I second what Bill Vincent said. The drywall MUST come down. It’s done wrong. It needs to be either cement board on walls + Kerdi membrane, or do Kerdi board on walls + Kerdi strips. I prefer cement board + Kerdi membrane as it’s super rock solid. If a heavy person falls into it, it’s not breaking. Kerdi board isn’t quite as rock sturdy. Shower pan, should be Kerdi shower system. Or if needs to be custom mortar shower pan due to size, then ok, but make sure it’s waterproofed. ===== If the builder refuses to correct this clown work, contact the state licensing board. As a licensed HIC (and PTC) contractor myself, nothing is more shameful than a contractor that won’t correct or stand by his work. It’s one thing if the workers did something behind his back that he didn’t approve of, and then the owner/builder offered to fix it once he found out… but as the owner of the company, it’s infuriating that he would be informed that they used drywall in a shower wall, and then him not immediately be offering- no, INSISTING- on fixing it free of charge. Absolutely unacceptable he wouldn’t fix it. It’s crazy to me that he’d hide behind “I already paid my drywall guys”. Ok, so he’s gonna let your shower rot and mold from the inside, and get insects or god knows what else? Even a Kerdi membrane over drywall doesn’t fix the issue. Water finds a way even with perfect waterproofing. The backer board needs to be cement board, or Kerdi board, not drywall. ===== As for the owner whining about how he paid his guys: There’s plenty of ways you get drywall guys to fix shoddy work. If they’re subs, let them know you won’t hire them again if they don’t fix it. If they’re employees, simply send them the next day to fix it. If they’re subs and still refuse to fix it, take them to small claims. Heck, tell them you’ll contact every company in your entire state with their photograph and tell them “don’t hire these clowns, they put drywall in a freaking shower”. And if none of that works, simply take the L, pay out of pocket to fix the shower, and then don’t hire those losers again. Build a quality culture at your company, where you have employees & subs who take pride in their work, continue their education, pride themselves on knowledge and intelligence, and want to do things the right way. Weed out workers who are lazy, unethical, or just not smart. You need to fight hard to respect your clients and do quality work. Yes, I know that “customer service standards” have gone down in recent days. You can’t even get fast food with a correct order half the time. People don’t even say thank you when you tip them. Etc. But on your jobsite, as the owner, you need to enforce quality work and good behavior from your employees and subs. Period. You need to have a conduct handbook. You need to have detailed workmanship requirements that (in my opinion) should not only meet, but EXCEED Aka be better than, code requirements. You need to do everything you can to give the customer the best experience.

Good news - they did manage to snake the wires through the wall w/o damage. I am very happy. The little contract we drew up did not mention anything about drywall repair, or any other repair for that matter. I have never done this sort of thing before, and never realized something like this SHOULD be in the contract. It was always my belief that when a worker comes into your home to do repairs, they are always expected to leave things in the same condition as they were when they found them. As for the copper....I know it was worth around $3 per pound. Someone else said as long as they didn't take 20 pounds (or $60), not to worry about it. To me, stealing is stealing....doesnt matter what dollar ammount it equates to, it still is unacceptable. I do know its better to "ignore" it happened. Had I said something, they probably would have done a horrible install. I know one little perk to being a plumber, electrician or HVAC guy means you have access to scrap copper. But if the homeowner specifies they want it, then it is not yours to take. Thanks for the help guys. Hope you all have a great day.

There might be a problem with adhesion by skim coating over a painted wall surface. For grip, you can get fiberglass mesh in 36" wide rolls. It is similar to the mesh tape for drywall seams only the mesh is a little heavier. You apply it to the wall like wallpaper using spray adhesive. Once that is up and adhered, you can skimcoat as Ventupete suggests. The mesh gives something for the skim coat to grab.

Yes, the screen cloth will cut through both paint and the patch. Don't press too hard with the screen cloth and pad though. Keep the pad flat on the wall and sand the hump down a little at a time, lightening pressure as you cross from patch to drywall ... coarse screen cloth can be aggressive in what it removes and you could end up with frayed drywall paper at the edge of the patch, making the whole thing look even worse. Once you have the patch sanded, you'll probably need to paint the entire wall; otherwise the smoothly sanded patch will show up like a neon sign next to the roller-pebbled painted surface. I'd suggest using a small 3" roller and interior latex primer to seal and prep the patch for standard latex paint. Then paint the entire wall with a standard 9" roller to even out the surface texture.