What are these strange bumps in my drywall?

Question

My wife and I moved into our house about a month ago. The previous owners did a wonderful job of keeping the house in ship shape, yet we noticed something strange on one side of the house. In the master bed room, as well as the office, bumps (about the size of a walnut) have appeared a regular intervals on our drywall. The bumps occur right about where the wall meets the ceiling. A bump occurs about every 1.5 ft. A few of these bumps have began to crack the paint. As mentioned above, this is only happening on one side of the house. I'm uncertain as to if these were here a month ago, but my wife noticed a few a couple of days ago, and I noticed some more tonight.

What on earth is going on? Since these bumps occur at regular intervals, it leads me to believe it's part of the home's structure that's poking through the wall for some reason. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

HOUSE CHICKEN POX. CALL A PHYSICIAN THAT KNOWS HOW TO TREAT WATER DAMAGED SHEETROCK.

Answer 2

Sounds like nail pops, where the head of the nails holding up the drywall are backing out slightly. Try scraping the  plaster off of one to see if you see a nail head...if so, just hammer it back in and re plaster the spots.

Answer 3

Sounds like nail "pops" by the fact that they are on regular intervals.

Might take the cover off a  wallswitch or outlet to see if there is double drywall.

Studs may have been missed or nails  too short for doubling were used.

If drywall was laminated over lath & plaster walls same is true if they missed the studs & screws or nails are bouncing off the lath.

Lean on the wall & if the bump grows a little ,the drywall is not secured properly.

Could scrape the spackle off one of the "bumps" & if you see a nailhead that you can move or the drywall is crushed & crumbles, that is the problem even if it is single thickness drywall.

The fix is to find the stud centers by drilling & putting in new drywall screws at half the present interval.& another an inch or so above or below the existing pops if they are in the stud locations.

Further if the drywall in the popped area is crushed,

Best regards

Answer 4

Yes, it sounds like some sort of ceiling truss, or wall joist is beginning to jut through your drywall. I'm guessing it's due to uneven wall joists. If they were not exactly flush w/ the top of the wall structure, (the board or boards at the top of the wall that support the truss), then they will stick out a bit. It sounds like a pricy problem. Good luck!