NFPA 701 is the standard test method for measuring flame propagation of textiles and films, and it is what hanging textiles in commercial and assembly occupancies are normally specified to. It is a TEST METHOD, not a blanket product rating: a fabric passes a method, and the authority having jurisdiction together with the project specification decide what is required on your job. Test Method 1 covers lighter single-layer fabrics and multilayer curtain and drapery assemblies fastened together, including roll-type window shades. Vinyl-coated fabric blackout linings, lined draperies using one, plastic films and heavier materials fall under Test Method 2.
Method 1 and Method 2
Which method your fabric is tested to
The routing that sends most submittals back for a second look.
What Method 1 covers
Lighter single-layer fabrics — curtains, draperies, other window treatments — and multilayer curtain and drapery assemblies fastened together. Roll-type window shades are explicitly among the materials it applies to, which is the part that surprises people specifying roller shades for the first time.
What pushes you to Method 2
The practical trap: a vinyl-coated fabric blackout lining. Method 1 does not apply to it, nor to a lined drapery that uses one, nor to plastic films or decorative materials other than fabrics. Those go to Method 2, along with heavier assemblies.
This is the single most common place a submittal comes back. A specification says NFPA 701, a drapery is offered with a blackout lining, the test report attached is a Method 1 report for the face fabric, and the reviewer — correctly — sends it back. Resolve it before the goods are ordered rather than after.
Inherent versus topical
Why laundering matters
A fabric can be flame resistant because of what the fibre is, or because of a finish applied to it afterwards. The first is inherent and it does not wash out. The second is topical, and repeated industrial laundering can degrade it.
For anything that gets washed — cubicle curtains above all — it matters which one has been specified, and it matters that the laundering instructions reach the people who will actually wash them. A curtain that passed on delivery and has been through two hundred industrial cycles is not necessarily the same curtain. Healthcare and senior living.
What belongs in the submittal
The mill's test report for the exact fabric and colourway being supplied. Not a statement that the line is compliant; not a letter on a letterhead saying all products meet NFPA 701; the report, for the goods.
We supply that, and we do not put a blanket fire-rating claim on our website. If you have ever been handed a vague compliance letter and had to chase the actual document, you already know why that sentence is here. Commercial window treatments · Request a commercial site survey.
Who actually decides
The chain matters, because a supplier who gets it wrong in conversation will get it wrong on a submittal. The standard describes a test method. The project specification says what is required on this job. And the authority having jurisdiction — the fire marshal or building official with authority over your building — is who applies it. None of those three is the manufacturer, and none of them is us.
Which is why the useful thing a fabricator can hand you is evidence rather than assurance: the mill's report for the exact goods, so the person doing the approving has the document in front of them instead of somebody's word.
What NFPA 701 is not
It is not a sprinkler rule
The open mesh band across the top of a hospital cubicle curtain is there so ceiling sprinklers can reach the space the curtain encloses. That comes from the sprinkler design and the AHJ — a different requirement from 701, frequently discussed in the same meeting. Cubicle curtains and the mesh band.
It is not a smoke rating
701 is a flame-propagation test. Surface burning characteristics and smoke development are measured by other methods entirely, and a 701 pass says nothing about them. If your specification calls for both, they are two documents.
Questions people ask
Do roller shades need to meet NFPA 701?
In most commercial and assembly occupancies they are specified to it. NFPA 701 covers hanging textiles used in interior furnishing — curtains, draperies, window shades and similar — and Test Method 1 explicitly includes roll-type window shades among the materials it applies to. Whether it is required on your project, and to which method, is decided by the specification and the authority having jurisdiction, which is why we supply the mill’s test report for the exact fabric rather than a general claim.
Why does a blackout lining change the test method?
Because of what it is made of. Test Method 1 applies to lighter fabrics, but it specifically does not apply to vinyl-coated fabric blackout linings, or to lined draperies that use one — those fall under Test Method 2, along with plastic films and heavier multilayer assemblies. It is one of the most common places a submittal gets sent back, so it is worth resolving before the goods are ordered.
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