Mysterious Painted Orange Pipe in Utility Room

Hello. I'm selling my house and the new buyers want to know the purpose of an uncapped, painted orange pipe in the utility room (see picture). I put an inspection camera down there and it splits and there's gravel on both sides. So it's just a pipe going into the ground. I found another picture from when the house was being built and it shows the main water line being temporarily placed, loosely (like pencil in a pencil holder) into this pipe. I have numerous pictures that show the same thing not just for my house but others as well.

A neighbor has the same pipe but his is sawed and capped with what looks like some sort of foam.

So, what is this pipe? Should I cap it? I need something to tell the buyers that won't freak them (or me really) out too much.

Other Notes:
* There's a separate Radon pipe in my garage, so it's not Radon mitigation
* Town-home was built in 2008
* I tried contacting the builder (Ryan Homes)... and let's just say they've been less than helpful

Any help is appreciated.

dryver vent? mouse highway ? lineset sleeve. Idunno!!!


I got it...termite inspection hole?

I would swear this was also a radon gas tube, but if you say it is not, who am I to disagree. Ever considered this as a future chase hole for improvements?

If you do find out, please let us know

I looked at another neighbor's house and for him it is the radon tube. Mine is in the garage and as I said, a third neighbor had his capped. So my guess is an alternate location for the radon tube they forgot to cap.

The question is now, can I just cap it normally? Or do I need a special cap since it was meant as a radon tube?

Thanks

A friend of mine, who lives on a granite hill in Prescott, Arizona, has a few radon tubes in his house. It was necessary for him to hire a specialist, who decided where and how many vents to install in his house. They also required him to install vent tubes through the roof, much the same as a flu cap for a furnace. Because this is venting into another living space, it is not doing much good. I would recommend seeking out an expert who can analyze exactly how much radon is detected, and follow his advice.

And as Mr. David commented, please keep us in the loop.

I already have a radon tube in the garage. The new buyers did a radon test and it came back fine. I looked at another neighbor's utility room this morning and his is capped with spray foam. I'm just going to saw it down a bit, stuff with some insulation and cap it.

I called a local radon mitigation company and he said it's common in bigger houses to have a second radon tap, just in case levels are high and a second tube needs to be run. He found it unusual that there'd be a second tap in a town home. He also said no special cap is needed, so I just sawed it and capped it with a 3" PVC cap. The new buyers were happy with this and waived the inspection contingency, so it's all good.

FYI Ryan Homes never did get back to me, but given that a neighbor had his radon tube in this location, I think it's a safe assumption that it was an alternate location.

Thanks for the help.

Good to hear. Thanks for the follow up.

Wish I would have seen this post before to give a quick answer. Just a FYI to members and visitors to the forum. Radon venting on the interior of homes is painted orange so that they are not confused with DWV soil piping, since they are both typically run in 3" PVC. I have encountered a situation where a contractor building an addition connected to the 3" orange painted radon pvc, thinking it was a soil stack and I'm sure you can figure out what the result was.