What To Do About Drywall Nail Pops

• Walls & Ceilings

Solved! How to Repair Popped Nails

Banish the bulges caused past nail pops before you paint to achieve flawlessly polish wall surfaces.

Photo: istockphoto.com

Q: I merely bought a firm and am planning to pigment over its existing green interior walls with a fresh glaze of land white. I'm concerned, nonetheless, that the handful of small circular bulges I've spotted on the walls volition yet be noticeable afterward I repaint. My neighbor told me the bulges are popped nails—spots where nails have worked loose. What I can practise to go rid of them?

A: Congrats on your new dwelling house! You're correct well-nigh those bulges: Left unrepaired, they'll be visible later you repaint. Fortunately, popped nails (also known every bit "boom pops") aren't as well tough to prepare and typically aren't serious—although there are a few exceptions. Go along reading to understand the causes of blast pops, the problems they could represent, and how you tin accomplish perfectly shine walls.

RELATED: The Dos and Don'ts of Drywall Repair

Smash pops are largely due to wood or drywall movement and often appear inside a twelvemonth of construction.

Lumber used to build houses may contain moisture, which is often absorbed from humidity in the air while lumber is stored in open-air warehouses. After construction, as the forest slowly dries, the studs may shift or twist slightly. This can cause private nails to move, and when a nail holding drywall moves, it loosens the joint chemical compound covering the nail. The result is a tiny bulge on the wall surface or, in some cases, a visible nail head if the drywall compound comes loose and falls away. This is the about common crusade of nail pops and it's completely corrective. There are no structural issues to worry about, and repair is fairly simple.

Photograph: istockphoto.com

Repair popped nails with screws.

Just tapping the nail back down with a hammer volition solve the immediate trouble, but eventually, the smash will probably work its way back out. A better solution is to tap the boom back downward and so insert 2 drywall screws in the stud, one about an inch above the boom, and i about an inch below the nail. The screws will attach the drywall panel securely to the stud.

Photo: istockphoto.com

Cull the right length of screw to reinforce a popped nail.

Short screws that barely penetrate the stud below the drywall panel may pull loose in the time to come, leaving you with more pops on the wall surface. The full general dominion is to use screws that will penetrate the stud by a minimum ¾ of an inch. For case, with ½-inch thick drywall, you'll need a screw at least 1¼-inch long.

Add more screws if you suspect skimping.

If the installer failed to use enough fasteners, the drywall panel might not exist securely attached to the studs, resulting in movement and popped nails. When hanging drywall, a fastener (preferably a screw) should exist inserted every eight inches along the edges of the drywall, and every 12 to xvi inches in the center of the console over every stud. If you doubtable that this happened when your home was congenital, you lot may wish to insert boosted screws (one every 10 to 16 inches) over the studs to reduce the risk of hereafter pops.

Go a pro to practice it for y'all

Receive free, no-commitment project estimates from licensed drywall installation and repair pros near yous.

+

Photo: istockphoto.com

Fill up indentions with drywall articulation compound.

Drywall screws are designed with trumpet-shaped heads, which allows you to insert them just beneath the surface of the drywall, but they will leave a small indentation. Smoothen over indentations with a fiddling joint compound—a quarter-sized glob should make full near smash and screw indentions. Employ with a putty knife, then polish away whatsoever backlog. Allow the chemical compound dry at least 24 hours, and so apply one more thin coat of joint chemical compound with the putty knife. When that dries, sand over the compound with a drywall sanding sponge, and so roll on a new coat of paint.

Inspect trusses, where uplift can cause blast pops.

If you noticed popped nails in the walls of your home, yous may wish to do a bit of investigating for similar bulges on the ceiling—which tin can indicate a more than serious problem. Today's homebuilders often use manufactured trusses to construct a roof rather than edifice the roof with rafters. Some wood members in a set of trusses are designed to move slightly with attic humidity and temperature fluctuations, and and so many modern drywall installers use a special attachment technique when hanging drywall on a ceiling made from trusses. If they attach the drywall straight to the underside of the trusses, nonetheless, when the trusses elevator, nail pops can occur in the ceiling drywall. Depending on how much the truss moves, in addition to nail pops, you might also find a horizontal crack between the ceiling and the wall. In order to fix this effect, a contractor should remove the drywall panels and install news ones attached to clips or blocks, but not to the trusses themselves.

Popped nails in combination with other problems indicate a bigger trouble.

Normal house settling can crusade framing lumber to motility a bit, resulting in popped nails. If the house continues to settle, over time, additional nail pops could appear. Foundation problems can also cause movement that leads to nail pops, but in both cases, they volition be accompanied by additional problems, including:

• Doors that stick or won't shut properly.
• Cracks in the drywall around windows and doors.
• Cracks in the corners of the ceiling.
• Visible cracks in the foundation.

If your firm has one or more of these issues, it's a good idea to have a contractor or a structural engineer take a look. Structural problems should be addressed before repairing popped nails.

Get a pro to do it for you

Receive free, no-commitment projection estimates from licensed drywall installation and repair pros well-nigh you.

+

Source: https://www.bobvila.com/articles/popped-nails/

Posted by: coxbutbrat.blogspot.com

Share this post