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I mistakenly brought concrete screws to hang my storage racks in the garage. Well, turns out my walls are drywall on wood, and not concrete. I don't supposed the concrete screws will work in drywall or in the wooden studs behind them would they?

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  • Can you show us or link to exactly what you mean by "concrete screws"?
    – brhans
    Commented Jul 18, 2019 at 17:25

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Firstly, I wouldn't use drywall screws (black oxide) to hang any load heavier than the small portion of drywall they're designed for. Drywall screws are very brittle and don't tolerate bending well at all. Gold construction screws, sure. Good quality deck screws, sure. Not actual drywall screws.

I'm rescinding the statement above. I've been enlightened by the great Stumpy Nubs on the viability of drywall screws.

Then, concrete screws are often heavier in diameter and thread depth, so they'll grab the wood in your studs just fine. Even if they're lighter-duty 3/16" screws they'll be ok if you use enough for the load. You may want to pilot for them since they can be quite chunky. The only concern is length. You'd want to be into the wood at least 1-1/4" for anything of substantial weight.

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    Yeah, they're just high-low threaded and comparatively expensive lag screws; use them as such: pilot holes.
    – Mazura
    Commented Jul 18, 2019 at 22:11
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    I've been backing away from drywall screws primarily because of the Phillips head. In defense of the drywall screw: I had a rack in my uninsulated, humid Midwest US garage for nearly 30 years built primarily with drywall screws & 2x4. It was loaded down with lumber and other junk for all that time. I disassembled it last summer by unscrewing every single screw. Well, except for the few Phillips heads that had stripped out on assembly in the early 90s.
    – FreeMan
    Commented Feb 28, 2022 at 18:07
  • Stumpy tested torsional strength, neither shear nor tensile strength! While drywall screws are actually OK for many applications, I'd be careful about using them for storage intended to hold a lot of weight. (I recently built some shelves intended to hold 1,500lbs and they're holding up so far. No drywall screws there...)
    – sribe
    Commented Nov 27, 2022 at 20:12

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