server - Restore root user ownership - Ask Ubuntu

long story short, have been working digital ocean droplet learn bit more managing own server. somewhere along line, managed set ownership of directories user (serverpilot), , root user can no longer see or access them.

i have 2 users on server, 1 (root) sudo privileges , other basic user (serverpilot).

when ssh server root, unable see bunch of directories. when via serverpilot use, can see them all. doing ls -l shows owner 'serverpilot'.

since 'serverpilot' doesn't have sudo privileges, how can reset owner 'root', both 'root' , 'serverpilot' can access directories? have boot server in recovery?

i'm running ubuntu server 16.04 if makes difference.

edit: per comments of @davidfoster below, output of getfacl . wp-content follows:

# file: . # owner: serverpilot # group: serverpilot user::rwx user:www-data:r-x group::r-x group:serverpilot:rwx       #effective:r-x mask::r-x other::r-x default:user::rwx default:user:www-data:r-x default:group::r-x default:group:serverpilot:rwx default:mask::rwx default:other::r-x  # file: wp-content # owner: serverpilot # group: serverpilot user::rwx user:www-data:r-x group::r-x group:serverpilot:rwx       #effective:r-x mask::r-x other::r-x default:user::rwx default:user:www-data:r-x default:group::r-x default:group:serverpilot:rwx default:mask::rwx default:other::r-x 

and parent directory (public):

# file: . # owner: serverpilot # group: serverpilot user::rwx user:www-data:r-x group::r-x group:serverpilot:rwx       #effective:r-x mask::r-x other::r-x default:user::rwx default:user:www-data:r-x default:group::r-x default:group:serverpilot:rwx default:mask::rwx default:other::r-x  # file: public # owner: serverpilot # group: serverpilot user::rwx user:www-data:r-x group::r-x group:serverpilot:rwx       #effective:r-x mask::r-x other::r-x default:user::rwx default:user:www-data:r-x default:group::r-x default:group:serverpilot:rwx default:mask::rwx default:other::r-x