Flame Retardant Upholstered Furniture

Colin

Well-Known Member
Anyone have experience with flame retardant treatments for cushioned, upholstered furniture?

My fire marshal has so far signed off on allowing a sofa here and an armchair there without treatment. But, I just got him to accept my hazard assessment/safety plan for putting candles on stage for the first time here, and if we're to continue making headway in these respects I expect him to at some point want us to start FRing more things when flame is present on stage (and I would want to do it regardless in some cases).

With all the bad press around FR chemicals in residential furniture in the past year, and lots of manufacturers phasing it out, it is getting harder to find affordable FR furniture that doesn't look like a cheap hotel lobby. Plus, I don't know how residential FR treatment compares to theatrical standards anyway. Same or less stringent?

Who out there has been treating their furniture? Do you just treat the fabric, or do you have a method for treating the nasty foam inside? So far the FR foams I've found for sale are incredibly expensive. How about a non-combustible and air-tight barrier of some kind between the foam and an FR slip cover, sort of like what people use to keep the bed bugs out? Not sure what would work or what is done elsewhere.
 
It used to be the wild west here, (NYC) for small theaters, now we are required by FDNY to treat all curtains, masking, new wood, paint and soft furniture - we spray the surface. Our proscenium curtain is certified. As we do lots of shows much of the furniture gets reused (it lasts one year). The last few shows were all hard furniture and just the paint was treated.

We do not allow open flames or blank gunfire.
 
There are FR sprays around. Check with the company that does your extinguishers. I've even made one up from scratch, but I doubt any FM would allow use of it, even out here in the really wild west.
 
There are FR sprays around. Check with the company that does your extinguishers. I've even made one up from scratch, but I doubt any FM would allow use of it, even out here in the really wild west.
We can only use FRs sanctioned by FDNY. And you must keep a log.
 
We can only use FRs sanctioned by FDNY. And you must keep a log.

Yeah, I'm looking for something E-84 compliant that someone has had approved by their FM for soft furniture. I guess just spraying upholstery should be satisfactory, but just wondered if anyone has been treating cushion foam too. Yesterday I had a thought about trying FlexCoat, but I've never actually put it on anything nearly as flexible as cushion foam so I don't know if it would work. And I don't feel a strong need to go above and beyond if in NYC spraying the surface is deemed adequate.
 

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