BCA 2010 - ABCB - Australian Building Codes Board

INDUSTRY Perspective
Four Decades of Service
to Product Evaluation
in the United States
John Nosse
Written by John Nosse, President Emeritus - ICC Evaluation Service, Inc.
In the United States, regulation of
building construction is primarily
the responsibility of state and local
governments in lieu of the federal
government. States and local
governments adopt laws, generally
known as building codes, that are
enforced by these bodies. They often
encounter building products, materials,
and methods that are not covered
in the code, and help is needed in
determining whether these items meet
code requirements. This is how product
evaluation services evolved.
The leading building product
evaluation service in the United
States is ICC Evaluation Service, Inc.
(ICC-ES), which is a subsidiary of the
International Code Council (ICC). ICC
publishes International Codes, which
are the building codes used currently
throughout the United States. ICC-
ES is separately incorporated and
serves building departments by
publishing evaluation reports on the
code compliance of specific building
products. These reports are also useful
to building-product manufacturers,
as they provide the evidence needed
to gain product approval from local
jurisdictions for use in the field.
After a number of years in private
practice designing buildings, I joined
the International Conference of Building
Officials (ICBO) and was involved in
all facets of its operations from code
changes, plan review and education to
product reviews. My involvement with
evaluation reports began in 1971, when
I was appointed Assistant Technical
Director. At the time, there were three
model building codes used in the United
States, each in a different part of the
country. ICBO published the Uniform
Building Code (UBC) that was used
throughout the Western states.
As Assistant Technical Director, I helped
to manage the ICBO product evaluation
program, which in the early seventies
had about 600 active evaluation reports
addressing a wide range of building
products. When a manufacturer
voluntarily applied for a report, one of
four ICBO product evaluation engineers
was assigned to evaluate the product
and determine whether it complied
with the UBC. The engineer’s staff
report was then considered in monthly
open hearings by ICBO’s Research
Committee, made up of building
officials representing local governments.
In closed sessions, the committee
discussed and voted either to approve
the staff report and recommendation or
to hold it for “further study.” Approved
product reports were published and
distributed as hard copies to building
22 • Australian Building Regulation Bulletin