I feel like I've asked this a hundred times, but can't seem to find it in a search.
Yet another home, style 6, but with an intermediate enclosed area at the entry.
Up half a flight of stairs to the front door. Inside to an area open to the rest of the house, like a big foyer or landing. then either up or down another half flight of stairs to wherever you are going.
I always measure that landing area as the "C2. b) Next highest floor" but of course, that drives the insurance people nuts as it's usually below the BFE. (99.9% of the time)
Has anyone found an actual FEMA document that explains how to handle this??? I mean OFFICIAL, not a he said, she said from a seminar.
andy
> I feel like I've asked this a hundred times, but can't seem to find it in a search.
>
> Yet another home, style 6, but with an intermediate enclosed area at the entry.
> Up half a flight of stairs to the front door. Inside to an area open to the rest of the house, like a big foyer or landing. then either up or down another half flight of stairs to wherever you are going.
>
> I always measure that landing area as the "C2. b) Next highest floor" but of course, that drives the insurance people nuts as it's usually below the BFE. (99.9% of the time)
>
> Has anyone found an actual FEMA document that explains how to handle this??? I mean OFFICIAL, not a he said, she said from a seminar.
>
> andy
I've come across a few dozen scenarios like this where the limited options you have for an el. cert. don't make sense with the building.
I use the floor above the landing for C2.B, and my justification is that the instructions for #7 buildings says that the elevated floor is the "principal use floor", which to me means more than just a landing (you can see that one in the building diagram descriptions). Another thing is that sub-BFE landings/entry ways of less than 300 sq. ft. get some sort of special treatment by FEMA. So, I note in the comment section the elevation and sq. ft. of the landing.
You can find a lot of references to the 300 sq. ft. rule in the this doc:
http://www.fema.gov/pdf/nfip/manual201105/content/07_lfg.pdf