ICC-ES Acceptance Criteria

Generally, it is necessary for ICC-ES to develop acceptance criteria for products and systems that are alternates to what is specified in the code, or that fall under code provisions that are not sufficiently clear for the issuance of an evaluation report. Acceptance criteria are developed by the ICC-ES technical staff in consultation with the report applicant and with input from interested parties; are usually the subject of open public hearings of the ICC-ES Evaluation Committee (made up entirely of code officials); and are approved by the Evaluation Committee after issues raised during the hearings are resolved.After approval, acceptance criteria can be revised at subsequent committee meetings, provided the ICC-ES staff receives a request for revision and adequate substantiating data. The Evaluation Committee has also approved guidelines under which the ICC-ES staff may editorially revise and update some acceptance criteria.