Storey

Storey

A storey (British English), story (American English) or floor level is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people for work, play, a place to live, etc. The word is known as storeys in the United Kingdom and stories in the United States.

Both British and American English have different floor numbering systems. In British English, the level above the ground floor is the "first floor", whereas in American English, it is the " second floor".

Basements may be considered storeys, especially if they're partly above ground, as in a walkout basement. In which cases, it's typically called the "lower floor", " lower ground floor ", " terrace level ", etc. In some buildings, the top storey is a finished attic or garret.

Storeys can be used to classify buildings as low-rise, mid-rise or high-rise.

Low-rise buildings have one to four storeys.

A mid-rise building is typically 5-9 storeys.

And a high-rise building is typically 10 or more storeys.

Storey Media

• 

  A storey plan (the red floor would be the 5th in North American convention, or 4th in the European convention)

• 

  Countries numbering floor system*     European scheme      North American scheme      Both schemes      No data

• 

  Unusual floor numbering that reads B (basement floor), LG (lower ground floor), G, (ground floor), UG (upper ground floor), 1 (first floor), L2 (lower 2nd floor) and 2 (second floor).

• 

  A large elevator panel in a North American high-rise omits several floors as well as designating three separate levels as penthouse floors.

• 

  An elevator control panel in an apartment building in Shanghai. Floors 4, 13 and 14 are missing.

• 

  Letter boxes of a residential building built in the 1970s in Hong Kong. The Chinese and English floor numberings use the traditional Chinese and the British systems, respectively, resulting in different numbers.

• 

  A Dover Custom Impulse Elevator control panel with floor numbering. In most buildings in the US and Canada with more than 12 floors, there is no floor numbered 13. The ☆ indicates the main entry floor.