Elevation Certificates:

To quote the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP): “The Elevation Certificate is to be used to provide elevation information necessary to ensure compliance with the community floodplain management ordinances, to determine the proper insurance premium rate, and to support a request for a Letter of Map Amendment or Revision.” Elevations are transferred from published benchmarks by conventional means and/or GPS techniques. Due to subsidence in the Gulf Coast Area and the fact that a good portion of the Fedaral Emergency Management Agencies FIRM floodmaps are based on 26 and 31 year old elevations, it sometimes requires extensive fieldwork to observe numerous National Geodetic Survey and Reference Mark benchmarks to transfer to the site. For this reason, a properly executed survey for the purpose of filling out the Elevation Certificate can vary tremendously in price, depending on the distance and/or availability of the benchmarks that must be used. New construction sometimes requires the submittal of 3 Elevation Certificates (Pre-Construction, During Construction, and Final Construction).