Robert Naini, your Spray Foam Advisor, talks about evaluation reports, commonly known as ESRs or CCRRs, how they relate to the building code and how they help code officials.
Today I want to talk to you about a question that an architect asked me, he asked “What is an ESR?”
ESR stands for evaluation service report and the architect was asking me what it is, he was asking me if it was part of the code, how it fits with code and what does it mean?
So, it is important to understand what an ESR is, how you can use it, how it applies to the code and how you use it effectively.
First, an ESR, or evaluation service report, is not part of building code, it is not part of the code itself. The code resides in the big books published by the International Code Council, this includes the IRC, the IBC and the IECC depending on what type of building you are working on.
These code books have requirements for various products, for different building types, for how different types of materials can be used in different applications and the tests required for materials to be used.
An ESR, or evaluation service report, is a compilation of all the tests conducted on a specific product and reduced to language that only uses 3 to 7 pages to explain all the approvals, testing and effective applications of a specific product based on code requirements.
A more basic way of saying this is that a single product may have fifteen, twenty, thirty or forty different tests conducted on it, and according to code you have the ability of providing all the tests conducted on a product to each code official every time you work with the code official and showing them how each test applies to each section of the code so that you can get that product approved.
Alternatively, manufacturers will take those same forty tests to ICC-ES, Intertek or IAPMO and these agencies will work with the manufacturer to publish an evaluation report or code compliance research report.
These documents are a compilation of all those tests broken down into a smaller amount of information, with an “easier to read”, more concise amount of data so those 40 tests gets combined to make a report that is generally to 3 to 7 pages long; and those 3 to 7 pages include all the different requirements that a specific product needs to follow for it to be used in various types of applications.
A product may be limited to residential, Type-V construction only, or it may be allowed in commercial applications. An ESR compiles all this information and the code requirements into one document.
By using an ESR you have documentation and proof that a third party has reviewed the product that you are working with and has given it the approvals, essentially given it the thumbs up to be used in the various applications documented in the report. These documents can make a code official’s job much easier.
Don’t get me wrong, code officials are not always the easiest to work with, but they have a very difficult job. They have to understand 30 plus different chapters out of 10 different code books, it’s a lot more than I am comfortable with.
I have a lot of respect for code officials, and I suggest you work with your code officials as effectively as possible, meaning do not fight with code officials, do not get into arguments, do not headbutt with them, do not battle with them, that is not your job.
Your job is to provide them information, get them enough information so they can make educated functional decisions, ask them questions to understand their perspective so you know what information they need, and get people like me involved in these discussions if you are having problems.
People with the right information, with the right knowledge, with the right documentation, can help educate code officials so they can make more informed decisions.
