But within the area of do-it-yourself home improvement, this vast range of choices narrows down to just a few well-defined picks that work within the limited types of uses encountered by most homeowners. Even having a good handle on just the three main features of drywall screws will help: drywall screw length, gauge, and thread. Most drywall installed in homes is 1/2-inch thick. Thickness can sometimes increase or decrease, but only by very little and not very often. About the only time that do-it-yourselfers will need to install thicker drywall is with fire code or type-x drywall. At 5/8-inch, type-x drywall is slightly thicker to slow the spread of flames and is used in garages and walls adjacent to furnace rooms. Drywall that is 1/4-inch thick is sometimes used as facing for walls and ceilings. Because it is flexible, it can be used to form curves. Still, the majority of drywall installed by do-it-yourselfers in kitchens, bathrooms, and general areas will be 1/2-inch thick. Coarse Thread Drywall Screws Use coarse-thread drywall screws for most wood studs. Coarse-thread drywall screws, also known as W-type screws, work best for most applications involving drywall and wood studs. The wide threads are good at gripping into the wood and pulling the drywall against the studs. One downside of the coarse-thread screws: the metal burrs that can embed in your fingers. Be sure to wear gloves when working with coarse-thread drywall screws. Fine Thread Drywall Screws Fine-thread drywall screws, also known as S-type screws, are self-threading, so they work well for metal studs. With their sharp points, fine-thread drywall screws are best for installing drywall to metal studs. Coarse threads have a tendency to chew through the metal, never gaining proper traction. Fine threads work well with metal because they are self-threading. Keep in mind that as gauge numbers increase, the screw becomes larger in diameter. So, a #6 drywall screw would be thinner than a #8 drywall screw. While this may seem evident, many materials related to home construction work in the opposite direction. For example, smaller number sandpaper grits are actually coarser than grits with higher numbers. Actual sizes of drywall screw gauges:
#6 (0.1380-inch)#8 (0.1640-inch)
Gauge is often expressed as the second number after the length. For example, a 1 5/8-inch long screw with a #6 gauge would be shown as: “1 5/8 inch x 6.” Drywall screws are good for repairing nail pops. If you have an older house and find walls that have mysterious circular bumps, then you have nail-pops. Before drywall screws came into widespread use, drywall was nailed into place with short, wide-head nails. While drywall nails are still around and do have their use as a quick way to fasten wallboard, drywall screws have evolved as the standard method of attaching drywall to studs precisely because of the nail-pop problem.
Can You Use Drywall Screws For Building?
Some do-it-yourselfers use drywall screws for one unintended purpose: building projects. That’s because drywall screws are much cheaper than wood screws, they drive and bite into the wood extraordinarily well, and they are plentiful. Few woodworkers would ever use drywall screws for fine building. Avoidance of drywall screws is especially important with heavy or even moderate building tasks, critically with outdoor projects like fences and decks. It is widely believed that drywall screws tend to be brittle. Rather than bending, they can snap. Drywall screw heads are especially prone to cleanly breaking off, leaving the shaft section embedded in your wood. No screw extractor can remove a headless screw. Yet some do-it-yourselfers, conducting informal tests, have found that drywall screws are comparable to conventional wood screws in terms of strength.When working with softwoods, drywall screws even have an advantage over wood screws. But when it comes to hardwoods, drywall screws will break before wood screws. One reason why drywall screws are best used for drywall lies with its bugle head. The curved head of the drywall screw is specifically designed for creasing the top paper layer of drywall, not for sinking in wood. When a drywall screw being driven into wood reaches the head, a great amount of force is exerted; this must be counteracted with force from the drill. This explains why so many drywall heads snap off when being driven into wood. In the end, drywall screws are best used for drywall or for light building projects or for temporary construction when safety is not a factor.
1-5/8-inch coarse thread #6 screws: about 200 screws1-1/4-inch coarse thread #6 screws: about 238 screws2-1/2-inch coarse thread #8 screws: about 92 screws
This screw is inexpensive and can be purchased in large tubs, since drywall work requires a multitude of fasteners. The 1 5/8-inch drywall screw can be difficult to sink, since so much shaft remains after the first 1/2-inch of the drywall thickness is covered. Stepping back on length means easier driving but it also does mean reducing holding strength. Since the last 1/8-inch of sink is critical (where the bugle head of the screw needs to crease but not tear the outer paper layer), this shorter screw makes it easier to calibrate that last 1/8-inch of drive. For hanging drywall on ceilings, you may want to go with the longer drywall screw. For hanging drywall on walls, you can use either the long or short drywall screw. A drywall screwgun is a specialty tool used for hanging drywall. It is a more compact, lighter, and lower torque tool than most cordless drills. While screwguns do an excellent job of driving drywall screws, they have such limited functionality for homeowners that it is unnecessary to purchase them.
