Retaining wall assessment software
A retaining wall assessment is called for when a wall leans, cracks or bulges, when a boundary wall is in dispute, or when a buyer wants to know whether that sleeper wall is about to cost them. The engineer’s report needs the wall’s geometry, its construction, the drainage behind it and the signs of distress, and then a judgement on stability and the next step. SurveyThanks captures each wall segment with its own measurements and photographs.
Built for engineers running teams of roughly 3–50 inspectors.
Sample Wall condition report
An illustrative excerpt. The site, readings and findings are fictional; the layout is yours to set.
Wall condition report
Wall W2 — Rear boundary, 15 Mockup Parade
- Wall type
- Timber sleeper with steel posts
- Retained height
- 1.4 m maximum
- Inspected
- 10 June 2026, after three days of rain
| Check | Observation | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Lean | 45 mm out of plumb over 1.2 m at post 4 | Assessment: Distress |
| Sleepers | Rot at ground contact, bays 3–5 | Assessment: Deteriorated |
| Drainage | No weep holes; water ponding at the base | Assessment: Inadequate |
| Surcharge | Neighbour’s shed within 1 m of the wall top | Assessment: Noted |
Fields captured on site
Your firm builds the form in-app, so these are a starting point rather than a fixed schema. Every field is captured on the device, with or without signal, and lands in the wall condition report where your template puts it.
Per wall segment
- Wall ID and location
- Construction type
- Length (m)
- Maximum retained height (m)
- On boundary (Y / N)
Condition
- Out-of-plumb measurement (mm)
- Cracking or bulging
- Drainage present and functioning
- Surcharge loads above the wall
Outcome
- Stability assessment
- Recommended action
- Urgency
- Photos with comment
Standards the report works to
- AS 4678-2002Earth-retaining structures
- The design standard a replacement wall is specified to, and the reference for drainage and surcharge considerations.
Load the standards you hold into your reference library and the drafted prose is written against them rather than against a general model.
How the wall condition report gets built
Capture it once, offline
Your firm builds the retaining wall assessment form in-app — 25 field types, nesting repeatable groups, compound AND/OR visibility rules, reusable modules and calculated fields. Field capture works with no signal: jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio all queue in an idempotent outbox that only clears once the server confirms receipt.
Link it to your rooms and external areas
Enter rooms and external areas once, as a register. Every one of your defects, photos and timber pest findings then points at a stored row rather than a name somebody typed — and the links survive a disconnected device.
Render your own template
The wall condition report renders into the Word template you already use — your letterhead, your section order, your clause library — with conditionals, loops over repeats, composable sub-templates and photo grids.
Reviewed before it leaves
You write the review framework: a checklist of what a wall condition report must contain, plus the prose standards you would mark a junior against. Link it to a report template and it runs every time that template renders. Each finding comes back graded info, minor or major, quoting the sentence at fault, and a person accepts or dismisses every one.
Because the structured submission behind the report is held too, the review is a comparison rather than a proofread: The summary says no major defects were found; the form carries a major structural defect on the rear wall.
Checks a residential property framework usually carries
- The standard’s required wording, limitations and exclusions are all present
- Every area is either reported on or listed as not accessed, with a reason
- Each defect in the summary appears in the body at the same severity
- Timber pest findings carry the risk statement the standard requires
Questions
- Can a property with several walls be one report?
- Yes. Each wall is a repeatable section with its own measurements, photos and assessment, and the summary table lists them all.
- Can the form prompt for drainage details only when they apply?
- Visibility rules can show follow-up questions only when an answer calls for them, such as drainage details only when water is present behind the wall.
- Will the software decide whether the wall is stable?
- No. The engineer makes that judgement on the form. The drafting step writes it up from the engineer’s answers and your own methodology.
What this is not
Worth knowing before you book a demo, so neither of us wastes the half hour.
- Not field-service dispatch. No timesheets, no parts, no inventory. Scheduling exists to get an inspector to a site.
- No signature capture. If your deliverable has to carry a signed sign-off on the artefact itself, this is not the tool yet.
- Field capture is what works offline — jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio. Reports, chat, scheduling and the inbox need a connection.
- No client portal. Reports go out as a file or a password-protected link.
Other residential property work we cover
- Mould inspectionsMould assessment report
- New-build handover inspectionsPCI defect report
- Owner-builder defect inspectionsDefect schedule
- Pre-auction inspectionsCondition summary report
- Pre-purchase building inspectionsBuilding inspection report
- Pre-settlement inspectionsSettlement checklist report
- Property photography ordersPhoto floorplan package
- Rental entry condition reportsEntry condition report
Other disciplines
Rebuild your wall condition report in SurveyThanks
Bring the Word template you already send clients. If you are coming off another field-forms tool, a filled report can be uploaded, read field by field, and re-rendered into your template.