Wallcovering Fire Ratings: British Standards and Commercial Specification

• A wallcovering’s fire rating is a reaction-to-fire class under BS EN 13501-1, such as B-s1,d0. It describes how the product, tested in a stated build-up, contributes to the early growth of a fire. It is not fire resistance, and it does not give a wall any number of minutes.
• The class belongs to the tested build-up: that product, on the substrate and with the adhesive its classification document names, within the variations it permits. A different substrate, adhesive, lining, coating or an old wallcovering underneath can take the installation outside that evidence.
• In England, Approved Document B Volume 2 sets minimum classes by location for buildings other than dwellings: D-s3,d2 for small rooms, C-s3,d2 for other rooms and B-s3,d2 for other circulation spaces, where a wallcovering conforming to BS EN 15102 and achieving at least C-s3,d2 is also acceptable if it is bonded to an A2-s3,d2 substrate (note 1 to the table). Dwellings and blocks of flats, including their common areas, are covered by Volume 1, Table 4.1: its row for other circulation spaces, including the common areas of flats, is also B-s3,d2 with the same wallcovering note, but its rows for small rooms, garages and circulation spaces within a dwelling differ. It is guidance on meeting the legal requirement, and a project’s fire strategy can ask for more.
• Read the full notation. “Euroclass B” without s and d values leaves the smoke and droplet results unknown. “Class 0” is an old British national class, with no automatic European equivalent; England stopped using national reaction-to-fire classes in its guidance from 2 March 2025.
• Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own guidance, with different tables and, in Wales and Northern Ireland, national classes still printed.
• Who decides depends on the job. For building work, the designer, fire engineer or building-control body decides what each wall needs and whether the evidence is enough. For a building in use where the job is not building work, the responsible person under fire-safety law decides, through the fire risk assessment. That law does not apply inside a private home. The manufacturer declares the product’s performance. We install the specified product as the maker instructs and record what went on the wall.

A European reaction-to-fire class has up to three parts: the main class (A1 to F), a smoke subclass (s1 to s3) and a flaming droplets subclass (d0 to d2). Read the notation exactly as the document prints it. For classes A2, B, C and D, a smoke or droplet subclass that is not printed is unknown, not assumed. Classes A1 and F carry no subclasses; class E carries no smoke subclass and is followed by d2 only if the filter paper ignited.

Reaction to fire is how much a product contributes, by its own decomposition, to a fire under specified test conditions. It is what a wallcovering’s class describes: how readily it ignites, how fast it releases heat and spreads flame in the early stages of a fire, how much smoke it gives off in the test and whether it drops flaming particles. England’s Approved Document B uses that definition in Appendix B.

Fire resistance is a different property, measured for building elements: how long a wall, floor, door or ceiling continues to do its job in a fire, for example keeping fire and heat on one side. It is expressed in minutes under a separate classification standard, BS EN 13501-2, with notations such as EI 30 or EI 60. A wallcovering has no fire-resistance period of its own, and hanging one does not give a wall 30, 60 or 120 minutes. If a wall needs fire resistance, that comes from the wall’s construction and its own evidence.

Three more limits are worth stating plainly:

• The smoke subclass is not a toxicity rating. s1, s2 and s3 are bands of how fast and how much smoke the product produced in the single burning item test. They say nothing about how toxic the smoke is. England’s guidance on linings says it does not include guidance on the generation of smoke and fumes, so a smoke requirement, if there is one, comes from the project.
• A class never means “safe anywhere”. A classification is a test result for a defined build-up. Whether it is enough depends on where the product goes and what the project requires. Words such as “fireproof”, “non-flammable” or “zero smoke” on a wallcovering should send you looking for the classification document.
• Class F, “no performance determined” and “unclassified” are three different things. Class F is a class: it is given when a product was tested and did not achieve class E. “No performance determined” (NPD) on a declaration of performance means the manufacturer has not declared a value for that characteristic. “Unclassified” means there is no classification at all, and under Approved Document B an untested product cannot be classified to BS EN 13501-1. The narrow exception is classification without further testing: Commission Decision 2010/82/EU lists certain decorative wallcoverings conforming to BS EN 15102 that may be classed D-s3,d2 without testing, within stated limits of mass and thickness, substrate and adhesive. D-s3,d2 is below what England’s Table 6.1 sets for rooms other than small rooms and for circulation spaces. None of the three should be read as a pass, and none should be read as a known failure beyond what the document says.

A wallcovering’s European class comes from a small family of standards. BS EN 13501-1 is the classification standard: it turns test results into a class. The tests themselves are the single burning item test (BS EN 13823) and a small-flame ignitability test (BS EN ISO 11925-2). The product is mounted for testing on a standard substrate chosen under BS EN 13238, and decorative wallcoverings declare their performance under the product standard BS EN 15102.

Two cautions when reading a document:

• The latest edition is not always the edition that applies. A report or declaration cites the edition used when it was written, and the edition cited for UKCA and CE marking can lag behind BSI’s latest. BS EN 15102 is the clearest case: BSI lists a 2019 edition, while the designated-standards lists and England’s guidance cite 2007+A1:2011. Record what the document cites; do not silently substitute a newer edition.
• A catalogue record is not the standard. We have checked titles, editions and status in BSI’s catalogue. We have not reproduced the paid texts, and nothing on this page should be read as a summary of their clauses.

Under the construction products rules, a declaration of performance states the class the manufacturer declares for the product. Where no value is declared for a characteristic, the declaration shows “NPD”: the regulation spells it out as no performance determined, and some declarations print it as no performance declared. Either way it is not a class and not a pass.

Class 0 and Class 1

Before the European classes, British guidance used national classes based on BS 476. Class 1 to Class 4 were surface spread of flame results under BS 476 Part 7, Class 1 being the best. Class 0 was not a test result of its own. The guidance defined it: a material of limited combustibility throughout, or a Class 1 material that also met fire propagation limits under BS 476 Part 6 (an index I of no more than 12 and a sub-index i1 of no more than 6). That definition was printed in earlier editions of England’s Approved Document B and is still printed in the Welsh Approved Document B (Appendix A, paragraph 13) and Northern Ireland’s Technical Booklet E.

There is no automatic conversion between national classes and European classes. England’s guidance said so while it still listed the national classes: products could not typically assume a European class unless they had been tested for it, and where a smoke or droplet performance was specified, only European classes could be used. Wales and Northern Ireland still print the first of those warnings beside their linings tables. A data sheet that says “Class 0” and nothing else is not evidence of any European class.

England removed the national reaction-to-fire classes from its guidance from 2 March 2025, subject to transitional arrangements. BSI shows BS 476 Parts 6 and 7 as withdrawn from 4 March 2025. Neither step, in the documents we read, declares older BS 476 reports invalid; it means the current English guidance is written in European classes only.

ASTM, IMO and other systems

Some makers sell internationally and print several results side by side. Read each one in its own system:

• ASTM E84 is a United States tunnel test that reports a flame spread index and a smoke developed index; makers often summarise a result as “Class A”. That is not a European class, and US Class A is not class A1 or A2.
• IMO FTP Code Part 5 is a marine surface-flammability test for ships, with its own criteria. A marine approval is not a building classification.
• Furniture and curtain tests, such as BS 5852 for upholstered seating, BS 5867 for curtain fabrics or BS EN 13773 for curtains and drapes, are not evidence for a wallcovering, even when the same textile is used.

For a British project, look for the European classification under BS EN 13501-1 and the build-up it covers. The other results can be useful context; they do not stand in for it.

For buildings other than dwellings in England, the starting point is Approved Document B, Volume 2. Blocks of flats, including their common corridors and stairs, are covered by Volume 1 instead; its Table 4.1 also sets B-s3,d2 for the common areas of blocks of flats, with the same BS EN 15102 wallcovering note, and C-s3,d2 for circulation spaces within a dwelling. It gives guidance on meeting requirement B2 of the Building Regulations 2010, which is the legal requirement. B2 says internal linings must adequately resist the spread of flame over their surfaces and, if ignited, have a rate of heat release or fire growth that is reasonable in the circumstances.

Three things follow from how the document is built:

• The law is the requirement; the Approved Document is guidance. Following the guidance is one way to show the requirement is met, but it does not guarantee compliance in every case. Under section 7 of the Building Act 1984, not following an approved document does not by itself make anyone liable, but it can be relied on as tending to show a breach, and following it as tending to show compliance. A designer can meet B2 another way, for example through a fire-engineered strategy agreed with the building-control body, which decides whether it is satisfied.
• Section 6 and Table 6.1 set minimum classes by location. The table is short and the categories matter: small rooms (up to 4 m² in residential accommodation, up to 30 m² in non-residential accommodation), other rooms, and other circulation spaces. A hotel bedroom, a meeting room, a corridor and a protected stair are not the same location.
• The table’s own note matters for wallcoverings. Note 1 to Table 6.1, on the circulation-space row, says that wallcoverings conforming to BS EN 15102, achieving at least class C-s3,d2 and bonded to a class A2-s3,d2 substrate, will also be acceptable. That is a route that depends on both the product and what it is bonded to. It is not a rule that any class C wallcovering will do in a corridor.

Read these alongside the table:

• Paragraph 6.4. Parts of walls in rooms may be of lower performance than the table, but no worse than D-s3,d2, and the total area is limited (less than half the room’s floor area, up to 20 m² in residential and 60 m² in non-residential accommodation). This applies to rooms, not circulation spaces.
• What counts as a wall or a ceiling. Paragraphs 6.2 to 6.6 define them. Glazing and steep ceilings count as wall; doors, frames, skirtings, architraves and fitted furniture do not.
• Other sections. Paragraph 6.12 points to the guidance for escape stairs, firefighting shafts and surfaces above fire-protecting suspended ceilings. The project’s fire strategy or the client’s brief may also set higher classes than the table.
• Smoke and droplets. The table’s classes all carry s3 and d2, the least demanding subclasses. B2’s guidance does not address the generation of smoke and fumes. A project can still ask for s1 or d0, so check the specification rather than assuming the table is the whole requirement.
• Appendix B. Test evidence must suit the intended use. Small differences such as the fixing method, joints, air gaps or insulation can significantly affect performance and should be tested or assessed, an assessment following the relevant extended-application standard or the principles of BS EN 15725 and being carried out by an organisation with the necessary expertise; and a reaction-to-fire classification is valid only within its direct field of application: on a substrate of the class it was tested on, with a density of at least 75 per cent of the standard substrate’s. Paragraph B9 adds that standard calcium silicate board is not representative of gypsum plasterboard, because of the paper layer, though it represents most gypsum plasters over 650 kg/m³, and that a classification obtained on plasterboard is also acceptable on gypsum plaster. Much of the product evidence below was obtained on calcium silicate or fibre-cement board.

Who resolves applicability: for building work, the designer or fire engineer for the project, with the building-control body that will approve the work. If that work makes a significant change to a building in use, the responsible person must also review the fire risk assessment (Fire Safety Order, article 9(3)). For redecorating a building in use that is not building work, there is no building-control approval: the responsible person decides, through the fire risk assessment (see below).

Two separate changes to England’s Approved Document B are often run together. They concern different things and take effect on different dates.

2 March 2025: national classes for reaction to fire removed. The 2025 amendments, published in September 2024, deleted the national reaction-to-fire classifications from Approved Document B. Those were the transpositions to British national classes in Appendix B, Table B1 of the previous edition, based on BS 476 Part 7 surface spread of flame (Class 1 and Class 3), Part 6 fire propagation indices and Part 11 non-combustibility. That edition no longer used the label “Class 0”, although its national criteria for B-s3,d2 matched the fire-propagation route to the old Class 0. From that date the guidance for linings is expressed only in European classes under BS EN 13501-1. The previous edition still applies to work where a building notice, initial notice or full plans application was made before 2 March 2025 and the work started and was sufficiently progressed before that date or within six months of it.

2 September 2029: national classes for fire resistance to be removed. A separate set of amendments, also published in 2024, removes the national fire-resistance classifications (BS 476 Parts 20 to 24) in favour of the European fire-resistance classes. These are about walls, floors, doors and other elements resisting fire for a period, not about wallcoverings. They take effect on 2 September 2029, with a similar transitional arrangement.

The consolidated Volume 2 on GOV.UK prints the 2029 changes alongside the current text and marks them as forthcoming. A printed amendment is not necessarily in force: check the date it takes effect. As checked on the date at the top of this page, the 2029 changes were not yet in force.

The 2026 amendments, in force from 30 September 2026, concern stairs and evacuation lifts in blocks of flats and do not change the lining classes.

Building regulations are devolved. The four systems use the same European classes, but their tables, notes and amendment dates differ, and none of them applies in the others. Check the guidance for the place where the building is.

• Wales has its own Approved Document B, still based on the 2006 edition with Welsh amendments. Its linings table lists a national class (3, 1 or 0) beside each European class and carries a BS EN 15102 wallcovering note like England’s. Wales did not follow England’s March 2025 removal of national reaction-to-fire classes; the Welsh Government has said they will move to an appendix at a future revision. Since 1 July 2026 Wales also has dutyholder and competence duties for building work and a procedure for higher-risk buildings (Building etc. (Amendment) (No. 2) (Wales) Regulations 2025 and Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (Wales) Regulations 2025). These change procedures and duties, not the lining classes. In Wales, a higher-risk building (for design and construction) is at least 18 m high or has at least seven storeys. It must also contain at least one residential unit, a hospital with an overnight bed, a care home or a children’s home. A building that is entirely a hotel is excluded.
• Scotland uses the building standards technical handbooks, one for domestic and one for non-domestic buildings. The non-domestic handbook’s linings table is arranged by building group and by protected or unprotected zone, and uses European classes only. In both handbooks (clause 2.5.1), wall and ceiling surfaces mean the substrate or lining material and exclude decorative wallpaper and paints. Neither handbook defines “decorative wallpaper”. Where the work needs a building warrant, agree with the verifier whether a commercial wallcovering, fabric system or panel counts as decoration or as part of the lining. Work that needs no warrant must still meet the building regulations: no verifier checks it, and the owner or client has the duty to comply. In a hotel, office or other building covered by fire-safety law, the fire risk assessment should also take it into account. The main fire-safety duties exclude homes and the shared stairs and passages of flats, although a narrow duty to maintain facilities for firefighters still applies to the shared parts. The same clause says multiple layers can increase flame spread and are not recommended when redecorating.
• Northern Ireland uses Technical Booklet E. Its table gives both national and European classes by purpose group, room size and circulation space, and it has no separate wallcovering note.

In Wales and Northern Ireland, where national classes are still printed, the guidance itself says national and European classes do not automatically equate. Wales applies the Building Regulations 2010 as amended for Wales, with its own approved documents; Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own building regulations.

The lining classes in building-regulations guidance apply to building work: a new building, an extension, a material change of use, or work to an existing building that needs to meet the regulations. Settle before work starts whether a refurbishment counts as building work and, if it does, which edition of the guidance applies. The designer, if there is one, or a building-control body can advise. The answer decides who approves the linings: the building-control route, or the responsible person. Approved Document B lists installers among those responsible for building work, so we raise the question rather than assume the answer.

Buildings in use. Fire-safety law for buildings in use applies to most premises other than private homes. On this page, “a building in use” means one that this law covers. In England and Wales that is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which requires the “responsible person” to carry out and keep under review a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment and to take general fire precautions. It does not apply inside a private dwelling (article 6(1)(a)). In a building with two or more homes it does apply to the common parts, such as shared halls, corridors and stairs. The Fire Safety Act 2021 confirmed that the Order also covers the structure, the external walls and the doors between each flat and the common parts (article 6(1A)). That change came into force in Wales on 1 October 2021 and in England on 16 May 2022.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own law: Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and Part 3 of the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006. Both require an assessment of fire risks and fire-safety measures, and neither applies to domestic premises. In both, the stairs, passages and other parts shared by the occupants of more than one home count as domestic premises (section 78(4); article 50(6)). So the common parts of a block of flats are outside the main duties there. Only a narrow duty to maintain facilities for firefighters applies to them (regulation 24 of the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006 and of the Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010). The duties do apply to houses in multiple occupation that need a licence in Scotland, and to all houses in multiple occupation in Northern Ireland.

When redecorating is not building work. In England and Wales, redecorating on its own is not normally building work: the linings requirement (B2) is not one of the requirements that make an alteration “material” (Building Regulations 2010, regulation 3). Where the job is not building work, no building-control body approves it. The responsible person decides, through the fire risk assessment, often with a fire risk assessor. Inside a private home these duties do not apply, so there is no responsible person. Approved Document B warns that guidance for assessing existing buildings is often less demanding than guidance for new buildings, so it is unlikely to suit building work. See England’s Volume 2, paragraph 0.9, and the Welsh Volume 2, paragraph 0.19. Where the job is building work, such as an extension, a material change of use or a fit-out that counts as building work, the classes come from the building-regulations guidance or the project’s fire strategy.

In Scotland, replacing a wall lining or covering with one of the same general type needs no building warrant, so no verifier checks it. The work must still leave the standard no worse than before (Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004, regulation 5 and schedule 3, type 25). The owner or client has that duty. Other lining work in a building open to the public, such as a hotel, may need a warrant. In Northern Ireland, “building work” includes a “structural alteration”: any work the regulations would control in a new building. Internal linings are controlled there (Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012, regulations 2 and 34), so ask the district council’s building control whether a wallcovering job needs an application before assuming it does not.

The official risk-assessment guides for England and Wales discuss wall and ceiling linings as part of that assessment. The guide for hotels and other sleeping accommodation says care is needed with multi-layer decorative systems such as wallpapers and oil-based paints; the offices-and-shops guide lists linings by national class and notes that additional finishes may harm a surface’s fire performance. Both are older documents and use the national class names alongside a note that the European equivalent is acceptable.

None of the official sources we checked sets a universal requirement to strip out and replace existing wallcoverings because the classification system has changed. What they do require is an assessment of the actual building. When a hotel or office is being refurbished, the new wallcovering’s evidence, the existing layers underneath and the location of each wall all belong in that assessment.

A classification describes the build-up that was tested and the variations its classification document expressly allows. Before ordering, check that what will actually go on the wall matches it on each of these points:

• The exact product. Maker, collection, product reference and, where the document lists them, the colourways or designs it covers. A collection name alone is not enough when one collection mixes constructions.
• Construction and backing. Vinyl on non-woven, vinyl on paper or woven backing, textile, or a natural material. A change of backing is a different product for fire purposes.
• Weight and finish. Documents often state a weight or weight range. Embossing, metallic or flock finishes and protective top coats can change the result.
• Printed and bespoke versions. A digitally printed design is a print on a named base material with named inks. Its evidence is the evidence for that base and that process, not the evidence for a different stock product in the same range.
• Adhesive and primer. The adhesive is part of the tested build-up. Use the adhesive the document names. Treat a different adhesive, even a good one, as a change to the tested build-up. Unless the classification document already covers it, it needs the maker’s written position and test or assessment evidence. Whoever decides for the project must accept that evidence (see Who does what).
• Substrate. Classification reports name the board the product was tested on, often fibre-cement or calcium silicate board, and say which end-use substrates the result also covers. Several reports we read limit that to dense mineral boards of a stated density and class, and some expressly exclude paper-faced plasterboard. A plasterboard, plaster or painted wall is covered only as far as the classification document says.
• Lining paper. Hanging over lining paper adds a layer to the build-up. A lining paper’s own classification does not classify the wallcovering hung over it.
• Fixing method and any air gap. Panels, stretched systems or wallcoverings over battens or a cavity are a different build-up from a wallcovering bonded to a solid wall.

Common questions on site

Can it go over existing wallpaper? Assume not. Hanging over an old wallcovering puts an untested layer in the build-up. Muraspec’s and Vescom’s hanging instructions ask for existing wallcoverings and backing papers to be removed, and Dreamscape, a vinyl wallcovering maker, says that installing vinyl over an existing wallcovering voids its product’s fire rating. Check the wallpaper maker’s guide.

Over lining paper? Only where the maker’s instructions and its classification evidence cover it, or a test or assessment report covers that build-up, and whoever decides for the project accepts it.

Over timber, MDF or plywood? A combustible board is a different substrate from plasterboard or masonry. Ask the maker whether its classification covers it, and ask the project’s fire specialist what the lining as a whole needs to achieve.

Over plasterboard, plaster or paint? These are the walls most projects have, and they are not always the substrate the product was tested on. Check what the classification document says about end-use substrates before ordering. For preparation, follow the maker’s instruction; on gloss or other sealed surfaces a vinyl-over-vinyl adhesive is a different adhesive from the one in most tests.

A different paste, or a seam and corner adhesive? Ask the maker first. A small amount of overlap or border adhesive is still a change to the specified system.

A protective coating, varnish or anti-graffiti film added later? That adds a layer. It needs the maker’s agreement and, where the area carries a classification requirement, its own evidence.

We do not offer improvised fixes for fire performance. Where the proposed build-up is outside what the documents cover, ask the manufacturer for its written position. England’s guidance expects a variation to be covered by a test, or by an assessment from an organisation with the necessary expertise. Before installation, whoever decides for the project (see Who does what) judges whether the evidence is enough.

Several parties are involved, and none of them can stand in for another.

• The test laboratory and classification body. A laboratory tests the product in a stated build-up to the European test methods. A classification report then gives the class and records the build-up and the field of application the result covers. Depending on the product and its system of assessment, a notified or approved body may also be involved.
• The manufacturer. It draws up the declaration of performance for the product, takes responsibility for that declaration, and publishes the installation instructions. Its technical sheet and website summarise the position; when they disagree with the declaration or the classification report, the formal document is the one to check and the disagreement is a question for the maker.
• The designer, fire engineer and building-control body. For building work, they decide what each wall and ceiling has to achieve and accept or reject the evidence for the product proposed. For a variation from the documented build-up, England’s Approved Document B expects test evidence or an assessment by an organisation with the necessary expertise, not just a letter. On a project with a fire strategy, that strategy sets the requirement.
• The responsible person, for a building in use. In England and Wales this is the “responsible person” under the Fire Safety Order (article 3): the employer, for a workplace under its control; otherwise whoever controls the premises for a business or other undertaking; or else the owner. Anyone else with some control shares the duties for what they control, including anyone whose contract or tenancy makes them responsible for maintenance, repair or safety, such as a landlord or managing agent (article 5). Scotland and Northern Ireland do not use the term. There the duties fall on employers, on anyone with control of the premises, in some cases on the owner, and on anyone with such a contract or tenancy. See the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, sections 53 and 54, and the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006, articles 25 and 26. This page says “responsible person” for all of them. Where redecorating is not building work, no building-control body approves it: the responsible person decides, through the fire risk assessment, often with a fire risk assessor. In England and Wales, if building work makes a significant change to a building in use, they must also review that assessment (article 9(3)).
• The installer. We install the specified product with the specified adhesive and preparation, as the maker’s instructions set out, and keep a record of what was installed. We do not test, classify or certify a product’s reaction to fire. If the wall, the adhesive or the product on site differs from the specification, we stop and raise it before hanging.

An adhesive sold as containing a fire retardant, or a lining paper with its own class, does not classify the finished wall. Neither does a “contract” or “commercial” label on a sample book.

Every document cited on this page, grouped by where it comes from. For standards we link the publisher's catalogue record, which confirms the title and edition; we have not reproduced paid standards. For manufacturers we link their own published documents rather than copying them. The checking date is when we last opened each source.