Hi,

We were looking into 'updating' our cafe area for the students.
Researching into getting old furniture like sofas and armchairs from 'freecycle', 'gumtree- freebies' and other similar sites that advertise furniture that's looking for a home. We would like to re-use unwanted furniture but are aware that there may be some health and safety issues.

If you could let me know what we should be looking out for before taking the advertised furniture, I would much appreciate it.


Agne

If you are procuring from a manufacturer or retail premises you would ask for furniture that conforms to BS 7176:2007, medium risk as detailed in the “Fire safety of furniture and furnishings in the contract and non-domestic sectors”.

But because the way you hope to procure the furniture it is more than likely it will be from a domestic source, in this case any upholstered furniture should conform to the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire Safety) Regulations 1988 (as amended in 1989, 1993 and 2010) and should carry a permanent label to prove it meets the above regulations. Finding the label can be difficult, start by turning the item upside down, because it can be fixed to the underside of the furniture and any detachable parts (cushions) should have its own label. Check out http://www.fira.co.uk/document/fira-flammability-guide-october-2011pdf.pdf for more information.