Drywall screws popping en masse
 

So I just purchased my home in May, and ever since then, I've had drywall screws (they are screws, not nails) popping everywhere in my master bedroom and in the bathroom. In the bathroom, they are in the ceiling. Four have completely popped to the point the heads are completely exposed, while I've counted 6 others so far that are, shall we say, in progress for doing so. In the bedroom, I have counted 17 of them coming through the walls (all are on a single horizontal beam or one single vertical beam) and 8 in a beam that runs through the middle of the room's ceiling (it's drywalled, not an exposed beam). Fixing them is simple enough, but I'd really like to know why it is I'm having so much issue with them, and if it is indicative of a bigger issue. I've looked at the flooring and ceiling from the basement and attic crawl space, respectively, and there's no indication of bowing, cracking, etc in the wood, nor any water damage.

My home is a 25 year old prefab home (it does not have any of that particle wall stuff like you'd see with trailers and the like) with a finished basement. I'd understand if it was a new home, but it's not. Any thoughts on why I'm having this issue?

No glue on the sheetrock...

Go back and add your location to your profile for better ansewers and less questions.
Has there been an earth quake in your area?
I'm dealing with one in Keyville VA that's near Mineral VA that had a major earthquake. The house is 50 years old and had no pops, now there's hundreds and the foundation even moved.
It could be as simple as someone had the screw gun set wrong with it was installed.
Any moduler I've worked on there trying to get the boxes set in place so fast they do not wait long enough for the morter and concrete to harden up propperly before setting it in place. There only going to get paid when it's done so time is money, so sometimes things settle.
May not be the case, but it's one factor I've seen before.

I'm sorry - I'm new here. No it's not an earthquake thing - I live in Vermont. I'm thinking its more of a modular thing but I don't know - this whole thing seems bizarre.

The contractor probably used lumber that was not dried properly.

Hope it's dry after 25 years... was there a recent repair there?

When you say "beams" do you mean ceiling/floor joists? Is there an attic above the ceiling pops, with trusses; http://www.buildingscience.com/docum...d-but-strange/

Gary

No recent repairs as far as I'm aware. My 'attic' area looks exactly like figure 10 - the ones in the bathroom are along the bottom chord.

The ones along the wall are a different story however.

Pictures, we love pictures!
http://www.diychatroom.com/f98/

Gary

So for pictures

Picture 1 is the beam I was mentioning
Picture 2 is the wall to the right of that beam where all the screws are coming out - this is some of hte wall - I couldn't get it all or you couldn't see the screws - that series of screw pops go until the end of the wall. This is the biggest issue for me now. Last night hearing the screws pop was so deafening I had to sleep in another room
Picture 3 is some of the bathroom screws

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/...a/1989b8cf.jpg


http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/...a/54da9951.jpg

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/...a/8fd5b49c.jpg

are you sure they are screws ?

Im going to take a guess and say the screws were sunk in way to far or the board has expanded over time and it is causing the mud to popout of the screws. however, some of them look a bit discolored meaning there could be a leak somewhere in a pipe or in the roof.

The ones in the bathroom definitely are. The ones in the bedroom I'm going the same assumption on, but I could be wrong. I'd need to scrape the paint away to be sure. There are some that are definitely screws in that bedroom wall that you can't see, but it seems like those ones in the picture have a bigger head to them.

stoner529: The discoloration is fingerprints. I have no idea what paint they used but it's really easy to discolor when you touch it. It's horrible. I'm going to repaint it once I figure out these issues and repair them (it needs to be done anyway).

It seems that most folks here think that it's probably just shifting sheetrock. It seems to structurally be fine but I'm not really convinced the builders did a great job of sheetrocking it, so I tend to agree. I'm thinking of just letting it shift for a while longer and then pound everything in, put in some additional screws, and then mud, sand, prime, and paint. Or should I just tear all the sheetrock out and start over?

Thanks everyone for your help.

Well re rocking is a project but if you have a budget for it, then it can't hurt and it also can make your home feel more like your own!

You will need to fix them anyway, could you take a picture of a screw (removed) from the bedroom wall with all the trouble? Set it next to a ruler/tape measure on a table/floor for us...

What is on the other side of that wall? Exterior or ?

Gary

For this to happen after 25 years is a sign that something has happened to the structure. There's nothing that would just 'happen' by itself after that long to explain it. I'd look at what might have changed related to the structure and the ceiling. GBR's post about truss lift was fascinating. Might there have been something related to attic or roof above the popping ceiling?