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Elevation Certificate on an Electric Service

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(@hlbennettpls)
Posts: 321
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Topic starter
 

Had an interesting phone call today from a client wanting us to perform an elevation certificate on a meter pole. Said client is moving an existing meter pole, 20 feet to get it out of the way of a pole barn he's building and the county states in their regulations he must set the electric service portion of the pole at or above the BFE. I completely understand why they would want this, however, I'm not sure how to perform an elevation certificate on anything other than a structure (hence why they ask you in Item A7 of FEMA's form for a building diagram type). Anyone ever run across this? I asked them if we could the cert. on the structure the pole was serving and the building official said "no", it has to be on the service itself. Any ideas on this one?

 
Posted : February 4, 2016 12:21 pm
paden-cash
(@paden-cash)
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It's been a few years, but I did a number of "elevation certs" for some APUs on lift stations. At first I just typed a letter that said yadda, yadda...and they told me they wanted a FEMA form. On A7 I just said N/A and put the whole blurb in the Section D comments. I guess they liked it, I never heard back. But I did not turn them in to FEMA, I turned them over to the municipality I was working for...

 
Posted : February 4, 2016 12:27 pm
(@hlbennettpls)
Posts: 321
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paden cash, post: 356574, member: 20 wrote: It's been a few years, but I did a number of "elevation certs" for some APUs on lift stations. At first I just typed a letter that said yadda, yadda...and they told me they wanted a FEMA form. On A7 I just said N/A and put the whole blurb in the Section D comments. I guess they liked it, I never heard back. But I did not turn them in to FEMA, I turned them over to the municipality I was working for...

Ever worry about someone later on taking them and trying to use them to get insurance? I guess it wouldn't matter so long as the ins. co. read the form, but in my neck of the woods, "reading the fine print" is a thing of the past, and quickly stamping and "passing through" is a thing of the norm. Makes me cringe at times thinking about it...

 
Posted : February 4, 2016 12:56 pm
(@lamon-miller)
Posts: 525
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I have done several on the bottom of the meter pan once installed. On some I wrote a letter on others I filled out the certificate with only HAG and LAG filled out on the first page. N/A for everything else. In the comments section I certified the elevation of the bottom of the meter pan.

I always had to make two trips once to mark the BFE on the pole after it was installed and again once to measure the bottom of meter pan after it was attached to the pole.

 
Posted : February 4, 2016 12:57 pm
(@hlbennettpls)
Posts: 321
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I've always done the letter b/c I think it's a misuse of the form to use it for anything other than structures. I think I have them convinced that a letter will do, so we'll see...

 
Posted : February 4, 2016 1:19 pm

(@scott-mclain)
Posts: 784
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I have used Elevation Form. Much easier to modify and less to filling it out.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

 
Posted : February 4, 2016 1:38 pm
rochs01
(@rochs01)
Posts: 508
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I did a sewer treatment plant once after a flood. The state was going to fine them for building it in a floodplain.
It turned out to be quite a bit above. Take lots of pictures with numbers if there are multiple structures and
describe what each one is.

 
Posted : February 4, 2016 8:26 pm
(@lowcountrysurveyor)
Posts: 154
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hlbennettpls, post: 356572, member: 10049 wrote: Had an interesting phone call today from a client wanting us to perform an elevation certificate on a meter pole. Said client is moving an existing meter pole, 20 feet to get it out of the way of a pole barn he's building and the county states in their regulations he must set the electric service portion of the pole at or above the BFE. I completely understand why they would want this, however, I'm not sure how to perform an elevation certificate on anything other than a structure (hence why they ask you in Item A7 of FEMA's form for a building diagram type). Anyone ever run across this? I asked them if we could the cert. on the structure the pole was serving and the building official said "no", it has to be on the service itself. Any ideas on this one?

I recently did one for the electric motors on a neighborhood entrance gate. Most of the form was "n/a". I filled out the lowest elevation of machinery and LAG & HAG. Spelled out exactly what is was for in the comments section and added pics.
I'm sure it never went to FEMA. The municipality wanted it because they have certain regs. for machinery below the BFE.

 
Posted : February 5, 2016 5:49 am
(@rich)
Posts: 779
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We do ECs on everything. Generators, ac units etc. To me it's silly. I'd rather just write a letter with the elevation rather than filling in an EC with one elevation. But the local municipalities want it on an EC so that's what we do....

 
Posted : February 5, 2016 6:14 am
(@hlbennettpls)
Posts: 321
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I agree it's silly b/c IMO it's not what the form was designed for...

 
Posted : February 5, 2016 6:47 am