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papason 05-07-2009 11:12 PM

hanging drywall with what?
Ok I am not that much of a novice, but I have not dome much with drywall for a while. I am wantting to use nails (stores are not sure if they even have them and seem like not sure if they exist) Nails because if I ever take these walls apart again how the heck you gonna get those screws out? Forget it. So in the store they have the odl cuped heads and mostlly ring shank. Nobody knows why the ring shank. I am painting these walls with a little textureing. Do you realy use ringshank flat heads for that? Also as long as I am here where is best for the seams in regards to windows. I am looking to hang horizontaly. Seam in the middle of window, edge as far away as possible, what is best. This is an old house and this and others just like it typicaly have a crack friom it.

Thanks guys

locknut 05-08-2009 06:23 AM

Why at this point are you concerned about removing what you have not installed yet? If you use screws, i.e., screws that are designed for drywall hanging, they come out as easy as they go in. A ring shank nail has a rough surface along its shank for gripping. I have always used a minimum of screws and nails (what's odl cuped as you wrote?) along mainly with glue (sold for this task). That way spackling and sanding can be kept to a minimum. The type of fastening used has no bearing on the finishing coat(s). Screws or nails are inserted below the board surface and, of course, filled over and hidden.

GBR 05-08-2009 10:30 AM

Here is some good reading to help you, neighbor.

Don't break joints over the sides of windows, as the stress/load points are located there.

Be safe, G

Nestor_Kelebay 05-08-2009 10:07 PM


Here's where the problem is with your thinking:

1. In order to install the drywall with nails, you need to hammer the nail head to just below the drywall surface so that you can cover that nail head with drywall joint compound. So, if you ever did want to remove that drywall, getting something under the head of the nail to pry it out is going to wreck your drywall anyway. What you're saying would make only a little more sense if you were wanting to use smooth shank nails, but you'd probably wreck the drywall getting anything under those nail heads too.

2. Ring shank nails are a SOB to pull out. You will curse the day you put them in. Using ring shank nails to hold drywall in place is kinda like using a triple box knot to tie your shoe laces. It won't keep them from coming off when you don't want them to as much as it will prevent you from taking them off when you do want to. You're gaining little and losing much. About the only place where a sane person would use ring shank nails is to hold their roof down if they live in tornado alley. I'm exagerating, but in my opinion, most people create more problems for themselves when they use ring shank nails without first educating themselves by first hand experience what a pain they are to take out.

(That thing about people creating problems for themselves also applies to adhesives. Never us a stronger adhesive than you need to avoid problems with the glue holding. Doing so will only make your life harder if and when you want to separate what you stuck together.)

3. By contrast, drywall screws can be taken out easily with minimal damage to the drywall. Also, there is much less chance of having to redo a pile of work because the hammer missed the nail and now you have the cutest round hole in your drywall for storing things, like a cork, maybe.

4. And, you can drive drywall screws without buying an expensive drywall gun. Go to your local hardware store or home center and buy an attachment for an electric drill called a "Dimpler". It's a $10 attachment that allows you to drive drywall screws to the correct depth. They last a long time, and you should be able to put up all the drywall in your house with one of them.

You don't need to know the rest:
Drywall screws are considered to be "very low root" screws, which means that the root diameter of the screw is very small. Imagine the red thing in the image below looked like a screw:

The "root diameter" is the diameter of the solid shaft through the middle of the screw. (The major diameter is the apparant diameter of the screw when you look straight on at it's pointy end.) Unlike wood screws, drywall screws are designed to be driven into wood without any predrilling, and keeping the screw's root diameter to a minimum allows the screw to go in easily with little or no splitting of the wood around the screw.

Also, when drilling into softwood, choose the drill bit to predrill the pilot hole that has the same diameter as the screw root diameter, or the next larger size drill bit. When drilling into hardwood, choose the drill bit with the same diameter as the screw root diameter, or the next smaller size drill bit. By doing this, you get maximum holding power because you maximize the area of steel thread that's grabbing onto wood while minimize the amount of wood splitting immediately around the screw. Softwoods readily compress around the screw, so going to the next larger size up won't cause any splitting.

papason 05-09-2009 02:43 AM

I appreciate the response
To add al little to my original question.... I am.did tear out the walls this time and have done it a lot remodeling. So I was thinking if I were to ned inside these walls again for any reason that much bigger than a electrical box how would I get the screws out. They are full of joint compound and that is not going to just jump out of the screw head, it sounds like major bitch, and just not practical. I would think it would be faster just to cut out the stud and replace it. This is a rental and I can imagine damage enough that simple patching wont do it. This I guess is likely to be the only reason. I dont know why the wall would come down again but I got to thinking if it did...
This time I updated and added outlets, and insulation.

Ring shank nails with the solid head would need a pretty good whack to dimpe them enough and this just did not sound right. I guessed that they were more for backer boards or when covering would be used, I dont know tho.

Locknut; The old cupped head nails are what is holding up most of the drywall in the country far as I know. It sounds like screws are the choice now. I have used them and it is easier, but as I have said is when putting up the wall not taking it down.

DaveyDIY 05-09-2009 07:57 AM

Nails or screws are just as hard to pull out
Screws IMO attach the drywall much more securely
Drywall is removed around the nails, then the nails are pulled out
I have had no problem removing screws from the drywall
In fact I was able to determine where the screws were & removed the sheetrock intact. You can't do that with nails

Nestor_Kelebay 05-09-2009 08:33 PM


Originally Posted by papason (Post 30390)

You use a magnetic stud finder to locate the screw heads:

so you could use a paint scraper to scrape the paint and joint compounds off the screw heads:

and then you use an awl to clean the compound out of the screw head:


I would think it would be faster just to cut out the (drywall) and replace it.
That's most often what people do. But, using drywall screws to put the drywall in makes it cleaner and I'd say easier to take out.
