Nope, you can’t ask them to fix anything because there is nothing to fix. Thats a cosmetic issue, not structural. Even if it were structural, they'd have 5 offers above asking already, to take it as is. If you like a house, you have to jump on it, and accept that it is not perfect and is going to need some work.

This may actually be the drywall joints where the joint compound is feathered out. I feel like I am able to pick up a lot of seams in the drywall in new construction like they stopped short a coat of drywall joint compound so the the surface is not almost dead flat like it should be.

I’m not positive it def could be a drywall issue, like a seam. I’m sorry that would drive me nuts

Thanks for the responses. I have a son with a disability, the house is a lot for me in terms of cost - over $500- which may not be much for others but I’m trying to get him in a better place to meet his needs. I’m just concerned that this will come through the ceiling and I will end up having to make repairs. Couldn’t this be an issue later? I do understand that homes require basic maintenance and fixing up over time but in previous homes, this has never been an issue or even observed in older homes I’ve been in. The market is actually slowing down where I am. If the builder is decent, he should be concerned about his work and if he’s willing to walk away from closing in a week bc I ask him to fix it, I can’t imagine many people would want to look at this on the ceiling daily in a new house but I it’s possible.

Cosmetic. Sloppy drywall work. This is why ceilings get texture. Builder is not going to fix it. His drywall crew probably isn't capable of fixing it. If your offer is not accepted, move on & find another house.

Honestly I think a lot of people don't notice it or not enough to think much about it. It bugs me so I understand what you mean.

Find a much cheaper house, in a less expensive neighborhood. There’s a whole lot more expenses to home ownership than the note and insurance and utilities and taxes and upkeep. You are going to need additional money to bring things up to your desired level. If this is a stretch, youre not going to have enough for all of those money demands. Much less to create the unrealistic perfection that you demand.

Unrealistic perfection that I demand ? What happened to paying good money for quality work? I don’t know anyone who wants to walk in a brand new home thinking they need to go drop more money on fixing the ceilings. I know there are things that need to be fixed and planned to be able to do those things. In a newly built home, nobody I know goes in thinking they will need to make major drywall repairs but thanks for your opinion. I’ve also owned three homes before now so I know about the cost that goes into one. I was asking for opinions not perfection, thanks for sharing yours.

Its not likely that this is actually a structural issue it's just wavy joint compound from not excellent workmanship, and unfortunately the workmanship is just not as good as it used to be. The person who learned the trade 40 years ago trains people do do it, they are not as good as the person who trained them, and the people they train are not as good as they are. It's a continual degradation of quality, continual lowering of the bar.

My neighbor's house needed a significant stucco repair and it had to be done from my yard. She hired people who had done some other stucco repair on her house because they had done "such a good job". I think the back of her house looks like crap. When they fixed the full length vertical crack along the party wall. (these are 200+ year old row houses) she was very happy with the result. It's now a full length vertical hump. They were very neat and tidy, very respectful and the repair will probably work. But it doesn't look great to me. And I am not sure there are a lot of people that do better because this guy was very busy. Maybe he is not expensive, I don't have any idea what she paid.

This is definitely a problematic situation…i wouldn’t have confidence in the quality of the build with such an obvious flaw…but if i wanted the house i would not hesitate to ask how much they would charge to fix it…we don’t know all the circumstances but if this is the only choice available …that would be a more diplomatic way to approach this..

It is sort of unclear whether this is a rental?..if so i would just ask for this to be described in the description of the condition of the home …

It’s a new home, not a rental.

I wonder if you have any wiggle room (probably not…) to ask him to texture the ceilings as part of the deal? (Unless they’re already textured and it’s still showing this bad). Certainly not popcorn, but a nice aesthetically pleasing texture. I agree - the quality of workmanship at every price point is just poor - lots of people having issues with subs! I hope you can get it resolved without starting over.. .my daughter & SIL in Northern Colorado just had their 26th !!!! Offer accepted - after being overbid on every one of them.

Using a “matte” paint on the ceiling may help to disguise it.

My first house built in 1995 had this issue. You could sit and look down the hall and count the ceiling joists. 18 inches on center as I recall....

It never got worse. As noted above it's a drywall issue. Cosmetic. Not structural. I learned to ignore it. I've actually seen this in a fair number of newer homes.

You might get better answers if you posted a picture that wasn't unfocused....

Does this help?

"What happened to paying good money for quality work?"

Unfortunately you are looking at a builder/developer tract type home. They throw them up about as fast as they can. They will be to code and the work decent but not full on quality like it was a custom home. It sucks to say it and no one wants to hear it but it is also about managing expectations. I agree with kudzu9 that a focused better picture would certainly help the advice you are receiving but also think it is only a mediocre drywall job and not a structural issue.

Thank you, I understand much better now that it’s not something I should be concerned with and it’s not structural. So basically, there isn’t a chance this is coming through the ceiling anytime soon but I may have to drywall soon.

You will need to be at a full custom level build quality, at about double the price of a tract build, to not have cosmetic issues in a build. Even the first post war tract home builds were noted for speed of build, and ”production” quality. Levittown still stands today, and has not fallen down.

Thanks everyone!

My biggest concern is the joist wasn’t maybe hung properly as I can’t see how they hung it but you’ve helped answer my questions.

Do you know if the joists are engineered wood or dimensional lumber?

I don’t know. Is that something I should ask.

You didn't say but I assume its a one story house. Is the attic used for storage?

The ceiling defect is not clear evidence of substandard framing since the drywall panels might span across the framing rather than parallel to it.

It's also possible that "strapping" was not added perpendicular to the ceiling framing to support the drywall (common in the Northeast but not farther west and south) and one of the structural suppports was not well spaced or the defect occurs at butted (square-edge) panel joints.

If the attic is accessible, your home inspector (please tell me you hired a home inspector) can look at the ceiling framing from the attic.

The ceiling framing might be attic joists or the bottom chords of trusses and the drywall might span either direction. Nothing will be hidden unless there's an attic floor.

If you dislike the defect, hire a good drywall contractor to add some joint compound to it and paint it with flat whte paint made for ceilings. Please don't texture the ceiling.

I have never heard of "wiggle room" in the framing of a house unless strapping qualifies.

If you're looking for structural problems, start with the basement and then look for unlevel floors and door heads on the main floor. If you wal across a floor with your shoes off and eyes closed, you will know if its not level.

Post some photos but really, its foolish to not use a home inspector. Its cheap insurance.

I have been told for some time now that the current quality of dimensional lumber is poorer than it use to be and it is difficult to get a perfectly flat ceiling, and therefore ceiling texture is applied to conceal the imperfections.

Lumpy ceilings has been a problem since the first plaster ceilings. The solution then was strapping and stil is.

https://www.jlconline.com/how-to/framing/strapping-ceilings_o

We live in a 30-year-old house and it has those shadows in the ceiling in the primary bedroom and its en suite bathroom on the top floor. When we moved in about 18 years ago, the ceiling did not have them, but I guess the house has settled. We've been ignoring it for about 12 years.

We had some interior painting done, and the painter offered to fix it. The advice of @RES2 above was what he said: "add some joint compound to it and paint it with flat whte paint". I think he also mentioned looking at the existing strapping and tightening it. We already have flat white paint on the ceiling. In the end, my wife did not want to take the draperies down which we'd have to do for this repair, so we didn't do it. That was a few years ago, and the ceiling looks the same, and there has been no structural issue. Since you mentioned that money is tight, my advice is to see if the builder will fix it, ask really nicely and perhaps explain your situation and your hopes for the nice home. But if he won't fix it, then live with it until you have the funds to fix it. A good painter who is skilled at drywall patching (a good-quality painter should be) will be able to fix it.

P.S. do not do a textured ceiling. It will not hide what you are trying to hide, and it is a dated look

It seems that no matter the price point such problems are common, at least in our area (the south.) We see it more often now even in $2MM+ houses in a LCOL area.

It was suggested that we consider textured ceilings for our new house; we refused. In the right (or wrong) light, some of our ceilings look something like yours. I had no confidence that our builder could find more skillful drywall installers and our project has already dragged on since Dec. 2020. I doubt that we'll notice it once the house is completed and decorated.

You only show 1 condition in 1 room of 1 joist, not multiple joists in a row showing. That looks like a "butt" joint (non-tapered edges) between 2 end sheets of drywall, where the finisher did not feather it out enough.

There is a lot of denigration here about texture….in our house i paid extra to get a texture that looked like stucco….as we have very few but very nice trims and curved corners and a big open floor plan…i didn’t want big perfect expanses that every tiny nick would show ..(like a hole from a picture hanger that was removed)…it has proven so easy for paint touch ups and furniture dings…after 20 years the walls still look beautiful…so in an instance where texture is needed shouldn’t automatically be disgarded as a bad look…