I initially thought that my plumbers, who are working upstairs, had come through the floor to the hallway ceiling below in their enthusiasm, but it seems that some of my ceiling plasterboard fixings are popping. There's one in the hallway but a run of 4 along the snug/hallway ceiling join.

 

I'm waiting to hear back from the plasterer (his crew did the boarding) but what's the best way to deal with this? I assume that I need to dug out and re-attach as I don't fancy having unsecured boards on the ceiling and I imagine it will only get worse once the house is occupied and has more movement inside.

 

We've had a few, caused, I think, by the interior being a bit too damp when we were boarding and plastering.  It was very humid indoors at that time, not helped by the wet and cold weather, and all the plaster pops happened as soon as the house dried out and stabilised, maybe 6 months after being painted.

 

My fix has been to just remove the loose plaster, fill the holes, then sand and repaint the areas.  None have recurred, and all looked as if the screws underneath were still very firmly embedded in the underlying board.  The filler is at least as hard, maybe harder, than the plaster, so once packed around the screw head I think it seems to hold things securely.  I've not felt any indication that the boards are flexing where there have been pops, and get the feeling that the pops aren't from movement in and out, but from lateral movement that's tending to sheer the screw and causing the head to angle very slightly, so pushing the plaster off.

Thanks, Jeremy. My plasterer is an excellent fellow and rang me earlier. He is coming back to finish a couple of areas and will take whatever remedial action is necessary.

 

The lateral movement makes sense as I had the posijoists put in at 400mm rathet than 600mm centres to reduce bounce.

 

All will become clear in a few weeks.