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

Are you saying that if the floorboards are fastened to the joists, that
makes the whole structure more rigid and able to withstand people walking
across the joists?

That is probably true, but why should gluing be better than just copious use
of screws? Every board was fastened to all the joists it crossed, as well as
at various places at the start and end joist, by long screws (*). I made the
mistake of thinking that visible screws were the *only* means of fastening
:-(


In my book, anything that is fastened to something should be done so in such
as way that it can be *un*fastened if the need arises - eg a rat that
expires and rots in the space between floorboards, plasterboard ceiling and
joists.


(*) Most were nicely countersunk. I discovered one that was not when I
walked over the boards in bare feet (well, socks but not shoes) and ripped
my heel on it even though the head was only just proud of the board :-(