Culvert pipes are key to preventing flood damage to your property. You can use the below as a guide to help maintain, monitor and fix damaged culvert pipes.

Maintain

Maintenance should be carried out regularly to ensure your culvert pipes are in the best shape to handle any impending floods.

• Grates should be unobstructed and sediment under the grate should be removed
• Openings should be free of sediment, rubbish and debris
• Remove any obstructions you can see including large branches, overgrown fencing and any other barriers
• Keep streambed and overflow areas clear of bulky, rigid plants.
• Trim low-level streamside plants to keep overflow areas clear, but keep taller plants to shade the stream.-

 Monitor

• Put a permanent marker post in streambeds to record water levels during floods
• Record and date flooding and property damage (take photos, keep notes, record levels on post) to check if flood area is increasing or water is taking longer to drain away.

Check for Damage

If you notice any of the following you may need to investigate repairing your culvert pipe:

• Voids through separated joints or holes in the culvert
• Bending or settling of the pipe alignment
• Misaligned pipe joints
• Cracks
• Corrosion inside existing cracks
• Poorly compacted or loose bedding materials
• Crimped pipe (in flexible culvert pipes)
• Torn bolt holes (in flexible culvert pipes)

If you’ve noticed unusual or poor drainage through your culvert, you may want to investigate culvert pipe repair. Timely repairs can help extend the lifespan of your culvert, as well as protecting your property from damage.

Restore using Euroflo Culvert Pipe

In many cases you can replace a damaged culvert pipe, made from any material (concrete, steel or plastic) using Euroflo culvert pipe. Euroflo comes in sizes from 160mm to 2150mm diameter. Made from HDPE plastic, Euroflo is light, easy to handle and maintenance free. The 5.8m lengths are ribbed on the outside for strength and have a smooth bore for faster flow.

Correctly installed Euroflo culvert pipe will last 100 years. To repair, in some cases, Euroflo can be used to slide inside existing damaged culvert pipe without the need for a complete extraction and new installation. Contact us for further information on how to fix your damaged culvert pipe using Euroflo.

Download a pdf of this guide here

Check out this culvert pipe damaged in the recent flooding in Rotorua