Revisions to the Elevation Certificate

More clarification on the difference between Building types 1A and 1B. What dictates ƒ??Raisedƒ?? Is it raised if itƒ??s up 0.1ƒ?? of natural grade on all sides?

I liked where you had to sign each page, seemed it made it harder for someone to forged the document.

Scott Ellis, post: 456201, member: 7154 wrote: I liked where you had to sign each page, seemed it made it harder for someone to forged the document.

ABSOLUTELY!

It would also be nice if the text was removed from the seal area so the seal is legible...

Tim Libs, post: 456199, member: 12482 wrote: More clarification on the difference between Building types 1A and 1B. What dictates ƒ??Raisedƒ?? Is it raised if itƒ??s up 0.1ƒ?? of natural grade on all sides?

To me 1B means the slab itself is raised on fill above the adjacent grade. A typical slab house is 1A. If they built a chain wall with concrete blocks, filled it with soil, then poured a slab on top, that would be 1B. In my opinion.

I think there should be a 5A and 5B. 5A should be raised with no obstructions (currently 5). 5B should be raised with obstructions. Currently 6 is raised with enclosure(s).

I've seen numerous houses build on piers with a brick facade on 1 or 2 sides. That doesn't meet the definition of enclosure but it's also not free of obstructions. After several phone calls with FEMA, it was suggested that I use diagram 6, but list 0 for area of enclosure.

Remove the REQUIREMENT for pictures. Let that be optional, similar to the comments sectIon.

Holy Cow, post: 456274, member: 50 wrote: Remove the REQUIREMENT for pictures.

...at least the requirement for COLOR pictures, anyway. I cannot train my laser printer to print in color, try as I might.

They provide some desk jockey who has never witnessed the work involved in obtaining the data the opportunity to question your information because he THINKS he sees something contrary to your data. Six months later you may or may not be done.

Add a comment page with header. Every EC I have has at least one page of comments.

I like the photos. They provide some baseline of existing conditions.

Holy Cow, post: 456274, member: 50 wrote: Remove the REQUIREMENT for pictures. Let that be optional, similar to the comments sectIon.

The pictures are part of the fun of doing a EC

I don't understand how they represent fun unless there are sunbathers by the pool.

Holy Cow, post: 456412, member: 50 wrote: I don't understand how they represent fun unless there are sunbathers by the pool.

Well there are hedges you have to work around to get a photo of one side of the residence. You have to climb the fence to get into the neighbors yard to get another photo of another side of the house. Come to think of it they're not so fun. I've never got a critic of my photos so I don't if that's what they want for photos or if anybody even looks at them. Now you've depressed me.

Skeeter1996, post: 456443, member: 9224 wrote: I've never got a critic of my photos so I don't if that's what they want for photos or if anybody even looks at them.

I don't think they look at them either. We do so many "cookie cutter houses" we could use the same pic's for all the certs we do and they would never know the difference. 😮

It may be that I am tech challenged. However: I would like to be able to save the document as a dead pdf document. When I attempt to print or save the document as a pdf it is still interactive. I can see some use for this, but would rather send my client a document that is not fillable.

Steve D, post: 456455, member: 433 wrote: It may be that I am tech challenged. However: I would like to be able to save the document as a dead pdf document. When I attempt to print or save the document as a pdf it is still interactive. I can see some use for this, but would rather send my client a document that is not fillable.

Print it as a pdf with a pdf printer. That will kill it.

An example of second guessing by a desk jockey: One time a photo showed an A/C unit next to the attached garage/concrete driveway. It was the lowest equipment servicing the house. The top of the pad was a few tenths higher than the garage elevation. The desk jockey's view was that the A/C was lower than the garage elevation. I was directed to reshoot the A/C and report the true elevation. I HAD reported the true elevation. I offered to provide a guided tour to the site so he could see the true circumstance.

Perhaps I should have removed all obscuring grass, laid prone on the ground and provided a worm's eye view in the photo.

Holy Cow, post: 456469, member: 50 wrote: An example of second guessing by a desk jockey: One time a photo showed an A/C unit next to the attached garage/concrete driveway. It was the lowest equipment servicing the house. The top of the pad was a few tenths higher than the garage elevation. The desk jockey's view was that the A/C was lower than the garage elevation. I was directed to reshoot the A/C and report the true elevation. I HAD reported the true elevation. I offered to provide a guided tour to the site so he could see the true circumstance.

Perhaps I should have removed all obscuring grass, laid prone on the ground and provided a worm's eye view in the photo.

Interesting to hear. I've never heard a peep about the pictures on any I've done. One time when they changed OPUS I used the wrong elevation and they had compared my elevation with a topo quad and brought the 30 foot dicrepancy to my attention. To say the least I was a little red faced. I attach a topo and the firmette of the location for every EC I do now.

My wish is that the elevation boxes would not automatically default to the nearest one hundreth of a foot (0.01), particularly on the low/high ground shots. I know that's probably a minor thing, but it implies a precision that's not really there. We can't really measure dirt to the nearest one hundreth of a foot, at least repeatedly, so I can just imagine some bureaucrat making a big deal out of a few hundreths.

How about a fillable PDF, that actually works, auto fills in the correct areas, and is savable on our systems. You know, at the time it is released, not years after the fact, or required to be fixed by awesome Beer Leg members.