Question about taping over screws that aren't perfectly flush

I keep seeing guys on site trying to get every single screw head perfectly flush with the board before they tape. They'll spend 10 minutes on one screw, backing it out and driving it again. I think that's a huge waste of time. As long as the screw isn't proud and it's sunk enough to hold the board tight, you can just float it out with your mud. I learned this the hard way on a big apartment job in Phoenix where we were falling behind. The foreman told me to stop obsessing and just keep moving. After mudding and sanding, you couldn't tell the difference. Has anyone else found that chasing perfect screw depth on every single one just slows the whole job down for no real gain?

3 comments

3 Comments

emma_jones26d agoMost Upvoted

Used to agree with you until a bad screw popped and cracked a finished wall.

sarah_davis26d ago

Are you kidding me? That's how you get callbacks and angry homeowners. Sure, maybe you can float out one or two, but what about when you have a whole wall where the screws are just a little off? That's a bunch of extra mud, more sanding, and a bigger chance of seeing a shadow or a crack later. I saw a guy get fired because his "good enough" screws caused a ripple effect after painting under bright lights. The super made him cut out every bad spot. Taking an extra second to set the screw right the first time saves so much headache down the road.

riverb1326d ago

Those little gaps from bad screws are just future cracks waiting to happen... it's lazy work.