I recently opened a business in Boston. We learned that Boston has the strictest fire code in the country for commercial establishments. The vast majority of commercial furniture is manufactured to TB-117 fire specification. But Boston doesn't allow that. In order to pass the city's fire inspection and ultimately get our Certificate of Occupancy, all upholstered furniture needs to meet a California spec called CAL 133 (also known as TB-133). Though the spec is from California (that's where the CAL comes from), California grants an exclusion if the business has a fire sprinkler system - which almost everyone seems to have. Boston has no such exclusion.
The problem is that very, very few manufacturers build to that spec (I spoke with the CEO of one California-based manufacturer who told me he'd never heard of TB133 and I was crazy) - and the ones that do, charge an arm and a leg for it. So you have to have the furniture re-covered with additional fire barrier and testing, and get a permit from the city for each piece of furniture. The other problem is that there's a huge lack of information - and misinformation - out there. The upholsterers know it and most of the ones I got quotes from would have charged an insane price - it seemed like extortion. They gave us all sorts of scare stories like we had to have the furniture built from scratch, they had to build extra ones so they could burn-test them, etc.
The fire inspector legally can't tell you who the good ones are. They won't even tell you who the vendors are or how to choose them.
After hours, days, and weeks of research, I found Ernesto. He was the only straight talker I found who didn't try to frighten us or take advantage of our inexperience with the fire code. He seemed honest but his prices seemed too good to be true. Ultimately I was able to get the fire inspector's office to let on that yes, they knew Ernesto and they commonly certify his work. So I went with him.
I have nothing but praise for the job they did. They quoted me a price, gave me delivery dates, and met all of them. And the work was first rate - the furniture is beautiful. Message me and I'll let you come see it. This is a guy who's making his livelihood by doing the right thing. Highly recommended.
I will say the only issue we had is that by the time they reupholstered our last items, Ernesto had bought another business (he still owns this one) and his focus was elsewhere. The work was still first-rate, but it took wayyyyy too long to get the permits from the city, which did delay our Certificate of Occupancy. Hopefully they're rectified that by now. Once we had the permit, passing the inspection was super easy. read more