Lauhala matting for indoor use: fire retardant or no?

I'm considering putting Lauhala matting on the walls in my Tiki bar space, and was wondering if most people skip the fire retardant variety or not. It does add a lot of cost to the product, so I want to get some opinions. I do not smoke in my house, but the room shares a wall with the kitchen stove.

Thoughts?

Mahalo!

If you do, here's a diy way that might bring the cost down a bit.

http://www.flamestop.com

Thank you, Ben! One more question. If I want to stain the matting, should that be done before or after the fire retardant?

Patrick, There are other things to consider at risk for starting a fire. Besides open flames and cigarettes you need to be careful with your electrical wiring. If you use a lot of extension chords and homemade lights you have added risk. Extension chords can get nicks and arc.

I have matting on the walls and bamboo reed on the ceiling. The one material I wasn't comfortable with was the Nipa thatch. I ordered it with flame retardant. The salesman tried to talk me out of saying unless its near an open flame you don't need it. It was worth the extra money to me.

Just remember that most fire retardants you paint on is ironically extremely flammable until its fully dry.

Well, since we're on this topic, I've also been wondering about safety precautions of matting around electrical outlets. I'm currently painting the walls that can't have matting, but the matting is the next step. Any safety tips before I jump in? Thx so much.

For what it's worth, we decided to only put the matting on the other side of the room from any heat source and to avoid the fire retardant kind. But I am extremely sensitive to chemicals and off gassing.

T