How deep to drive a drywall screw — dimple the paper without breaking it
Drive the head to a slight dimple just below the surface with the face paper intact. Leave it proud and compound can’t hide it; break the paper and the screw holds only in the crumbly core. The head must still bite ≥⅝″ into wood (¼″ into steel).
What this diagram shows
Three magnified cross-sections of a drywall screw driven through a gypsum panel into a wood stud, comparing drive depth. Too shallow: the head sits proud above the face paper, so joint compound cannot hide it and it sands through — wrong. Set correctly: the head seats in a shallow dimple just below the surface with the face paper still intact, which holds full strength — right. Overdriven: the head has punched through and torn the face paper, so the screw grips only the soft gypsum core and loses most of its holding power — wrong. In every case the screw must penetrate at least five-eighths inch into wood framing (a quarter inch into steel). A drywall gun with a depth-sensing nose sets every screw to the same depth.
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