Hack drywaller, what to do?

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Coppersmith

Coppersmith

Senior Member
Location
Tampa, FL, USA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Here's an example of the kind of hack drywall work I was seeing today while trimming a house. While it's not usually this bad, I have to say I encounter more bad drywall work than good. This causes me to have to use more labor and materials (levelers, shims, arc shields) to trim than I should. I showed the owner and he said the guy would come back and patch the enormous holes now showing around the cover plate, but that doesn't help me.

In addition to the bad cuts and depth issues, he buried two of my boxes which I already informed the owner I will be charging extra to locate and expose. (I can see a big ass bulge in one of the spots. Guess the drywaller didn't check his work.)

I'm thinking about a couple of solutions:
(1) Use adjustable depth boxes for all boxes.
(2) Adding a "poor workmanship by drywaller" extra charge in my contracts.

How do you guys deal with this? Is there some product that helps?
 

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Immediately leave and ask why you were told it was ready. Add a service call fee.

Now, that's what you SHOULD be able to do. Once you make him aware of that fact, he should agree to whatever nicety you then propose.
 
Trim it out, put the plates on, submit your bill, when you are called back to do it again after the sheetrocker corrects his mistakes submit a change order before you do it. Hopefully the GC is smart enough to still have some of their money or at least their retention to pay your C.O.

Roger
 
Coppersmith said:
Here's an example of the kind of hack drywall work I was seeing today while trimming a house. While it's not usually this bad, I have to say I encounter more bad drywall work than good. This causes me to have to use more labor and materials (levelers, shims, arc shields) to trim than I should. I showed the owner and he said the guy would come back and patch the enormous holes now showing around the cover plate, but that doesn't help me.

In addition to the bad cuts and depth issues, he buried two of my boxes which I already informed the owner I will be charging extra to locate and expose. (I can see a big ass bulge in one of the spots. Guess the drywaller didn't check his work.)

I'm thinking about a couple of solutions:
(1) Use adjustable depth boxes for all boxes.
(2) Adding a "poor workmanship by drywaller" extra charge in my contracts.

How do you guys deal with this? Is there some product that helps?
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That is unbelievably bad. Wow.
 
How I deal with it depends on who's writing the checks.

Homeowner? Don't install anything, explain the situation, tell the HO the problem and have the drywaller fix it and, if necessary, bill extra for the work.

Builder / GC? Trim it out and bill. Get called back? Well, that's an Change Order.
 
Coppersmith said:
Here's an example of the kind of hack drywall work I was seeing today while trimming a house. While it's not usually this bad, I have to say I encounter more bad drywall work than good. This causes me to have to use more labor and materials (levelers, shims, arc shields) to trim than I should. I showed the owner and he said the guy would come back and patch the enormous holes now showing around the cover plate, but that doesn't help me.

In addition to the bad cuts and depth issues, he buried two of my boxes which I already informed the owner I will be charging extra to locate and expose. (I can see a big ass bulge in one of the spots. Guess the drywaller didn't check his work.)

I'm thinking about a couple of solutions:
(1) Use adjustable depth boxes for all boxes.
(2) Adding a "poor workmanship by drywaller" extra charge in my contracts.

How do you guys deal with this? Is there some product that helps?
Click to expand...

That is not hack drywall work, it’s crap. I’ve been covered a time or two but have never seen work like that. Even I, on my worst attempt, am better than that.
 
FWIW, on residential, always wait to install outlets, et. AL. until after painting. All the drywall errors are corrected by then except maybe the hidden boxes, but the painters usually complain about any bulges in the wall.
 
I've seen this before. :jawdrop:

Unfortunately fixing the bad cut out isn't that easy. Whoever did the work will probably be filling the spaces with joint compound and probably no joint tape. This is going to come back and bite YOU in the end (no pun intended). Gobs of joint compound will end up inside the JB and when you go to cut the over-spackle away some of it will probably break off and the cover plate will not cover the mistake. Make sure you point this out to the HO before you install the devices.

In addition, somewhere down the road (1 year - 10 years?) that device may go bad and have to be replaced. Whoever replaces that device might end up breaking away some of that joint compound on an already painted wall and again the cover plate will not cover the break .

I feel your pain.

With respect to the sheet-rockers, they don't have a code book that updates every 3 years and they don't have to take CEU classes in order to get their licenses approved. Sheet-rocking is not exactly rocket science but in all fairness and at the very least, you should be able to read and use a tape measure.:thumbsup:
 
junkhound said:
FWIW, on residential, always wait to install outlets, et. AL. until after painting. All the drywall errors are corrected by then except maybe the hidden boxes, but the painters usually complain about any bulges in the wall.
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What you are looking at is a completely finished wall. Textured and painted. In addition to the poor workmanship I mentioned, the drywaller left ragged flaps of paper hanging which folded back onto the wall as the painter happily painted over them. The result was the wall plates did not sit flat because of the bumps.

A little background: The owner fixes up houses in the poorer sections of town and rents them. He hires the lowest priced tradesmen. Why he hires me I'm not sure because I charge him the same as I charge everyone else and I don't think I'm inexpensive. From afar, the houses look nice when renovated. It's when you look close, you see the poor workmanship. I guess the people who can only afford housing in these parts of town are happy with something that at least looks semi-new.
 
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goldstar said:
Whoever did the work will probably be filling the spaces with joint compound and probably no joint tape.
Click to expand...

It's way worse than that. There must have been at least two people working because in the few places where they attempted correction there are two different methods: The aforementioned joint compound fill; and a fill with some kind of caulk that doesn't harden. I touched it and it just yielded. Totally soft.
 
Coppersmith said:
Why he hires me I'm not sure because I charge him the same as I charge everyone else and I don't think I'm inexpensive.
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Probably because you have a license and the sheet-rockers don't need one.

I guess the people who can only afford housing in these parts of town are happy with something that at least looks semi-new.
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And that's it in a nut shell. Flip the house and rent it out as quickly as you can. I've worked for several contractors like that. They hold me to a higher standard than everyone else on the job - even the plumbers.
 
Put in your contract how many days and how many trips to the site are in your quote.

Any trips to the site such as this where work can't be completed as outlined in the quote, which result in a return trip will be billed at service call rates.
 
Coppersmith said:
It's way worse than that. There must have been at least two people working because in the few places where they attempted correction there are two different methods: The aforementioned joint compound fill; and a fill with some kind of caulk that doesn't harden. I touched it and it just yielded. Totally soft.
Click to expand...

There are two diffferent drywall crews, those that hang the drywall and those that finish the dry wall.

Starting as far back as the 1980s some of the crews that hang drywall were getting really sloppy even on new houses. If you go through houses before the drywall is finished you will see lots of crap work.

If the finsihers are any good they can repair most of this crap work to where it doesn't show.
It's impossible to repair the big gaps around boxes without tape and mud.

Someone (either the GC or owner/contractor) should have went through these houses before the painters were ever on the job. They would probably have to pay extra to have some of the holes patched but it can be done if caught at the right time.

Little history: before the late 80s or early 90s standard cover plates were used and then it became necessary to use the mid sized cover plates. Look around, even new homes.
 
Coppersmith said:
Here's another picture from the same job.
Click to expand...

Oh my, did not look at the first photo close enough to notice it was 'finished' !!

Perhaps there is a market for supersized cover plates?? Even the 4" by 6" single cover plates would not cover that mess ! Can honestly say I've never seen that bad of a drywall 'finish', even DIY.
 
Jumbo cover plates are fine, but you still need to comply with 314.21.

If this is a cheap house flip, caulk around the box to satisfy 314.21 and put on a jumbo plate to cover the blemish - if the blemish is larger then a jumbo plate it is not your problem and hopefully owner or GC can figure that out.
 
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