I've seen this sort of thing done before, and it's not as bad as it seems. It's only this bad because either this is a house built on a slab with no attic space, or it's a multi-floor condominium with no access to other owners' units. If the owner has to get a new circuit pulled then this is the only way to do it.
Those holes aren't for lights, they're made with a hole saw in order to access those joists, and the drywall circles are saved to be replaced later. The joists are notched to run the wire below the drywall, and (hopefully) the notches will be covered with metal plates before the drywall circles are screwed back into the joists and patched.
If I had done this job I would have cut the holes alongside the joists and drilled through them rather than notching, but it would have been a lot more work to patch over.
o0shad0o 10 points 2 months ago
I've seen this sort of thing done before, and it's not as bad as it seems. It's only this bad because either this is a house built on a slab with no attic space, or it's a multi-floor condominium with no access to other owners' units. If the owner has to get a new circuit pulled then this is the only way to do it.
Those holes aren't for lights, they're made with a hole saw in order to access those joists, and the drywall circles are saved to be replaced later. The joists are notched to run the wire below the drywall, and (hopefully) the notches will be covered with metal plates before the drywall circles are screwed back into the joists and patched.
If I had done this job I would have cut the holes alongside the joists and drilled through them rather than notching, but it would have been a lot more work to patch over.