ICC Evaluation Service: Who are they?

Many building professionals understand the importance of the ICC Evaluation Service, but the average real-estate owner does not. When it comes to evaluating a waterproof decking system like Pli-Dek, it is essential that you have a higher standard for the quality of materials than is normally checked by local building inspectors.

The ICC-ES standards are designed to meet international standards of quality in regards to the materials involved in a construction product. When a decking system has an ESR (Evaluation Service Report) on their product, it does not rate the system in traditional rating terms, but looks at each aspect of the deck materials, installation, and acceptance criteria for the deck to be usable.

About ICC-ES

ICC-ES is an organization formed out of multiple evaluation organizations around the turn of the century. ICC-ES’s evaluations are designed to meet standards and code across the globe in multiple industries. As such, local building inspectors will often use ICC-ES’s reports when faced with a construction system not addressed in local code.

Because their reports are technical in nature (not certifications or accreditations, but technical standards reports), these reports show the standard of quality a manufacturer puts into the product and show the system of installation that contractors need to meet in order to provide quality services.

What is in an ICC-ESR

An ESR covers the scope of its technical review, the uses of the building materials reviewed, the definitions of each type of material involved in the construction process, installation instructions, recommended use, the evidence provided to the evaluation commission, the method of identifying the product, and other codes besides the code under evaluation.

Because ICC-ESR addresses both a local building code (in the case of Pli-Dek’s ESR, it is the Florida building code) and the UBC (Universal Building Code), the report shows the fact that Pli-Dek’s materials can be used in a building to meet local codes as stringent as Florida’s code. Since Florida’s waterproof decking must meet hurricane strength storms with regularity, the standards for Florida are higher than many other states’ building codes.

AC 39

One of the related evaluation services that ICC-ES provides is determining the walking deck’s acceptance criteria through an AC 39 report. When combined with the ESR, the AC 39 shows consumers and contractors the high standards of a decking system and additional information as to the proper installation and maintenance standards of the deck.

Together, these two reports showcase the quality and durability of materials used in any Pli-Dek system. They also provide specific instructions to contractors as to their installation and rating information for how much wear and tear the system will handle before it needs to be replaced. For anyone looking at building multi-tenant buildings with depreciation schedules, the ICC- Evaluation Service Report is essential for planning and budgeting building processes.

Included in these standards are the uses that a material will be put to and the standards that a contractor must meet in order to safely and effectively install the materials. This is important because it gives the customer the ability to ensure their contractors are meeting standards before a building inspector ever walks on the site for inspections. A proactive Pli-Dek customer will check these reports before they ever hire a contractor to install the product to make certain they have quality product and a great installation team.

The AC 39 and ESR 2097 are essential reports in Pli-Dek’s system of waterproofing and show that our product is of high enough quality to meet building standards in any locale. For more information on our material’s specifications, certification, and application instruction or to get a copy of the ESR 2097, please contact us today.