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We had a leak in our kitchen months ago that caused water damage to one of our ceilings in the basement. We're now having repairs done. After inspecting our contractors work from the day I suppose I expected things to look a little less "patched".

Are these repairs unsightly, but sufficient? Or does this look like a total disaster to anybody? I have no background or knowledge in home construction so any advice would be great.

Thanks!

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East
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    Welcome to Home Improvement! What is being repaired, and what are these pictures showing? – mmathis Aug 30 '18 at 19:48
  • Our ceiling bowed because of the water damage. They came in today prior to repairing & replacing drywall to secure the framing so that our ceiling won't sag. All of these shorter vertical pieces are the attempts at doing so. What you see is the framing in the ceiling, and then the bottom of our subfloors from the level above. I hope that makes sense! @mmathis – East Aug 30 '18 at 19:56
  • Do I gather correctly that these photos are taken looking up into the ceiling where the sagging drywall was cut out? Would it be possible to get a photograph showing the full hole? If the drywall was simply water damaged, it should just be a matter of replacing the drywall. It's not clear to me why additional support above and beyond the original joists would be required to secure the new drywall. Can you elaborate on why your contractor decided to add these supports? The job certainly looks sloppy, but depending on the purpose, could still be sufficient. – Nick Anderson Aug 30 '18 at 21:02
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    @NickAnderson Certainly! I've added on one more picture of the entire thing. My understanding was that when the ceiling took on the weight from the water it pulled down some of the beams with it. Our project manager said the original framing was even a little shoddy which is why it so easily detached from the original supports. – East Aug 30 '18 at 21:51
  • The 2x4s that are laid so they're wide (vs. tall) won't have the same load bearing capacity as if they were rotated. I see what they're trying to do, but I don't know if that's how I would've done it. (and it still won't help if there's water ... the drywall will likely rip away from the wood if there's too much weight on it) – Joe Aug 30 '18 at 23:19
  • Thanks @Joe. Thankfully the water issue is long taken care of and we're hoping to not have a similar problem with the help of some water alarms placed throughout the main floor. – East Aug 30 '18 at 23:26

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The framing looks fine. It's a drop ceiling to hide the duct work; just don't hang any love swings off of it. None of it is structural so whatever. And rehab is never pretty, especially having to put drywall runners behind a finished surface that you're trying to maintain. I want to see how they're going to match that texture and blend in the patch. That's the hard part.

The project manager said the original framing was even "a little shoddy". It might still look shoddy but I can only assume that they did what they could to install supports where gaps in the ductwork permitted access to the joists.

All their nails seem to be in shear load which is good. The previously existing framing probably wasn't in some places, or it just lacked support where it could've been. Although perhaps they were a little over zealous: one has like 9 nails in it and it's now cracked - but with that little amount of working space, you get what you get.

It's rehab. Go away until it's done or you'll arbitrarily find cans of worms to open.

Mazura
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