Groundfloor - Numbering

Numbering

Floor numbering is the numbering scheme used for a building's floors. There are two major schemes in use across the world. In one system, used in the majority of Europe, the ground floor is the floor on the ground and often has no number or is assigned the number zero. Therefore the next floor up is assigned the number 1 and is the first floor. The other system, used primarily in the United States, counts the bottom floor as number 1 or first floor. The next floor up then becomes the second floor and so on. Having the first floor above the ground floor means that subterranean levels (often listed with increasing depth as B1, B2..) can be counted without having a gap at 0 (ground). In both systems, the numbering of higher floors continues sequentially as one goes up, as shown in the following table:

Each scheme has further variations depending on how one refers to the ground floor and the subterranean levels. The existence of two incompatible conventions is a common source of confusion in international communication, sometimes even between communities who speak the same language.

In all English-speaking countries, however, the storeys in a building are counted in the same way. Thus, for example, the phrase a seven-storey building would mean the same thing in Britain and in the US — namely, a building with seven covered floors, including one at ground level and six at higher levels; even though the topmost of those levels would be called "6th floor" in Britain, and "7th floor" in the US. Some count mezzanines as storeys, some ignore them.