evaluation report (ESR)

An ESR is the document a building official reads to accept a product without individual review: it states which code sections a product line satisfies and under what conditions. The cataloged source is the ICC-ES Evaluation Reports Directory (ESRs) for Building Products, tagged evaluation-reports, building-code-compliance, regulatory-data and pdf-reports, whose granularity is "One record per issued report covering a single manufacturer's product line; approximately 2,461 directory rows observed".

Each row links to a multi-page PDF. The directory also holds sibling report programs - ESLs, PMG listings and EPDs - and retains legacy reports back to the 1990s, the record citing BOCA-93-36.02 as an example. Coverage is US-primary under the I-Codes, with Canada, Australia/New Zealand, India and Middle East listings via regional programs, and the directory refreshes weekly.

Specification decisions made without a current ESR surface as permit rejections months later. The directory is how you verify acceptance before you specify, not after.

• Report scope is one product line. With one record per manufacturer product line, a supplier's claim of "ESR-approved" must name the exact report covering the item you are buying.
• Legacy status matters. Reports retained back to the 1990s include superseded ones; confirm the ESR is currently active, not just present in the directory.
• Bulk reuse is restricted. ICC terms license content for personal/internal non-commercial use and expressly ban data-mining extraction, so building a redistributed database requires permission via license@iccsafe.org.

1. Verify the ESR number and its current status. The directory holds ~2,461 rows including legacy reports back to BOCA-93-36.02 - check the report is active and unexpired, not merely listed.

1. Open the linked PDF, not just the summary row. Each directory row links to a multi-page PDF where conditions of use live; acceptance often hinges on those conditions.

1. Match the report to the exact product line. Granularity is one record per manufacturer product line, so a family-wide approval claim is a red flag.

1. Check which code edition the report cites. US-primary coverage runs on the I-Codes; confirm the code edition matches your jurisdiction's adopted cycle.

1. Plan around extraction restrictions. ICC's terms ban data mining and robot extraction - if you need bulk ESR metadata, request permission via license@iccsafe.org first.

Entries that sit next to evaluation report (ESR) in this glossary:

• csi-masterformat
• environmental-product-declaration
• fenestration