CulvertCheck

$79 · no app

Know whether your culvert is safe, clear and doing its job.

Three to five photos and a location. You get a written screen: condition, blockage, erosion, the pipe, the inlet and outlet, the risks, the repair, and how soon. The photos come back with the problems marked.

$79 a culvert once someone is paying. The first visits can be given away, or charged at $20–$40, until you know the answer is yes. This page writes the screen immediately and does not take a card.

Inspect a culvertRead a sample screen

What they receive

A worked example. The marks sit on the actual problems in the frames: debris, the silt shelf, outlet scour, a branch, the headwall in the grass. Points are added only for what is visible.

CulvertCheck · photographic condition screen

SAMPLE

Gravel driveway crossing

Example only — not a site anyone visited

Date
Example sheet
Pin
No pin

Condition

Watch

Risk

55/100

MODERATE

The pipe still passes water, but the inlet is fouling and the outlet is losing its ground.

This sheet is an example, built so you can see the product before you photograph a real culvert. On these photos the barrel is open and the concrete looks continuous. The inlet is partly closed by grass, sticks and silt, and the outlet has no apron — the pipe sticks out of an eroded bank with roots exposed.

  • Heavy vegetation

    Grass and reeds across the inlet, and rank growth over the outlet drain.

    +15

  • Erosion

    Scour at the outlet, exposed roots, pipe end unsupported.

    +20

  • Blockage

    Sticks and a silt shelf. The barrel still passes light.

    +12

  • Silt

    A shelf at the inlet and a film on the invert, not a full choke.

    +8

Blockage

Not fully blocked. Sticks and a silt shelf sit across the lower part of the inlet, and grass is growing into the mouth. Water is still moving. The barrel shows daylight at the far end.

Erosion

The outlet bank is bare clay. A trickle falls from the invert onto the face, and a mat of roots is exposed beside the pipe. There is no rock apron. Left alone, that scour walks back under the crossing.

Pipe

Round concrete. In the barrel photo the walls look continuous and no open joint is obvious in this light. Diameter is not measurable from the photos. Do not treat that as a clean bill of health for the buried length.

Inlet

Mass headwall, rough but seated. The opening is restricted by vegetation and a silt shelf. The headwall itself does not show a crack in this frame.

Outlet

No headwall. The pipe end is proud of the bank and the invert is unsupported. That is the part most likely to drop or crack.

Visible risks

  • The inlet can blind if the grass mats in a fresh.
  • Outlet scour can undercut the edge of the driveway.
  • A hanging pipe end cracks once the ground under it goes.
  • Long grass hides whether the downstream drain is still open.

What needs doing

  1. Hand-clear grass, sticks and the silt shelf at the inlet.
  2. Cut the downstream grass so the outlet stays visible.
  3. Have a drainage contractor bench the clay and set a small rock apron.
  4. Measure the pipe on site. Photos will not give you the diameter.
  5. Photograph it again after the next heavy rain.

Urgency

soon — Do the clearing now. The apron can wait for a contractor, but not for another winter of scour.

Recommended repair

Owner can clear the inlet and the grass. A drainage contractor should set a graded rock apron so the pipe end is no longer hanging, and check the pipe is still bedded. These photos do not justify digging the pipe out or replacing it.

Maintenance window

6–18 months

Next look

After the next heavy rain, then again inside that window.

Photos

Inlet. Grass, sticks and a silt shelf across the opening.Debris in the openingSilt shelf
Inlet. Grass, sticks and a silt shelf across the opening.
Outlet. The pipe end is hanging in a scoured clay face.Scour and rootsUnsupported end
Outlet. The pipe end is hanging in a scoured clay face.
Barrel. Daylight at the far end. One loose branch.Loose branch
Barrel. Daylight at the far end. One loose branch.
The crossing. The near headwall is almost lost in the drain.Headwall in the grass
The crossing. The near headwall is almost lost in the drain.

Flood history is not in these photos, so it scores nothing. Pipe size, cover depth and the buried joints are unknown until someone is on the ground with a tape.

Example only. These photos were made to show the sheet. They are not a culvert anyone visited, and the score is not a rating of a real asset. This is not a chartered engineering inspection, a producer statement, or a promise the culvert will pass a storm. If a road, a house, or stock water depends on it, a drainage contractor or a chartered engineer should look before anyone digs or replaces the pipe.

Inspect a culvert

Inlet, the pipe if you can see into it, and the outlet. Add the crossing if you have a fourth. Five is the maximum.

Photos · 0 of 5

Add 3 more photos. Inlet, barrel, outlet.

The book

Every screen kept on this phone becomes a record: asset, pin, photos, condition, defects, repair, and the next look. Nothing here is an account. It stays in this browser.

Nothing saved yet. The first one is numbered CUL-1048.

Ten places to start

Auckland and the Coromandel, where you can stand on a public road. These are not surveyed culverts and they have no condition rating. Do not cross a fence. If it is a driveway, ask.

Who it is for

Rural owners, driveway contractors, drainage contractors, property managers, civil crews, farms, lifestyle blocks, and anyone who insures them.

We inspect and digitally record culverts and drainage assets so you know what needs fixing before it becomes an expensive problem.

The record is the company. Culvert first, then drainage, driveway, retaining wall, stormwater, and the rest of the property. First target: one hundred inspected assets. If that does not happen, the lesson was cheap.