I was literally going to say the same thing as Rob390!

Mrs.S. This is in Canada... And I had a reputable local general contractor to finish my basement. it's been two months and the work is still not finishing. And last night, when I inpect the work we noticed all these drywall problems....

Yao.....the work is so amazingly poor that I truly thought your original post was a spoof. Yikes.

yao, what do you mean by "reputable"? I find it hard to believe that work was done by anyone actually reputable.

I'm not seeing any problem. You don't need to speak English to do drywall.

Joseph......Huh? You don’t see a problem with the drywall?

You can always take it up with our Quality Kontroll Department.

Eh?

Worthy....you got me with “Eh?”.

Yikes! You actually had to ask? I would not have accepted this if my two grandsons had done it! In fact, when one grandson was 15, he did repair damaged drywall in his garage "office", and did a far better job.

"Joseph......Huh? You don’t see a problem with the drywall?"

nidnay:

Please have your sarcasm detector recalibrated; obviously it isn't working.

Haha.....missed it both times. Recalibrating......

Some poor drywall jobs qualify to be called "low relief sculpture".

Had no idea that Stevie Wonder was taking on side work as a drywall finisher.

Hahahahaha Hahahaha! Oh, the comments!!! Oh my!!! LOL! @OP, so sorry this happened... yeah, it’s bad. Real bad.

Had no idea that Stevie Wonder was taking on side work as a drywall finisher.

Dude.

With his obvious mad-skills dexterity with like five (?) different instruments, I'd take Mr. Wonder any day!

The little blue pieces of painters tape are pretty funny.

Check for Jimmy Hoffa behind that tape.

Or possibly something from a bad 80's horror movie.

Wow! I think my granddaughters, ages 4 and 5, could do better.

Troll alert.

Yao, was the drywall put directly on top of concrete block or is the drywall attached to wood studs?

Did you say this was the ceiling? I am seeing wood floor and what looks like an electrical plugin. Bad, bad, bad work. I would not allow them to try to fix it.

This is SO bad, I have a hard time believing it.

I think Hot Rod is correct.

Omg, did one of the drywallers get stuck back there?

Nevermind - just read all the other comments that mentioned it.

The bright side... it couldn't get any worse.

Seriously? Is this post REAL?

I hope you haven't paid the drywall folks yet. You probably already have but you have 'excellent' evidence they didn't install correctly in small claims court. They should come back and install correctly and pay for your court costs.

Thank you guys for all your feedbacks. The drywall is on framing wood stud. I have 1400sqf basement. All the walls look awful under light. I didn't upload ceiling picture. They look similar to the walls with more waves. General contractor came already. At beginning he said he couldn't see. Until we put the light on he admitted this was mistake. We thing what happened was they engaged someone new for taping. The new person did awful job. The onsite project manager (from General contractor side) didn't report this defect to general contractor and he just let the project continue until we (who dontt have any construction knowledge) found out. right now, they start to fix the walls and ceilings and promise to complete all work in one week. Hope things turn brighter....

Wait this is a real post? WOW, no words.

A lot of people had to ignore this poor work for several days, if not weeks for this to happen. After the taping and mudding was done, the walls had to be primed and painted, the trim installed, and the light trims and outlet cover plates installed. Oddly none of those people questioned it? And you pay your general contractor to do this sort of basic quality control and to stop work when necessary when there is a major issue.

What are they proposing as a fix? With as much excess mud on the drywall that has to come off and with it already painted, I'd be skeptical that they would be able to get a good finished product now without taking it down and replacing, or without skimming the entire surface, but maybe it's possible. Either way hold them to providing "like new" work. They were not brought in to do a patch job; this is their mistake, and the GC is just at much at fault as the drywall installer.

Hi, thanks for your advice! It is very odd to us too... After we talked to general contractor, some workers privately told us yesterday they noticed the problem of the wall. When we asked why he didn't point out, he just kept silent... I definately maintain high skepticism on the entire team. Currently, general contractor said he would do entire wall and ceiling. We noticed they fixed one upstairs (which has same problem) by add skim coating. But I am not sure if they would do it on everything... Also they would do the work during we are on vacation... I actually don't really trust them any more... But we just don't want to live in a construction field any longer..almost three months...

Skim coating isn’t going to fix this.

yao, cancel your vacation. You need to be at home or at least on-site a significant amount to pay attention to what's happening. I'm curious: you still haven't stated how you determined that your GC is "reputable". Is he licensed?

My bet is that, depending on the scope of the work you contracted for, you have numerous problems, and they could be worse than this drywall issue. If you have had these people do electrical, plumbing, bathroom remodeling...... I'd get someone in there to look over their work. Take photos of everything while it's in process.

Document every conversation in a follow-up email. Document every single complaint, with photos, in emails. If the contractor agrees with you verbally, document that in a follow-up email. You see?

Whatever you do, do not get "ahead" of the payment schedule no matter what pressure is applied to you. Withold the payments until each step is completed to standard. If you have any questions, these forums are a good place to steer you towards the path you need to take.

what would be the proper way to fix it? Just to my knowledge... Retaping?

The general contractor has been in business for more than 10 years. He has done a lot work in the neighborhood and I visited one of the job they were doing. Plus, one of neighbor gave good reference. The general contractor is licensed and BBB business. Plumbing and electriciens are subtrade and they are all licensed. Inspection has been done so far. The taping worker is not the one they originally listed in contract. It's new person and that might lead all problems... I will take all your advice and keep all records and document everything.

What a huge hassle for you!!! I’m so sorry... and I really hope they’re able to make it totally right. It really is the most horrendous drywall job I’ve ever seen.

Make sure whoever did the original drywall job isn’t allowed back in. Whoever did this is not capable of a skim coat.

Thanks Bri bosh. This is super helpful! Thanks for your advice.

I'm pretty sure I could drywall better than that with my eyes closed... and I've never drywalled in my life - though I have seen in person how it is done.

Unfortunately, your GC doesn't always have the opportunity to hire the same people for every job. And I now see (reading up) he brought in "people" he hadn't used before.

What is the GC comment on this? If he's also not mad at his subs... and I'd be disappointed in him if he paid them the final cost.

Needs ASAP fixing, no cost to you.

Document - the photos are a good start.

what would be the proper way to fix it? Just to my knowledge... Retaping?

It all has to be pulled off. SOme of the Sheetrock outer layer may come off with the taping when pulled. Depending on how much, it may be that certain areas may need new Sheetrock. That part leave to an independent expert to judge. (Those areas may perhaps just need expanded taping, but I'm no expert.) Then, re-tape, and so forth.

The damage looks like far more than the taping compound... it's the actual underlying taping as well. It looks like someone slammed potatoes into your wall and didn't even bother to flatten them down.

I do want to know what the GC says, or if he plans to "excuse" this trash. Get him to say what he has to say in writing/on a text or computer e-mail message, not just verbally. (Documenting.)

Best of luck and success!

They need to make a drywall jail

Perhaps someone else has already said this, but IMHO, I would want it to be completely torn out & all new drywall hung. The time it would take to fix this properly would be at least DOUBLE vs. a complete do over. The GC can make the crew that did this tear it out, clean it all up and haul it away. Then insist that an experienced team do the job!

Otherwise, someone will go around with a light, shine it here and there, and do just enough that you are sick and tired of talking about it. But from this day forward - every time you turn on a lamp, open the shades, or anything else where light hits the wall "wrong", you will see the crap job that was left.

Minor things in drywall can be fixed - THIS is not fixable!

yao.....you need to install trail cams while you are on vacation while they do the work. Hide them. . You can rent them.

robin - Why hide them...it's her house. It's a great idea, but I think I would actually make a point to let them know cameras are there. Might do better work, knowing someone is watching.

"Might do better work, knowing someone is watching."

They knew someone was going to inhabit that pictures above and thought it was acceptable! You need to start over with a different drywall guy. There is no easy way to fix that. Drywall is relatively cheap, it will cost more to float every wall flat and there is no guarantee that it will look any better. Damage is done, rip the bandaid and apply fresh. Period. Stop.

Drywall sander will take it down, with some mud I've fixed far worse.. Anything over 1/16 is NOT acceptable. When you walk along the wall and can feel the imperfection with your hand - you know it is not right. I do not understand why it was painted.

Guys, big thanks from me! So many good advice and professional opinions! These really help a lot! I had discussion with general contractor again last night. He claimed he had fired the taping person. He is shamed. He along his most experienced and long term relationship sub trade will start fix the wall from today. He will do skim coating and he mentioned if drywall need to be replaced he will do it. He admitted onsite project manager did not do good job to ensure quality instead just rushing to get things done. He promised everything would be perfect in one week. He mentioned his reputation is more important and he would do best to make it perfect. I really appreciated someone mentioned camera. Yes, we do have internal and external camera and I do notified general contractor those are for security reason. let us see the result in one week.

Skim coating is not going to fix this.

yao....sounds great. Send us new pics.

I just got finished repairing a 25 yo homewith bad taping skim coated ceiling n 80 % of the rooms walls. I hate Sheetrock work so u guys that do it full time u r boss;) I’ve only seen-this level of problem only after water leak. I’ve been doing fixer up sales for 20 years and do a lot of wrk myself gotten really good but yep would called in the pro for a whole room that need that much work Holy sh*t that was a new install. Glad they’re making it right for ya.

Its not looking good at all. Try different & best sander for drywall.