] [Thread] [Date] [Author]

["Polhemus, Bill" <BPolhemus(--nospam--at)wje.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Skaggs [mailto:tom.skaggs(--nospam--at)apawood.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 12:25 PM
To: seaint(--nospam--at)seaint.org
Subject: "Code Approval" (was big dig structural failure - epoxy anchors
overhead supporting gravity)

I'm not trying to nit-pick your main point, however it is important to
note that ICC-ES is NOT an "approving agency".  They have issued a very
good explanation of their role
(http://www.icc-es.org/News/code-approval.shtml).

-----/Original Message/-----

Man, I love it when a discussion comes up here that exactly matches a
situation with which I'm currently dealing.

I went to the page you referenced above and found this sentence:

"Evaluation reports on products have been erroneously construed as
making the decision for the code official rather than providing an
independent technical resource from which a decision can be justified."

Now, the great majority of situations where this misconstruing has gone
on, are faits accompli. That is, the engineer's already specified the
product's use, the contractor's already installed it, and no one is ever
going to be one whit the wiser as to whether "proper approval" was given
or not.

However, in my work I deal with the OTHER side of things: There's
already been a problem, and now we're digging into the "how" and "why."
And invariably, I come up with things that were done by my fellow
structural engineers not quite according to Hoyle (or at least the
building official).

What I want to know is: Do you ALWAYS have to get approval for "widgets"
like epoxy adhesive anchors that AREN'T specifically covered in the text
of the model code? That is the kinds of products that the Evaluation
Reports deal with.

If so, how maddening--and how unfortunate for the designer who meant
well all along, but to whom it never occurred to think, "oh, I've got to
make sure the building official approves of this Hilti anchor..."

Comments please.

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