Tell me about building in flood zone A in Louisiana. Trying to find out flood ins cost bef

Ask your insurance agent.

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Ask your insurance agent.

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Ask your bank. Insurance agents don’t make any rules

I guess Im trying to find out how high flood insurance will be before I purchase the lot. I haven't had the house plans drawn up yet either.

My house ended up in a flood zone with the new maps despite being above base flood elevation (flood zone ends in my backyard ). I had the survey done and filed a LOMA with FEMA. Also sent paperwork to insurance agent and I'm back to paying $450 a year.

This is Louisiana, always have flood insurance.

When you get to a certain height above the base flood elevation, the yearly cost for insurance is the minimum, which is around $500 to max out both structure ($250k) and contents ($100k)

Try this

LINK

I am a retired surveyor and can offer the following suggestions. A flood zone A with nothing behind it and a flood zone A with a number or letter behind it are two completely different things.

Lets start with the latter, flood zone A with a number or letter behind it, has a BFE or base flood elevation determined. You have to build at or above the BFE. Examples would be AE or A10. A BFE is an elevation for the lowest floor and/or mechanical equipment servicing the structure. FEMA uses diagram numbers which reflects the type of construction used to show where to measure the lowest floor elevation for certificates. A few examples would be slab on grade, elevated on pier or pilings, basements and elevated on crawl space. Each diagram number instructs the surveyor where to measure the lowest floor plus other required measurements.

FEMA has requirements but the city or parish can have higher requirements than FEMA, so always check with the floodplain manager, who is more than likely the planning director about this. He/She can give you both requirements if different. Insurance is based on FEMAs BFE. As others have stated the higher you go above the BFE the cheaper your flood insurance will be which is required in a Zone A for at least the mortgage amount. Above the BFE FEMA rounds off to the nearest foot and certificates are measured to the nearest tenth of a foot. If a BFE was 100' and you build to a 101.6 the insurance would be based on a 102' elevation or a +2'.

A flood zone A with nothing behind it doesn't have a BFE determined by FEMA. Check with the floodplain manager on who determines the BFEs, it may be the corps of engineers or you may have to hire an engineering firm. If this is the case I would build well above the BFE and get everything in writing or well documented.

Often I would be asked to determine the ground elevations for a potential buyer at a potential building site but would only do it with the sellers permission.

You are dealing with FEMA, the local Floodplain manager, surveyors, lenders, insurance agent and building designer to all come together for a go, no go project. Each has his/her own responsibility. An insurance agent can run the "what if" numbers about flood insurance cost once you know the flood zone, BFE, potential lowest floor elevation, diagram number and building/contents amount. The building amount has to be at or above the mortgage amount, the contents amount is optional.

I wouldn't rely on realtors info. Also don't rely on assessor maps for elevations. I have seen them within a half of a foot and off by 5' or more. Please note the disclaimer on assessors maps about the information it contains which includes property lines and elevations.

If you have other questions leave contact info and we can talk.

Thanks for the detailed info. I reached out to a few contacts Ive found and finally found the community floodplain manager. Ive got an email out to him now.

The height you build above the BFE is called freeboard. Here is an article about it.

LINK

Another suggestion is if you do build in an area with a BFE usually a surveyor will set a bench mark, something with an elevation near the location of your project. The contractor will use the bench mark to construct your house at the proper elevation. Its an added expense but have the surveyor check, lets say for a house on slab, the top of the form boards prior to pouring concrete.

I have done many of these checks and found 3 mistakes by the contractor, all too low. A few hours and a few form boards later, the mistakes were fixed. I have also done 2 or 3 where the contractor was too low and the concrete was already poured, ouch.