American Foursquare Remodel 6 - Dining Room Ceiling, Part 3

Joe the Handyman's mother-in-law passed away on Thanksgiving weekend. May she rest in peace. But that meant another delay. That sounds cold-hearted. Considering my experience with Gem Plumbing & Heating to date, I was feeling pretty cold-hearted. And cold - the missing ceiling was causing drafts.


Jim and Joe and I met in early December to assess what was needed to fix bad plumbing/construction problems from years ago and to correct the wavy strapping. If I had any doubt that my trust in Joe was misplaced, it evaporated in that meeting. Joe said he removed three ceilings. Lie. He said he always intended to apply shims and a second layer of new strapping over the first layer. Lie (not to mention bad practice). I know he considered his work done when he left my house on November 20th.

Revised plan: jack up the floor joist ends to level them, apply a sister joist, apply new level strapping throughout. No additional cost. (No kidding.)

Here's what I found after the new work on December 9 - an ugly slap-together layered mess... that was only moderately level along the joists, but STILL not level across the joists.

 

  

  

  

Strapping STILL wavy - this is NOT camera lens distortion - the level proved it:

  

The damned strapping was now lower than the original two ceiling layers! What would the measurement be after the sheet rock and plastering? The original spacing between the top of the window casing and the old ceiling was a perfect 9 inches - the exact size of a wallpaper border I already had waiting to be applied. 

NOW, without even considering the new ceiling layer, measurement over one window less than 9 inches. Another measurement was just about 7 1/2 inches. WHAT THE HELL??!!??

  

 

At this point, I also photographed the other damage done during the original ceiling demolition:

 

 

 

Funny how one little thing can really set you off. The fact that my wallpaper border would no longer fit between my ceiling and windows - when it fit perfectly and evenly in October before any construction - was that one little thing that caused me to just explode.

I called Jim - even though it was about 8 at night - and fired Gem Plumbing & Heating on the spot. No more meetings, no more discussions, no more fixes to fix the fixes that weren't working. I'M DONE! And don't even think about billing me for this crappy work.

I would now have to find someone else to remove the abortion of wood nailed to my floor joists and build a new ceiling.