Selling homemade soft furnishing

[Guest Alilou]

Hi, 

I'm hoping to start making and selling a range of furniture and soft furnishings however am slightly stumped when it comes to the fireproofing. 

I understand it needs to be fire safe and will need the relevant labels but how do I go about doing this? I've seen that you can buy spray bottles online of fireproofing stuff... But how do I know I've done a good enough job?! ? Plus there's the wadding/padding/stuffing to think about too... 

Also, some fabric suppliers state that their fabric meets the fire safe requirements. Would they then supply the labels too? (I will be sending some an email in a mo to check this with them too) but do I just buy the labels off amazon or something and sew them on? 

Obviously don't want to do anything wrong and definitely don't want to sell anything dangerous so any advice would be very much appreciated ?

[Tom Sutton]

You first need to understand the legislation check out https://www.firesafe.org.uk/furniture-and-furnishings-fire-safety-regulations-19881989-and-1993/ and the guide to the regulation contained therein (FIRA) this should simplify the understanding.

When you purchase materials you need to get documentation showing it meets the required standards and you need to hold on to it for five years to prove to trading standards, if required, it meets the required standards.

Display labels can be purchased online but the more important  permanent labels are bespoke to the particular items you are manufacturing and must be created by a printer on your instructions.

Using fire proofing spray is not recommended but there may be situations where there is no other solution.