Soil Pipe Problem(?)

GlassPanda

Hi all
I'm in the process of selling my house and our buyers have had the homebuyers report done. 
Everything seems to be fine but the Surveyor picked up a couple of problems with our guttering and soil pipe and our buyers have asked us to repair them. I'll add here that we've never had a problem with either, just aesthetically they don't look 100%.

I've had my ladder out and can't see a fault at all with the soil pipe in terms of leaks, although I will admit it looks a bit of a mess. I've wiped off some of it and it seems a little flaky/crusty (the picture attached looks worse than it is as my camera looks to have done some trickery to make it worthy of Instagram). Does anyone know what has caused this? I don't think it's leaking as the stains are actually away from any joins and there's no sign of any pools of water anywhere (this drains from our bathroom). Is it residue from when it was installed? Is it actually leaking? Stains from when we had the roof next to it done? We've had these pipes in about 3 years.

If possible I'd be keen to avoid having to get someone out to investigate/repair this at my expense for someone else so if it's anything obvious or a quick fix then let me know. As I said we've never had any issues, just the Surveyor being overly cautious.

Thanks in advance 

stuart45

When a strap boss is fitted solvent weld is used. If there is no leaking there is no problem. 

Jeepers_Creepers

And solvent weld - as its name implies - dissolves the plastic surfaces in order to weld them together, and if the fitter didn't take care to carefully wipe away the excess during this process, then it'll look like that. 

It beggars belief that the surveyor thinks this is an issue. Unbludybelievable. There is nothing 'wrong' there. What, exactly, are you meant to 'repair'?!

Lordie. 

(Spray it with WD40 - see if that tones it down :-)  ) 

maisie_cat

I'd agree that's solvent weld staining, nothing structurally wrong and the pipes look quite new. I'd love to know how experienced this "surveyor" is

MalMonroe

I'm a personal secretary by trade and know not one thing about building or regulations but those pipes in your photo look lovely to me. Clean, fresh and nicely sealed, with no sign of leakage. A very neat job all round. (I'm a neat freak and even I don't think it looks bad!)

I'm sure I could be a surveyor in my next job - I feel I could do a better job than the one who's worried about that lovely piece of pipeage. 

GlassPanda

Thanks all. I'll give it all a bit of a clean and send a photo back to the estate agent saying its fine (which it is). At least you've all been able to come to the same conclusion as me that if it looks fine, it likely is.

I think the surveyor was just trying to cover their back but it has likely caused the buyer some unnecessary worry.

flashg67

I actually painted mine with drainpipe paint when selling to avoid drawing attention to similar stains,  but I agree, it's ridiculous to bring it up in a survey. Just shows lack of knowledge - I bet they also suggested a damp report and electrical check too!?

Davesnave

If that's all they could find wrong with your house, there's nothing to worry about. It's a functional item, you've checked it and it's functioning fine. No one serious drops out of a house purchase because of a small visual imperfection like that.

Jeepers_Creepers

Davesnave said:

If that's all they could find wrong with your house, there's nothing to worry about. 

Just behind that soil pipe there's a deep vertical crack running up the wall - possible subsidence. 

Jeepers_Creepers

(Made you look)

GlassPanda

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Davesnave said:

If that's all they could find wrong with your house, there's nothing to worry about. 

Just behind that soil pipe there's a deep vertical crack running up the wall - possible subsidence. 

Shhhh. Don't tell them about that. The pipes actually don't connect up to anything. They were just put in to throw the surveyors off the scent!