On Sunday, 2 September 2018 20:39:42 UTC+1, NY wrote:
"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
news

Well, that was a first.
Tried to remove a ceiling rose, and screwdriver wouldn't engage
with the second screw. It's too dim to see in the recess, but
eventually use the torch on the mobile - no slot. The damn thing
has been nailed up. By the time I've managed to lever it off,
the ceiling rose is in several pieces, and there's a hole in the
lath and plaster ceiling twice the size of the ceiling rose, sigh.

I reckon it takes the same sort of stupidity to nail a ceiling rose to the
ceiling as it does to glue (as well as screw) floorboards in the loft onto
the joists. When a rat died in our loft, I needed to lift boards to get at
it. I unscrewed on at one end (so if the boards had been tongue-and-grooved,
one edge would lift) and it did not budge even slightly. I can only assume
all the boards were glued to the joists... Pillocks!

I take it you're not a structural engineer.