Someone just posted about this same issue but much less severe. I believe most attributed it to the use of nails rather that screws but I am foggy on the details. Did you try searching the forum for similar topics? I feel like we see the nail pop issue come up more often than you would think.

Good luck.

Take a look at your contract. Mine had a section on this; as long as we don't repaint the room, it is covered by the builder for 1 year. The repair for screw/nail pops is pretty simple but if it is as excessive as you say, I think the builder will need to take a look at it and repair as necessary.

The Construction Performance Guidelines for TARION, the mandatory government warranty programme I build under, say that

"Nail pops resulting from normal shrinkage of materials due to drying after construction are excluded from the statutory warranty." [ 9.6]

However, if on the possession fasteners are visible, they must be repaired. The Guidelines specifically say that if you can see the filler material in normal light that is not warrantable.

In practice, many builders voluntarily repair pops after the one-year warranty period, but do not paint.

Pops are definitely annoying. On walls that people will see up close (stairwells) or that are accent lit such as near fireplaces, I texture, skim coat, glue on a second layer of thin drywall or fiddle with the lighting to minimize or eliminate the distraction.

Making no claim to be an expert, I think most nail pops are the result of using lumber which has a moisture content that somewhat too high. When the lumber dries, it shrinks and the nails/screws are then a bit too far out from the lumber.
There may be other causes.

Pops are a normal part of building a new home. Most builders don't cover them under warranty, but will offer a goodwill gesture of repairing them one time post close. Usually around 6-9 months down the road is a good time to scedule that as the wood has had a season of drying. The aren't gonna touch up or repaint though.

If they do include those services, you're paying for it somewhere and it's probably not an average semi custom home. At the higher grade homes, you start of with a better protection of supplies from the elements, andmore climate control is used during the build, so you have more moisture removed befre the drywall ever goes on. That costs more, so you just won't see that effort and expenditure on a builder grade home. It's part of the ''invisible quality'' that ges into a higher priced custom home. Or, it should.

We built our new home last year and screw pops are another one of the reasons we went with Level 5/smooth finish for the walls and ceiling. We haven't had a lot of pops but I can fix them myself with the smooth finish...with any kind of textured finish it is pretty hard to blend in.

Ok, it does make me feel better that its not necessarily anything that was done wrong to cause this. It just happens. Its just frustrating because we thought we were finished and moving in and now we have patches all over the wall again where they are fixing them. And of course now I'm having to pay labor charges for these guys that are working on fixing it. My other concern is the painters had told me that since we used eggshell paint, it was hard to touch up that you had to repaint the whole walls in most cases. So Im hoping its not going to cost too much for the painters to come back in and repaint. For those of you that fix these yourself down the road, are you able to touch up the paint well? Also, for the walls that its not really that noticeable, if we leave them alone right now will they eventually come on through the wall or have they already done what they are going to do? I can live with some of them to save on repainting the walls. Thanks so much for yalls help!

Sometimes the nail pops get more noticeable and sometimes they don't change much at all after first noticed.
We like the look of eggshell paint but went with flat on all surfaces for the exact reason your painters describe. I have repaired eggshell before but have to blend the paint into a larger area.

the painters had told me that since we used eggshell paint, it was hard to touch up that you had to repaint the whole walls in most cases

Exactly right.

Incidentally, drying lumber affects Class 5 Walls too, just not as noticeably. Using 2x6 wall studs instead of 2x4s, especially for 9 or 10 ft. ceilings, can also cut back on pops. You can avoid pops altogether in basements by using light steel framing.

Although pops will usually show in the first year, they can gradually grow over several years.

This post was edited by worthy on Thu, Mar 13, 14 at 18:07

Ok, I had given a punch list to my builder of things I wanted fixed before we finalized on the house. When I got home from work last week, he had tried to patch some of the screw pops and then touch up the paint himself. It looked horrible! You guys werent kidding when you said eggshell doesnt touch up well. I would rather see the screw pops. I told him to just stop patching anything for now and I would have the painter repaint the entire wall on the walls he has patched. My husband met with the guy we bought the lumber from and all he had to say about the extensive popping throughout the house was that it was probably the eggshell paint making them show. So this week my husband, our general contractor, the lumber guy, sheetrock people and the mudding rep are all meeting to see what if anything can be done about it. All I know is we cant afford to have the entire house repainted so at this point I think we just need to repaint what has already been patched and live with the rest for now. The rooms that dont get sun you cant even see them unless you shine a flash light on them.

Clients I built a custom home for wanted dark colours in eggshell. I warned them that they should change their choices or pay for a skimcoat finish or plaster walls. They nixed that idea and on completion submitted a list of 50 pages of drywall "defects" to the warranty programme. The adjudicator rejected them all.

This post was edited by worthy on Mon, Mar 17, 14 at 18:27