Q Storage of furniture in garage. We need to store a pair of armchairs in our garage. Do you know of any way or product that means I can protect the chairs from both dust and dirt as well as damp?

A Assuming the chairs are of reasonable value I would suggest it may be your reader's best option to purchase purpose made chair covers. Although these are generally used by the trade to transport furniture, they are also ideal for storage. They are made from a tough fabric, are padded and will protect furniture of all kinds from damage, dust, dirt etc and to some extent, damp. (These are available from Haywood Leeds www.haywoodleeds.co.uk - They will sell to the public) However, storage in damp conditions should be avoided for a number of reasons: Many upholstered items are buttoned in some way and in most cases the button tops (moulds) are made from steel, which can corrode resulting in discolouration of the covering fabric. This is particularly noticeable where the covering is light. Some chemical treatments used to fire retard furniture are 'Hygroscopic' which means they have a tendency to absorb moisture from the air. If you have to store the furniture in the garage, raise it off the floor by placing 75 x 50 timbers under the chairs to keep the feet and / or castors of the floor. It is perfectly acceptable in most cases to top one chair on top of the other. (One right way up, the other upside down, though flattening of the arms can occur over a period of time. Ideally chairs should be stored with nothing on top of them.) AMUSF

Q I am having difficulty disposing of my sofa which I purchased in 1992. A second-hand dealer has refused to buy it from me as he has said the law forbids him to purhcase it, is this correct? Am I also right in assuming that I cannot give this away to a charity? Please help.

A All furniture manufactured in the UK after February 1988 is required to comply with the Furniture & Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, which means both cover fabric and filling must comply with the strict requirements of the legislation i.e. it must be fire retardant. Therefore, if you purchased NEW furniture in 1992 it should comply in full and should bear a label somewhere, possibly underneath, which indicates compliance. If the furniture is found to comply, then your second-hand dealer is at liberty to purchase it from you and sell it on, but without proof of compliance he would be sensible to reject your offer as he would have to prove compliance to re-sell.

If the furniture was originally manufactured prior to 1988, it is most likely that it does not comply and the dealer will not be able to purchase it and re-sell it, the exception being if it was manufactured prior to 1950 which would mean it falls outside the scope of the legislation. If the furniture was recovered at some time since its original manufacture in 1992 and the original labels were removed then it should still comply as all materials supplied or added to furniture during the re-upholstery / recovery process should comply. However, there is no requirement for the re-upholsterer to affix labels in such cases. If this is the case you should contact the upholsterer and ask him to confirm in writing that the furniture complies with the Regulations.

Some charities do collect and distribute furniture for the needy but they too should comply with the Regulations and in such cases they will be looking for evidence of compliance in the form of a label. In any event, you are entitled to sell the furniture in your local paper provided you are not selling in the course of business, in other words, the furniture is sold as part of a private transaction. But at the end of the day, if it does not comply it is safer to remove it from the supply chain by either complete re-upholstery or by disposal via your local authority. AMUSF.

Q Can I, as a private customer, supply my own cover to my upholsterer for use in the restoration of my furniture?

A Yes, most upholsterers and soft furnishers will use your cover, but you may pay more as they will in most cases charge extra for using your cloth due to the fact that they will be deprived of the profit they would normally enjoy if they were to supply it.

More importantly, if you supply the cloth and it fails to perform as expected, you will have no recourse against the upholsterer or soft furnisher unless of course they have failed in some way to use the fabric correctly. If the fabric is at fault, you will, in such circumstances be facing the prospect of fighting the fabric supplier on one hand and paying for the work to be done for a second time.

Most fabrics are available via your approved upholsterer or soft furnisher, you are advised therefore to let your choice of craftsman supply the cover. AMUSF

TIP - If you do supply your own cover, ensure your upholsterer understands which side of the cloth is the wear side or face side. Many fabrics currently on the market are reversible and to avoid errors you should check. Also ensure you have checked the cloth before use for colour and quality - This is your responsibility, not the upholsterers.

Q I am having a new suite made by a leading manufacturer who is insisting that the fabric I am supplying is Fire Retardant and that it is supplied with proof of that fact. Is this right?

A This is a grey area. Strictly speaking, if you supply the cover in a private capacity as an individual not in the course of business then the supply is your responsibility. However, when making new furniture it is generally accepted that the cover will form part of the supply of new furniture and the 'NEW' furniture must comply in all respects with the "Furniture & Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988". The advice therefore is to ensure the fabric you supply is up to specification; choose from the manufacturers ranges, or arrange to have the fabric treated to the correct specification. AMUSF

Q Is it legal to use a customer's own fabric if you suspect it is non FR?

A Generally speaking if a client supplies his or her own fabric whilst not in the course of business of theirs, in other words the fabric is for a private job for their own use in a private capacity, then there is no obligation on you as a contractor to insist that the cloth is FR. However, it is good practice to bring to the consumer's attention the dangers of using non FR material.

A further consideration is that if the client later tries to sell the furniture via an auction house or agent, a certificate or other proof that the furniture meets the legislation will be required.

Where it can be proved that furniture has been originally manufactured prior to 1950 then the furniture is outside scope of the Furniture & Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 and there is no requirement to comply.

If an Interior Designer supplies cover for you o undertake work on his/her behalf then the fabric must meet the requirements as the designer is supplying in a business capacity. Compliance is possible by treating the fabric or by using a Schedule 3 Interliner, but only when the final covering is over 75% by weight of specified natural fibres.

In rented accommodation all furniture manufactured or reupholstered since 1950 must comply as to let a property including furniture is to supply in the course of business .AMUSF

Q Can I spray my existing non compliant furniture to bring it up to the Regulations?
A I'm afraid not. It is acknowledged that a spray is better than no treatment at all, but it is no substitute for properly treated fabric and filling. In any event, we know of no spray that will penetrate the cover whilst in situ and render the foam and other fillings Fire Retardant, and even if the treatment was believed to work, there is no way to prove it. A further problem with this is the wide variety of furniture still in the market having been upholstered in a multitude of different ways using different materials, so it would be impossible to predict how effective the spray would be on such a wide variety of composites. AMUSF