Walls and Ceilings
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Your home has two types of walls, bearing and nonbearing. Nonbearing walls may be altered without fear of structural damage, but alteration of bearing walls must be done carefully to avoid reducing its bearing capacity. Usually, exterior walls are bearing walls. Some interior walls are also bearing walls. The interior walls of your home are constructed of gypsum wallboard, sometimes known as drywall. They will last without undue maintenance for the life of your home. As new homes go through a normal shrinkage process, minor cracks will appear in the drywall. No repairs should be attempted until the room is ready to be redecorated. At that time, fill the cracks with spackling compound (available from any paint or hardware store), smooth it out with fine sandpaper, and then redecorate the entire surface. Except in very unusual conditions, cracks should not reappear.
This normal shrinking will also cause nail or screw pops. The framing studs and the wallboard shrink away from the nail or screw and leave it sticking out beyond the surface of the wallboard. Popped nails do not alter the strength of the wall. The nail should simply be reset and the resulting dimple re-spackled and repainted. Also, unusual abrasions may scuff or indent the surface of gypsum wall. In that event, fill the indentation with two or three applications of joint cement used for drywall taping.
The interior walls and ceilings of your home have been decorated with quality paint products. They should give you long service if properly cared for. The painted walls are not meant to be scrubbed. Gentle cleaning with a mild soap should remove most spots. If you have acoustical ceilings they can be gently vacuumed to remove collected dust. They may even be repainted if absolutely necessary, although it is very messy job and should be avoided if possible. The best insurance against repainting is to keep your furnace and air conditioning filters clean, to use the exhaust fans over your range and in the bathrooms, and to quickly vacuum dust as it collects.
A word of caution: Be very careful to locate a ceiling joist in which to attach hardware for heavy hanging plants, lamps and macramé. The drywall used in your ceiling is not designed to support any weight.
