I'm working on an elevation certificate on a Diagram 1A. It's a slab-on-grade two-story house.
When I walked in, I noticed there is a 0.35' step down, which is about 1/3 of this bottom floor.
On Section C2, I entered the step down floor as the lowest floor and the 0.35' higher floor as the "next higher floor."
On the page two comments section, I explained the step down and also listed the elevation of the "true" second floor.
Do you think I did this right? Does my explanation even make sense? 🙂
I tend to agree with how you handled it, but, I've had an "expert" explain that what they really want is the true next higher floor with the step-up to be addressed in the notes. Your mileage may vary.
Where this gets sloppy is a case of a walk-out basement/garage where you step-up about 0.75 feet to the bottom floor of the entire remainder of the house, then up about four feet to a landing for the main door to enter the house, then up about another four feet to the true main floor of the house. This particular case was further complicated by there being a storage area walled-off from the garage that about had to be counted as living space. Add to that the heating system ran about six inches above the floor of the garage/storage space and most of the other equipment was on the 0.75-foot step up level. Lots and lots of notes and pictures for that one.
> I tend to agree with how you handled it, but, I've had an "expert" explain that what they really want is the true next higher floor with the step-up to be addressed in the notes. Your mileage may vary.
Thanks for the reply. I thought about that, too. But, the step-up would technically be the "next higher floor" -- even if it's not logically what we consider a floor/story/level.
>
> Where this gets sloppy is a case of a walk-out basement/garage where you step-up about 0.75 feet to the bottom floor of the entire remainder of the house, then up about four feet to a landing for the main door to enter the house, then up about another four feet to the true main floor of the house. This particular case was further complicated by there being a storage area walled-off from the garage that about had to be counted as living space. Add to that the heating system ran about six inches above the floor of the garage/storage space and most of the other equipment was on the 0.75-foot step up level. Lots and lots of notes and pictures for that one.
Yikes. That is a mess. In my cases, it's made sense to "ignore" landings. I seem to deal with a lot of additions and there's always a step up/down or two.
I'm not sure if this is right or wrong, but .....
If the bottom floor was either totally in or totally out of the flood zone, I'd use the lower elevation and put an explanatory note in the notes section. Maybe even draw in a diagram.
Now if by some chance the BFE hit within that 0.35' I'd get a whole lot more detailed after I pondered it for a while. And quite frankly, unless the FIRM was very detailed and very accurate, I'd probably "interpolate" the BFE to take in everything - basically to cover my rear end.
> I'm not sure if this is right or wrong, but .....
>
> If the bottom floor was either totally in or totally out of the flood zone, I'd use the lower elevation and put an explanatory note in the notes section. Maybe even draw in a diagram.
>
> Now if by some chance the BFE hit within that 0.35' I'd get a whole lot more detailed after I pondered it for a while. And quite frankly, unless the FIRM was very detailed and very accurate, I'd probably "interpolate" the BFE to take in everything - basically to cover my rear end.
Luckily(not for them), the ground-level floor was 7' below the BFE.:-X
This is how I've done it, as it was taught to us by a CCE instructor who is VERY familiar with FEMA's language and with court cases involving the reading and interpreting of FEMA's language. On another note, the comments section are invaluable. I have even attached full page letters when something was "amiss". Need to be able to explain and justify why you did what you did! 😀
> This is how I've done it, as it was taught to us by a CCE instructor who is VERY familiar with FEMA's language and with court cases involving the reading and interpreting of FEMA's language. On another note, the comments section are invaluable. I have even attached full page letters when something was "amiss". Need to be able to explain and justify why you did what you did! 😀
hlb2, just want to be sure I'm understanding your reply. Are you saying you agree with the way I did it? Thanks.
EDIT--And yes, I always fill up the comments section and usually have an attachment page.:-D
