Is this foam around pipes a cowboy job?

bbbuyer

Viewed another house that was flipped. Looks ok in from the outset but noticed this foam jobs for the bathroom pipes. How bad is this? (If bad at all)

silvercar

I’ll move this to the DIY board.

born_again

Needs rendering over.

stuart45

Could be the way the photo was taken, but the pipe looks like it's got a backfall.

Ectophile

silvercar said:

I’ll move this to the DIY board.

It certainly looks like it was a DIY job!

flashg67

Seen it done loads, inc on a new build - don't think it's an issue but needs cement over the top I'd say

MikeJXE

Perhaps the plumber never costed for making good the outside 

I needs cutting back and matching bricks inserted 

Typhoon2000

It would be better to have a drop on those horizontal pipes to ensure waste and water flow better and reduce risk of blockage.

FreeBear

The left hand "hole" looks like it was excavated with a JCB... Expanding foam is OK for filling some gaps, but it breaks down when exposed to sunlight in the long term. It can also absorb water which destroys any insulating properties.

I'd get some "new" bricks from a local reclamation yard (they look like London Stocks), and a tub of lime mortar, not cement. Carefully cut them to plug the bulk of the hole and fit neatly round the pipes, then bed them in with the lime mortar.

ThisIsWeird

As FreeBear says, that foam will deteriorate in time with UV exposure. It also just looks 'orrible.

A much easier solution to bricks and mortar would be to obtain finishing collars a bit like the rubber one around the flue, and seal them in place with Stixall or a similar sealant (leaving a wee unsealed inch at the bottom to allow out any caught water). Obviously, the central holes would need to suit the waste pipes shown. I'd also hope you could get them 'split' so they can be fitted without dismantling the pipes.

Then paint all the pipes matt or satin black.

Kiran

That left hand pipe is definitely backfalling, also probably not ideal for it to be exposed to hot flue gasses from the boiler. As mentioned above, the foam will degrade and does already appear to be turning the orange colour that it does before it turns all powdery and falls apart. Also worth noting, birds and vermin will attack it and with the pipes you have a perfect access route to get to it. In an ideal world cut bricks to patch it back in. As a minimum the foam needs to be cut back and the hole filled with mortar and ideally a mastic seal from the pipe to the mortar