As a rule of thumb, you cannot (legally) use residential wallpaper in commercial spaces. The reason why is because, for the most part, it’s not Class A Fire Rated.
Commercial buildings have fire safety codes that state that all wall treatments need to be Class A, ASTM E84 compliant. Commercial wallcovering goes through a series of tests that measure how fast it burns and how much smoke it generates, to get this certification.
You must produce proof of this to the Fire Marshal should you be asked for it. They usually do this for new construction and remodels but perform random inspections from time to time.
What happens if your wallcoverings are not Class A Fire Rated? Well, let us give you a real-life example of what happened to a club owner.
Story Time…
It’s 3PM on a Friday and everyone in the office is barely working, thinking about weekend plans. We get a call from Arizona and it’s from a club owner who is having a grand opening in a week. The theme of his club is Roaring 1920s Great Gatsby. He wants to decorate the insides and bathroom with ornate black and white damask wallpaper and purchased the exact pattern he liked from Europe.
What he didn’t know is that Europe has different fire standards than the United States. When the Tucson Fire Marshal did his inspection, he asked for the Class A Fire certificates or proof (usually these days they are digital). He could not provide that and the Fire Marshal made him rip $10,000 worth of wallpaper down and start over.
He calls us panicking because he has a Grand Opening planned next Wednesday and his walls are bare. Thankfully, and to this day we’re still shocked it worked out, there was a similar black and silver damask pattern that was available with enough stock. The whole office was in a frenzy locating it and we overnighted it to him for his installers to put it up.
Would you believe the story doesn’t end here. FedEx’s hub in Memphis was experiencing a thunderstorm and all flights were delayed. Instead of the wallpaper arriving on Saturday/Sunday it arrived Monday and he had to send guys to the FedEx location at the airport to pick it up or it would have been delayed even further. He ended up opening his club that Wednesday but his stress level must have been through the roof.
Story Over…
So, you see, all commercial buildings, restaurants and clubs included, are supposed to have wallcoverings, carpets, drapes, etc. that are Class A Fire Rated. If not, the Fire Marshal can make you take it down.
All commercial wallcovering, made in the US, is fire rated. It would be foolish to make one without it. If you purchase Type 1, Type 2, or Type 3 wallcovering, there is 100% chance it’s fire rated.
The only times problems happen is when commercial wallcovering is made in China or Europe (as stated they do not have the same standards and you cannot assume they have done the testing to sell in the US) or the owner went with a residential pattern, usually not knowing there is a difference.
When you are decorating a home, you can use residential or commercial patterns. There are no fire codes, so you are free. However, when you are decorating for any commercial space, you need to stick with a commercial-grade pattern because there are fire codes.
