Repair – Using Coarse Drywall Screws for Fixing Ceiling Nail Pops

There is absolutely no reason to use nails in this day and age. I urge you to use 1 5/8" drywall screws. There are several reasons. Screws have much better holding power, they are actually faster to install, and they can be slightly counter sunk during installation to make mudding a lot easier ( especially with a drywall screw gun or a decent drywall bit that can be used in any drill). Nails can loosen with age and "pop" out through the mud coat, cracking your paint. The difference in price is negligible, but the difference in performance is massive. Drywall finish is the end result of a room project, the surface you will see for a very long time, don't cheat yourself. Do it well, use screws and a good gun or bit. Good Luck.

It looks like about the only thing you can do is add a drop ceiling in this area. Code here would require the drywall to be 5/8ths between a garage area and a living area. Basically this means putting in a frame to support that drywall. It wouldn't have to be finished except on the joints, and if you have an area you need to leave access to, you can make that a removable panel (leaving access to the screws that hold that drywall panel up, or creating a hinged door for it.) On the bonus side, it would hide all the plumbing, AC, etc that is now exposed. On the down side, yes, it's expensive, about $400 per 4X8 foot area to do this properly, with the frame-in, unless you do it yourself... Part of the consideration for this is also fumes and not just fire, otherwise you could probably install a drop acoustic panel ceiling, which is much easier, and slightly less cost. Also, I'm surprised the inspection found that door to the stairway acceptable, it should be a 20-minute rated fire door, even if one is installed at the top of the stairway, with proper self-closing mechanism!