Why do you think it was not done?

Thanks. Admittedly I’m not an expert by any means but the drywall was never cut out. He didn’t say that it was insulated but that he added the insulation. Now I’m not home when the work is being done but can see the sections that were patched and painted.

I’m not sure I’m following he comment that if there was no insulation before a small hole would be all you need to see if it’s there?

Well that’s what I don’t quite understand and what I’m trying to figure out. Seems pretty difficult to install insulation without removing drywall, no?

Have you talked to your contractor? The person doing the work is always the best person to ask.

You just need to sit down and talk it out. You are second guessing something that you admit you don't know anything about. He may be just giving you an answer assuming you know what he/she is talking about - or assuming you know nothing and the technical answer would just go over your head so why bother. The question that needs to be asked is "Did you remove ALL of the drywall on X wall and research the source of the dampness while the walls were open as we discussed?" Yes or No answer. "Based on your research, what do you think is causing the dampness?" or "If you did not remove all of the drywall, research the source of dampness and install new sheetrock, then why?"

Thanks for the replies. I did ask him and he said he fixed and installied insulation. I believe he did use cellulose. For what I paid was expecting a more thorough job of fully removing and replacing the drywall and looking behind the wall to see if there were any issues. He said he did that and while I dont see how he could have, it doesn’t seem like theres much I can do.

What was in the actual written scope of work for the contract? Is it written that he would remove a whole wall of drywall? Is it written that he would identify and fix the moisture issue behind the moisture damage?

If there was no insulation, that can be the likely source of moisture damage. Warm moist air condenses into moisture against cool or cold materials. Insulation moves that dew point out of your walls.

Well the contract was vague which is my fault as this was my first remodel project. It just says “replace drywall below windows and install insulation“. There are 6 windows in total. Some work was done in spots below some of the windows

I guess where i went wrong was what was discussed verbally was not specifically detailed in the contract. Lesson learned. If issues resurface will just have to hire someone to fix it again then. Hopefully won't cost me too much down the line.

For future, if your damage was only around windows, it seldom has anything to do with insulation. That would generally be a failure of the flashing around the windows from when they were originally installed. Could be other issues as well allowing water to penetrate into the framing, but none of the potential issues is inexpensive to fix.