While away for a couple of days came home to find a ceiling leak and called insurance to have restoration due to mold/ mildew issue with drywall upon inspection. Yuck. Two restoration companies came through and wanted about 5K based on their limited inspection. Lowest was 2500. Elected to get plumbing (since insurance doesn't cover that expense) done and that was $275 and that fixed the leak. I went ahead and cut out all the bad drywall sections and got the piece replaced purple drywall from Lowes to where there was about an 1/8" all the way around and the cutouts for the can lights done as well. I had to now deal with the drywall tape and texture and one of the Yelp highly referred companies was 2 weeks behind but did quickly state it would be $350, another wanted $900 after sending him pics to redo the whole ceiling or $600 just to repair patch and try and match rest of ceiling but couldn't guarantee we wouldn't see the the seams of the repair. One of my neighbors though recommended "Dr. Drywall". Told me (he's a concrete contractor supervisor working on high end hardscape) he's seen him all around for years and everyone that he knew that used him was very satisfied. I called Jeff up and he came out within a 1/2 hour of the quoted time and reviewed my work (You need a couple of more screws) and stated what he would need to do to do it right. That was to get more screws in, bring the mud up in the patch and around up to level with the initial coat, add another coat all for the whole ceiling to level the whole ceiling with the feathered areas and cure defects in other spots (I hadn't noticed but he did) and than the same day float the whole ceiling which was about 3 coats all together for one day and come back another day to give all of that mud time to dry. He told me he would need an hour to work out the bid and as promised called and quoted $425. Discussed with my spouse and stated to go ahead. Told me he would arrive after an earlier job that morning around 8:00 and promptly showed up with his guy. They completely masked the entry and kitchen area, and then proceeded to do what he stated for the first day in about 2-1/2 hours. That was on a friday and he showed up solo initially and remasked the whole area again Monday @ 8:15 and stated that upon review after drying that he wanted to apply another coat to the ceiling as there were some minor marks in the drywall and surprised to find he floated the whole ceiling again so that what I had was essentially a brand new ceiling. I couldn't believe it and started to be concerned about this additional work and the cost since that was another 1/2 hour of work but now seeing that he was a perfectionist (just warning you that if HE isn't satisfied with it he will do what it takes to his satisfaction) he than let it dry which was quick and sanded the whole ceiling. By this time his helper showed up and brought in his hopper to texture the ceiling. He went ahead and got that done in less than a 1/2 hour and it was a light orange peel perfectly matching the other ceiling in the whole room. I requested that he keep the masking up since I was now going to prime and paint the ceiling and he did. Left around 10:30 that morning with a check for the quoted amount even though he did more work than quoted. Based on his timeliness, attention to detail, honoring is quote and leaving the ceiling in a state that you couldn't see any prior damage on ANY part of the ceiling this price was much lower and the final product better than anything quoted and 1/2 the price of a painting contractor who wanted $900 for same job. As an aside, when I went to home depot for the paint/primer and discussed with the clerk telling me what Dr. Drywall did to prep the ceiling he was impressed with the amount of coats and level of work done for a patch. I already knew the price was fair. I'm including pics of before and after and of the process. read more