Understanding PACP Condition Grades: What Your Sewer Inspection Report Really Means
You’ve just received a CCTV sewer inspection report, and it’s full of numbers: Grade 3 here, Grade 5 there, quick ratings, segment scores. What do they actually mean — and which pipes need attention first?
At 360 Pipes, every inspection we deliver is coded to the NASSCO Pipeline Assessment Certification Program (PACP) standard. This post breaks down how PACP condition grades work in plain language, so you can read your report with confidence and make smart decisions about repair and rehabilitation budgets.
What Is PACP?
PACP is the North American standard for evaluating sewer pipe condition, developed by NASSCO (the National Association of Sewer Service Companies). Instead of an operator’s personal opinion — “this pipe looks pretty rough” — PACP gives every defect a standardized code and severity grade. That means a Grade 4 crack in Folsom means the same thing as a Grade 4 crack in Fresno, and your engineering team can compare inspections across years, contractors, and entire collection systems.
As a proud NASSCO member with PACP, MACP, and LACP certified operators, 360 Pipes codes every observation during our CCTV pipeline inspections — not after the fact from memory.
The Five PACP Condition Grades
Every defect observed during an inspection receives a grade from 1 to 5. Here’s what each grade tells you:
Grade 1 — Minor Defect
Excellent condition. Minor cosmetic observations with no real risk of failure. These pipes typically need no action beyond routine monitoring on your normal inspection cycle.
Grade 2 — Minor to Moderate Defect
Pipe has not begun to deteriorate in any meaningful way. Failure is unlikely in the foreseeable future. Keep these segments on a standard re-inspection schedule.
Grade 3 — Moderate Defect
Deterioration is underway. The pipe may continue to decline over time, and these segments should be flagged for monitoring and included in medium-term rehabilitation planning — typically within a 5 to 10 year window.
Grade 4 — Significant Defect
The pipe has significant deterioration and will likely fail within the foreseeable future. These segments belong in your near-term capital improvement plan.
Grade 5 — Most Significant Defect
Failure is imminent or has already occurred. Grade 5 defects — collapses, large holes, severe deformation — demand immediate attention. Left unaddressed, these are the defects that lead to sinkholes, sewage backups, and emergency repairs at several times the cost of planned rehabilitation. We covered how quickly that can escalate in our post on how sinkholes cause critical damage.
Structural vs. O&M Grades: Two Different Stories
One of the most useful features of PACP is that it separates defects into two families:
Structural defects describe the physical condition of the pipe itself — cracks, fractures, holes, deformation, broken pipe. These tell you about the pipe’s remaining life and drive rehabilitation and replacement decisions.
Operations & Maintenance (O&M) defects describe conditions affecting flow — roots, grease, debris, deposits. These tell you where cleaning is needed. Many O&M issues are fully resolved with professional hydro jetting and pipe cleaning rather than construction.
A pipe can score high on one scale and low on the other. A structurally sound pipe choked with grease needs cleaning, not replacement. A clean pipe with circumferential fractures needs engineering attention even though flow looks fine on camera. Reading both scores together is what turns an inspection report into an asset management tool.
How Segment Ratings Help You Prioritize
Beyond individual defect grades, PACP rolls observations up into segment-level ratings — including a quick rating that summarizes the highest-severity defects in each pipe run and overall scores that account for how many defects are present.
This is where the real budgeting power comes in. When your entire collection system is coded to the same standard, you can rank every segment from worst to best and direct rehabilitation dollars where they’ll prevent the most failures. That’s the difference between reactive emergency spending and a defensible, data-driven capital improvement plan.
Why Certified Coding Matters
PACP grades are only as reliable as the operator assigning them. An uncertified operator who miscodes a Grade 4 fracture as a Grade 2 crack doesn’t just produce a messy report — they push a failing pipe to the bottom of your priority list.
Every 360 Pipes operator is NASSCO PACP certified, and our deliverables include the coded database, condition-graded reporting, and video that integrates directly with municipal asset management software. We also provide standalone PACP coding services if you have existing inspection footage that needs certified coding or QA review.
Get an Inspection Report You Can Act On
Whether you manage a municipal collection system, engineer rehabilitation projects, or oversee facility infrastructure, PACP-graded inspection data is the foundation of every good pipeline decision. 360 Pipes provides NASSCO-certified CCTV pipeline inspection, manhole inspection, and pipe cleaning throughout Northern California.
