"Greg O" wrote
Normal? Perhaps if there is no other option.

The company I work for did the heating with a remodel in a multi-million
dollar home. The architect would no give us enough room in a wall to run
venting for a water heater and boiler located in a room below. We had zero
options, the venting had to go up inside the wall. I walked off the job
after talking to him about it. He was ****ed because "we" were holding up
the job. I told him he better call my boss an figure out what to do. The
wall went from 2x4 studs to 2x8 the next day.
Greg

You've got a good point. There may be other options, but which ones are
practical.

I was called to a job, where they ran new pipes for steam in the corner of a
living room of a high dollar home. I ended up boxing in the pipes by
building a decorative built up column. Did the same on the opposite side of
the room for aesthetics. After the base/shoe/crown was all done, it looked
awesome, built them to go with their decor.