Floor numbering is the
numbering scheme used for a building's floors. There are two major schemes in use across the world. In the first system, used in such countries as the United States, Canada, China, Finland, Japan, Norway, Russia, and other ex-Soviet states, the number of floors is counted literally; that is, when one enters a building through the ground-level front door, one walks quite literally on the first
floor; the storey above it therefore counts as the second
floor. In the other system, used in the majority of European countries, floor at ground level is called the "ground floor", frequently having no number (or "0"); the next floor up is assigned the number 1 and is the first floor (first
elevation), the first basement level gets '−1', and so on. In both systems, the numbering of higher floors continues sequentially as one goes up, as shown in the following table:
Consecutive number floor designations 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. However, in all English-speaking countries, the storeys in a building are
counted in the same way: a "seven-storey building" is unambiguous, although the top floor would be called "6th floor" in Britain and "7th floor" in America. This contrasts, for example, with French usage, where a 7-storey building is called
une maison à 6 (six) étages. Mezzanines may or may not be counted as storeys.
European scheme Floor at ground level This convention can be traced back to Medieval European usage. In countries that use this system, the floor at ground level is usually referred to by a special name, usually translating as "ground floor" or equivalent. For example, ("ground floor") in Germany (sometimes however, , adopted from French),
piano terra or () in Italy,
begane grond () in the Netherlands,
planta baja (Castilian) or
planta baixa (Catalan) in Spain (both meaning "bottom floor"),
beheko solairua in Basque,
andar térreo ("ground floor") in Brazil,
rés-do-chão ("adjacent to the ground") in Portugal, ("ground level") in Hungary (although in Budapest the ("half floor", i.e.
mezzanine) is an extra level between the ground and first floors, apparently a circumevention of construction regulations of the 19th and early 20th centuries), (from French
street level, where
rez is the old French of
ras ("scraped"), ("street").) in France,
parter in Poland and Romania, ("by the ground") in Slovakia, and ("close to the ground") in Slovenia. In some countries that use this scheme, the higher floors may be explicitly qualified as being above the ground level, such as in Slovenian
prvo nadstropje (literally "first floor above ceiling (of the ground storey)").
First elevation, Europe, Latin America In many countries in Europe, the second storey is called the "first floor", for being the first elevation. Besides Europe, this scheme is mostly used in some large Latin American countries (including Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay), and British
Commonwealth nations (except
Singapore and
Canada).
First elevation, Spain In Spain, the level above ground level (the
mezzanine) is sometimes called ( in Catalan, etc., which literally means "interfloor"), and elevators may skip it. When the next level is different from the others, usually with higher ceiling and better decorations, then it is called
principal (main floor)
. This is because before elevators the apartments in the floor that required less stairs to reach was the most expensive and usually also the most luxurious one. In those cases the "first floor" can therefore be two or three levels above ground level.
First elevation, Italy In Italy, in the ancient palaces the first floor is called
piano nobile ("noble floor"), since the noble owners of the palace lived there.
First elevation, France In France, there are two distinct names for storeys at ground level, depending on whether it faces the street (called ,) or a garden (called ). Buildings which have two "ground floors" at different levels (on two opposite faces, usually) might have both.
First elevation, Croatia The same differentiation is used as well in some buildings in Croatia. The lower level is called (abbr.
RA), and the upper
prizemlje (PR). If there is only one ground floor, it is called . The latter usage is standard for smaller buildings, such as single-family homes.
North American schemes In the United States, the first floor and ground floor are usually equivalent, being at ground level, and may also be called the "lobby" or "main floor" to indicate the entrance to the building. The storey just above it is the second floor, and so on. The English-speaking parts of Canada generally follow the American convention, although Canada has kept the Commonwealth spelling "storey". In
Quebec, the European scheme was formerly used (as in France), but by now it has been mostly replaced by the US system, so that
rez-de-chaussée and
premier étage ("first stage") are now generally equivalent in Quebec. Mexico, on the other hand, uses the European system. The North American scheme is used in
Finland,
Norway, and
Iceland. In the grammar of the respective languages, the numbers precede the word "floor", and are
cardinals rather than
ordinals, so they would translate literally as "1 floor (1F), 2 floor (2F)" (etc.), rather than "1st floor, 2nd floor", or "floor 1, floor 2".
Singapore In Singapore, the British system of numbering originally prevailed. This was replaced in March 1983 with the North American scheme to create a simplified and consistent standard of numbering storeys. To emphasise the difference from the original scheme, reference is frequently made to storeys rather than floors, where the third (3rd) floor becomes either the fourth (4th) storey/level (storey/level 4). Many buildings continue to label storeys or levels rather than floors. However, in the absence of clear official distinction between the terms, the meaning of "floors" and "levels" have become interchangeable with "storey"; this is reflected in newer buildings. Some buildings in Singapore do use SL (Street Level) for ground level, while others such as
Nex and
West Coast Plaza uses the European scheme, albeit using "Basement 1" for ground level storey.
Vietnam Vietnam uses both the North American and European schemes, generally depending on the region. In northern and central Vietnam, including the capital
Hanoi, refers to any floor, including the ground floor, which is called . Meanwhile, in southern Vietnam, refers to the ground floor and refers to any floor above it, starting at directly above the ground floor. A national standard,
TCVN 6003-1:2012 (
ISO 4157-1:1998), requires architectural drawings to follow the northern scheme. It also refers to a
crawl space as . However, a given building's floor designations are unregulated. Thus, some apartment buildings in the largest city,
Ho Chi Minh City, have posted floor numbers according to the northern scheme, while others label the ground floor as "G" or the
thirteenth floor as "12
bis". To avoid ambiguity, business forms often ask that storey numbers in address fields be written
as accessed from an elevator. In colloquial speeches, the character "" maybe added before the number to emphasise it refers to the Chinese style of numbering, e.g. "" (literally "Chinese 3 floor"), or the character "" added after the number to refer to the British style of numbering as shown in an elevator, e.g. 2 (literally "2 digit floor", floor with number 2), while in writing in Chinese,
Chinese numerals are used for Chinese style numbering, and
Arabic numerals are used for British style numbering. In Hawaii, the Hawaiian-language floor label uses the British system, but the English-language floor label uses the American system. For example,
Papa akolu (P3) is equivalent to Level 4 (4 or L4). In Greenland, the Greenlandic-language floor label uses the American system, but the Danish-language floor label uses the British system.
Plan pingasut (P3) is equivalent to Level 2 (
Plan to or P2). ==Elevator buttons==