How best to repair a botched light fitting in plasterboard?

Question

In the porch, the light fitting has torn loose. The person who fitted it had put screws directly into plasterboard with no rawlplugs. The plasterboard is too messed up to make new holes and there is no joist to s***w in to. The ring main pokes through and pushes down on the fitting.

Is my best option to choose a fitting with wide apart screws and hope that the plasterboard will hold further from the hole? I am concerned that I would need to keep the chocolate block which the two wires that go into the fitting come from since parts of the ring main are connected in there.

I have qualifications in electronics but they didn't cover household electrics, sadly.

Advice welcomed.

Mark

Answer 1

If you can put a piece of wood in you can put a s***w to hold the wood in place (putting the s***w under the fitting so that it is not visible) and then put in another s***w at the normal location. You could remove the screws that are in place just to hold the wood after if desired as once your fitting is up it won't really matter. The longer the wood the more stress it will take.

Answer 2

Use Nylon Easi-Drivers available from ScrewFix Part No 17481. These will go into the enlarged holes and will easily hold a light fitting

Answer 3

If you can get a block of wood in behind to s***w onto; Wonderful.

if not; these can work well. Drill a circular hole, & then you fix into the ears with ordinary machine screws. http://www.wydels.co.uk/product.asp?type...

Answer 4

Polyfilla actually will do a good job of repairing enlarged/damaged holes in plasterboard. Use a stiff mix and give it ample time to dry and it can be drilled for proper plasterboard fixings (in all DIY stores).

The other option if you have access above the fitting i.e. in the loft or lift a bedroom floorboard, is to place a piece of timber over the hole and fix through the plasterboard into it.

Answer 5

You might like to consider using toggle screws to fix onto the plaster board. You make a small hole in the plaster board big enough to pass through the folded toggle which grips tight on the back of the board as you tighten up.

Answer 6

hi in the long run it will be cheaper to take down old porch ceiling ,,this will reveal all..then you can put in new ceiling joist..nothing to big for a porch ..a sheet of 8x4 plasterboard will cost £6.. get the electrics sorted at the same time ..this way you won,t spend good money after bad ..trust me i,m a builder and short cuts don,t pay ..