Soil stack "cover"?
 

OK - that was a weird title for this post, but I didn't know how to shorten my question. My daughter moved into an old house and the soil stack runs visibly through the first and 2nd floor bathrooms. They were painted white - probably when they spray painted the walls the last time it was painted. The paint is chipping off and an individual (a realtor in the family) came into the bathroom, saw it and said it was a code violation to have that stack exposed. But went on to say the landlord could just "cover" it with a wrap. My question here is can we just scrape the flaking paint off and repaint it or do we need to wrap it with something? I haven't checked code yet as she just discovered the issue as we're redoing the floors in the bathrooms. Any suggestions?

One suggestion; Couldn't you frame out a soffit? Just make a frame out of 2 by 2's, and a sheet of drywall. 2 strips of Conner bead. Then you just prime and paint. It might take over half a day to scape and paint anyway.

I know a soffit will take up some space, but it might make the bathroom a little more pleasing.

Glad we don't have codes like that here.

I would double-check with the Building Inspection Department first if you don't want to enclose it.
Mike