Just bought a new home, and we're planning on doing some renovation. One area of concern is the cast-iron stacks in the basement: we want to eventually finish the basement, but if these are liable to cause problems down the road we'd rather get ahead of the issues since they'll be encased in walls.
One of the stacks - I'll call it "primary" reaches all the way to the roof; I see it in the attic. It services the only full bathroom, and nothing else right now.
The other stacks - I'll call "secondary" - does not seem to reach into the roof, I see a small pipe in the attic but it's maybe just a little vent? It's definitely not the same diameter as the rest of the stack, and seems to go horizontally out toward the backyard. Couldn't get good pictures of it without crawling into asbestos-land, so I'll hold off on that unless it's really necessary. It services the kitchen on the main floor, and a single toilet, utility sink, and clothes washer in the basement. This stack has what might be a "barnacle" or "wart" on it? I've heard them described but what I see doesn't seem to match images I've found online.
I've included pictures of the stacks in question, which mostly look good (to my untrained eye) but might date back as far as '52 when the house was constructed.
We're also going to want to rotate the PVC bathtub drain going into the primary stack to make it easier to enclose in a wall, is that going to be an issue?
Secondary Stack Potential Barnacle Detail:
Secondary Stack Top (alternate angle):
Additionally, I know our electric is terrible - and if we touch things to make modifications, we'll have to bring some other parts up to code. Are there similar issues with these?
Finally: if we need repairs/replacement, are we more in the <$1K range, the <$3K range, or higher?