Elevation Certificates in Davis, CA

Contour Survey prepares FEMA elevation certificates in Davis, Yolo County, for buyers, owners and lenders who need a building's real elevations against the FEMA map.

Elevation certificates from $1,000 · (510) 543-2220

Elevation Certificates in Davis: Local Conditions

The City of Davis says it is at low risk for storm-related flooding, and most of the city is outside FEMA's Special Flood Hazard Area. The county around it is a different story. FEMA issued Yolo County's Flood Insurance Rate Maps, including the Davis panels, on June 18, 2010. Yolo County sits in a natural floodplain, and its SFHAs run along the Colusa Basin Drain near Dunnigan and Knights Landing, along Cache Creek, and along the Sacramento River and the Yolo Bypass. South of Interstate 80, the 100-year SFHA stops at the west levee of the Yolo Bypass. Davis is on flat valley ground at an average elevation of about 52 feet, so a few feet of grade can decide which side of a line a property falls on.

The 2010 maps changed things across the county. FEMA required existing levees to be certified against standards set in 1986. As the City puts it, the local levees had not changed, but none of the Yolo County levees were certified before the mapping deadline. As a result, tens of thousands of people across the county had to buy flood insurance by spring 2010. Under the federal rule, homes in a Special Flood Hazard Area with federally backed mortgages must carry flood insurance, and other lenders can require it under their own policies. In Davis the question usually comes up when a lender's flood determination puts a building in an A zone.

A Davis elevation certificate starts with a benchmark tie on the FIRM's vertical datum, then lowest adjacent grade, the lowest floor, crawlspace or slab, garage and machinery elevations, photographs, and a certified EC. If your building shows up in an A zone but the ground at the structure is at or above the base flood elevation, we can prepare the data for a letter of map amendment and submit through eLOMA when the request qualifies. If the house turns out to be lower than you hoped, the EC still gives your agent real numbers to rate the policy on instead of assumptions. See our elevation certificate service, nearby Woodland and West Sacramento, or our Davis area page.

Full service details, process, and deliverables: FEMA Elevation Certificates & LOMA · All surveying in Davis: Davis land surveying

What's Included

Signed and sealed by a California Professional Land Surveyor
Completed on FEMA Form FF-206-FY-22-152, with the required photographs
Elevations tied to a published benchmark on the flood map’s vertical datum
eLOMA submission as a licensed professional when the building qualifies
Construction-stage ECs for permits: construction drawings, building under construction, and finished construction
Sacramento region, Central Valley, Delta, and Bay Area

Our Process

Address & Flood Map Check

Send the address and the reason you need the certificate: lender letter, insurance quote, building permit, or a LOMA. We pull the effective FIRM panel, flood zone, and Base Flood Elevation before quoting, and tell you up front if a LOMA looks possible.

Benchmark Tie

We tie the site to a published benchmark on the vertical datum the flood map uses, with GNSS and a total station. Every elevation on the certificate is measured from that tie, not estimated from a contour map.

Building Measurement

We measure the top of the bottom floor, the next higher floor, the garage slab, the lowest and highest adjacent grade, the lowest machinery and equipment, and the flood openings, and take the photographs the form requires.

Signed EC, and the LOMA if It Qualifies

You receive the completed, signed Elevation Certificate as a PDF. If the lowest adjacent grade is at or above the Base Flood Elevation, we prepare the LOMA request and submit it to FEMA, through eLOMA when the building meets its criteria.

Elevation Certificates in Davis: FAQ

Mostly not. The City considers itself low risk for storm flooding, and south of I-80 the mapped 100-year floodplain stops at the west levee of the Yolo Bypass. Some parcels do fall in Special Flood Hazard Areas on the 2010 FIRM, so check your address on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center rather than assuming.

FEMA required levees to be certified to standards set in 1986. None of the Yolo County levees were certified before the deadline for the 2010 mapping, so FEMA mapped the areas behind them as if the levees did not protect them. That put tens of thousands of people into flood insurance requirements, according to the City of Davis.

If the house is clearly outside the SFHA, you usually do not need one. An EC is useful when a lender's determination disagrees with you, when a map line crosses the lot, or when you want documented elevations for insurance. It does not expire unless the building is changed in a way that affects the certified data.

Need Elevation Certificates in Davis?

Elevation certificates start at $1,000. Call (510) 543-2220 with the Davis address and we'll check the flood map and give you a fixed price.

Get a Quoteor(510) 543-2220

Private licensed surveyor, not affiliated with FEMA • Homeowners welcome • Response within 24 hours

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