Drywall Insider
Fasteners and screws for drywall shops
The screw on the gun is a class, not a commodity. Fine thread into wood still bites; coarse thread into 25-ga steel walks or strips. Metal-to-metal framing screws frame the wall; they do not hang the board. Collation is packaging. Head geometry is what the taper has to mud.
This hub is takeoff and trailer language for estimators, PMs, and hang leads. Commercial wall-and-ceiling shops and residential production crews buy overlapping fasteners and different mixes. It is not a catalog, not a price list, and not a substitution license for a listed fire design. Official manufacturer data lives on the mill or fastener house — Grabber publishes application and submittal material at grabberpro.com. Drywall Insider does not wrap that in a fake hop; see the affiliate disclosure.
Product door: Products. Hang pattern those screws sit in: how to hang drywall. Steel thickness that decides piercing vs drill: steel stud framing basics. Directory: Fasteners, Tools.
How to read a fastener class
ASTM C1002 is the self-piercing family for gypsum panel products (and metal plaster base) into wood and into cold-formed steel thinner than 0.033 inch (0.84 mm), and for gypsum into gypsum. Four thread types:
| Type | Thread (spec language) | What it fastens |
|---|---|---|
| S | Fine-thread | Gypsum to light-gauge steel |
| W | Coarse-thread | Gypsum to wood |
| G | Coarse-pitch, high-thread | Gypsum to gypsum (laminating) |
| A | Coarse-pitch tapping | Metal plaster base to wood or steel |
ASTM C954 is the self-drilling document: steel from 0.033 inch through 0.112 inch. The trailer still says Type S-12. Interior 18-mil drywall stud is C1002 Type S. Structural 33-mil and a lot of exterior CFS are not.
The listed UL / GA-600 design can name length and spacing that beat the general C840 / GA-216 table. When they disagree, the tighter requirement governs. Do not invent a length from last job.
Families a drywall shop actually stocks
Drywall-to-wood
Type W drywall screws — coarse thread into dimensional lumber, trusses, and wood furring. This is residential production and the wood-frame rooms on a mixed-use floor. Length has to put the required thread into the wood (application notes commonly cite at least 5/8 inch penetration). A Type S may go into wood; a Type W into steel is the wrong recommendation.
Drywall-to-steel
Type S drywall screws — fine thread, piercing point, bugle head into light-gauge drywall stud, hat channel, resilient channel, and shaft-stud faces still in the C1002 thickness range. This is the commercial hang default. Do not hang a 1-hour corridor with a wood-screw coil because that is what was on the truck.
Laminating
Type G laminating screws — coarse-pitch, high thread, made to bite gypsum core, not a stud. Used when a face layer is laminated to a base layer. Not a substitute for a longer Type S that has to reach steel through two layers. Adhesive plus mechanical is a system; improvising on a rated multi-layer wall is how you fail the listing.
Lath
Type A lath screws — metal plaster base to wood or steel. Wafer / truss / pan bearing, not the interior gypsum bugle on a Level 4 corridor. If the wall-and-ceiling package includes metal lath, this is the class. It is not a drywall hang SKU with a different label.
Light-gauge metal-to-metal
Sharp / piercing framing screws that stitch stud to track, clip to stud, and channel to framing while the steel is still thin enough to tap. These frame the wall. They are not Type S hang screws. Keep the pouch languages apart — see steel stud framing basics.
Heavy-gauge self-drill
Self-drilling framing screws — C954 drill points for board into thicker steel, and a separate family of drill-point metal-to-metal screws for structural CFS. If the screw spins on the flange, you likely brought a piercing point to 33-mil work. Exterior backup and interior drywall stud on the same job are often two fastener classes.
Collated systems
Collated drywall fasteners — strips and coils that feed a magazine. Production residential lives on Type W collation; long commercial runs live on Type S. Collation does not change ASTM class, length, or spacing. It does not excuse missing a stud. Guns and nosepieces sit under Tools.
Head types
Drywall screw head types — bugle for gypsum face paper, wafer and truss for lath and some backer, pan and hex for steel-to-steel, trim where a small head has to disappear. The head is what the taper sees. Punching paper is a fastener failure, not a finish problem.
Cement board (wet-area backer)
Cement board screws — corrosion-resistant fasteners the backer mill names. Not a drywall coil on the gun. Tile-backer hang is not a Type W / Type S decision; see also MR board vs tile backer.
Side-by-side class language: Type S vs Type W vs laminating.
Commercial vs residential — keep the mix distinct
Residential production. Type W, often collated, depth-sensitive gun, 1/2-inch interiors and sag-resistant ceilings. Type S only if that house, garage, or basement furr is actually steel. Laminating and Type G show up on overlays, curves, and the occasional double-layer garage separation — not in the everyday coil. Cement-board screws appear where tile actually goes, not on every bathroom wall “because moisture.”
Commercial wall and ceiling. Type S is the default hang screw on interior C645 / AISI S220 drywall stud. S-12 / C954 on heavier steel, shaftwall faces when the member needs it, and exterior CFS. Type W for wood blocking, nailers, and wood-frame rooms on the same floor. Type G plus laminating adhesive where the design is a laminated face. Light-gauge metal-to-metal in the framing pouch; heavy-gauge drill points when the steel leaves the drywall-stud range. Collated Type S on long corridors. Cement-board and lath classes on the scopes that actually named them.
Do not treat a residential trailer as a silent commercial fastener kit, or the reverse.
Length, spacing, and the fire design
Public application language and listed designs talk in named lengths, not “whatever is on the coil.” Pattern the trailer sees on multi-layer steel walls (always confirm the design):
- Base layer: often a 1-inch Type S (or S-12) class screw
- Face layer: often 1-5/8 inch so it reaches the steel through the base layer
Wood multi-layer and three-layer shaft faces change those numbers. The listed design wins.
Single-layer spacing (screws, no adhesive) lives in the hang guide: walls 16 inches o.c. at 16-inch framing, 12 inches at 24-inch framing, ceilings 12 inches — then tighten to the fire design, which often wants 12 inches on walls anyway. Edge distance still at least 3/8 inch from paper edges and ends. Dimple, do not punch.
What this hub is not
Not a SKU wall. Not item numbers, prices, ASINs, or retailer URLs. Not a phone book. Fastener houses and gypsum distributors stock the coils; official data and submittals come from the manufacturer. Grabber is the editorial stub for one of those houses — official site grabberpro.com. Manufacturer listings stay editorial until a real program exists. Affiliate disclosure.
Related
- Directory: Fasteners, Tools, Manufacturers, Steel stud / framing
- Listing: Grabber, ClarkDietrich
- Hang and steel: How to hang drywall, Steel stud framing basics, Production tools
- Guides: Type S, Type W, Type G, Type A, Self-drilling, Collated fasteners, Head types, Cement board screws, Type S vs Type W vs laminating
- Products: Products