors work to their own regimes, and general contract certification does not transfer.

For vessels under SOLAS, the reference is the IMO 2010 FTP Code, adopted under Resolution MSC.307(88):

• Part 5: surface flammability for bulkhead, ceiling and deck finish materials, which is where wallcoverings and panel fabrics sit.
• Part 7: vertically supported textiles and films, covering curtains and draperies. Flame retardant treated products are tested both before and after ten full cleaning and drying cycles, which rules out many topically treated cloths.
• Part 8: upholstered furniture, tested as a composite of cover and filling rather than fabric alone, using a smouldering cigarette and a propane burner tube.
• Part 9: bedding components.

Materials meeting these tests can be type approved and carry the wheelmark. Testing the composite rather than the cloth is the detail that catches people out: approval belongs to a specific fabric and foam combination, not to the fabric on its own.

Private aviation interiors are specified to the airworthiness requirements applying to the aircraft, typically vertical burn testing under FAR or CS 25.853, with the completion centre setting the requirement.

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Four things to check before you commit:

• Which test, and which ignition source. "Fire retardant" on its own means nothing. Crib 5 and EN 1021-2 are not equivalent.
• Whether the rating is inherent or applied. Inherently FR fabrics hold their performance for life. Treated fabrics can lose it through cleaning, and treatment may need reapplying after wet cleaning.
• Whether the certificate covers the composite. For marine and some contract work, the fabric was tested over a specific filling.
• The date and reference number. Certificates expire and get reissued. A specification package needs a current one.

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We hold test certification for the fire-rated products in our collection and can supply documentation for any product we sell, including composite certificates where they exist. For contract, hospitality, marine and aviation projects we can advise on which of our fabrics, wallcoverings and leathers meet a given standard, and arrange flame retardant treatment where a cloth is suitable for it.

If you are working to a fire strategy and need to know what is viable before you present to a client, send us the requirement and we will come back with options.

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Frequently asked questions

Do curtains need to be fire rated in the UK?

Not in a private home. Curtains sit outside the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations. In contract settings they are normally specified to BS 5867 Part 2, usually Type B.

Does a scatter cushion fabric need a fire rating?

For scatter cushions and seat pads, the Regulations apply to the filling material rather than the decorative cover. The same fabric used on a sofa or armchair is treated differently.

What is the difference between match tested and Crib 5?

Both come from BS 5852 but use different ignition sources. Match tested uses a small flame and meets the requirement for normal domestic upholstery. Crib 5 uses a timber crib, is far more severe, and is the usual requirement for hotels, restaurants and other public buildings.

Can any fabric be treated to make it fire retardant?

No. Treatment suits many fabrics but not all. Very fine weaves, voiles, some polyesters and acetates, and certain velvets can be affected. Treatment can also change hand, drape and colour, so always see a treated sample first.

Is a US TB 117-2013 certificate accepted in the UK?

No. TB 117-2013 tests smoulder resistance only. UK domestic upholstery requires open flame testing under the current Regulations, and contract work usually requires Crib 5.

Are the UK regulations changing?

Yes. Amendments took effect in October 2025 and a consultation on wider reform closed in June 2026, with proposals including a move to a smoulder-based test. The government response is expected later in 2026. Current requirements still apply until reformed regulations come into force.