How to Get Rid of Screw Pops

How to Get Rid of Screw Pops

If you have plasterboard walls in your home, the chances are you will encounter a screw pop at some point. While a screw pop is not necessarily anything to be concerned over, it is an eyesore, and one that most of us find irritating. In this article we show you how to effectively repair a screw pop so that it does not return.

Before you learn how to repair a screw pop, you may want to first learn what exactly a screw pop is and what causes them. You can head to our article on how screw pops are formed here to get a better understanding of how they are formed in the first place.

How to Repair a Screw Pop

Tools:

Utility Knife
Filling Knife
Drill/Screwdriver
Plasterboard screws
Mixed Gypsum plaster or ready mixed filling compound
Sandpaper

The first thing you will need to do when repairing a screw pop is to remove the plaster covering it. If your screw pop is quite large, you may just be able to pull off the plaster with your fingers. In other cases, you may need to use a utility knife to gently cut away the surrounding plaster and loose lining paper. You don't need to make a large incision, just enough so that the edges around the screw are neat.

Next, you will need to drill two more drywall screws into the stud. Drill your screws a couple of inches above and below the screw pop and ensure they are flush with the wall. This is the tricky part as improperly fixed screws are one of the reasons screw pops can form in the first place. Your screw should sit nicely against the wall so that if you were to run a pallet knife over it, the knife would not catch on the screw. At the same time, the screw should not be drilled too far into the wall so that it breaks the lining paper. If you aren't too experienced with a drill, you can drill your screw as far as you are comfortable and secure into the wall with a screwdriver. As you secure the new screws, you may find that the screw pop protrudes even further.

The next thing to do is to remove the screw from the wall entirely using your drill or screwdriver.

Once the screw is removed and two new screws have been secured, mix your chosen filling compound according to the manufacture instructions. Scoop a small amount of plaster with a filling knife and coat over the screw in a single direction. Remove the excess in the opposite direction and repeat so that the plaster is flush with the wall.

Once dry, sand the edges of the new plaster if necessary. Make sure the plaster is completely dry before paining and you're done!