Whats the best way to fill a hole in the ceiling?

[Zippee]

We're in the process of doing up our new house prior to moving in Jan, in the dining room the previous owner had quite a large ceiling light that he removed and has replaced with a standard flex rose. However, the old light seems to have been connected directly to a joist as he has cut a roughly shaped round hole in the ceiling to do so, leaving a gap of 1cm approx around the current rose which is also screwed directly to the joist.
Whilst we'll be putting up a decent light it will still leave some of this hole showing so any tips on filling a hole with no backing to fill against? I hopw this makes sense else I'll get a pic tonight.

[softtop]

You need to make a backing,possibly in a number of pieces to get around the joist. Then plaster over. The same as filling a hole in a plasterboard wall. Does that make sense?

[BarnatosGhost]

A rectangular piece of plasterboard, slid up into the hole, then laid flat covering almost all of the gap.

(you have already put two small holes in the middle of it, and inserted a small loop of wire)

using board adhesive or whatever you've got laying around, glue the lower face of the rectangle to the upper face of the hole, and hang something reasonably heavy off the loop of wire for an hour whilst it goes off.

Come back later with some bonding coat, fill up to 2mm shy of flush. (You might need to do this in two goes depending on the depth required.

come back 20 minutes later with finishing coat and plaster it flush.

job a very good'un. 45 minutes work inc tidying up (spread over a couple of hours).

[Piersman2]

If the existing lights fitting is fixed to a joist then can't you just cut out a round piece of plasterboard, remove the light fitting, screw the piece of plastboard to the joist, fill and sand, and then re-attach the light fitting to the joist again through the new plasterboard?

Or am I missing something.

Otherwise, if the joist is not 'in the hole', as above

[plasticpig]

You need a ceiling cat:

[Munter]

plasticpig said:

You need a ceiling cat:

Here's the stuff you need for that:


Way off topic!

[Zippee]

Thanks for all the advice, I'll give it a try on Saturday. As for ceiling cat, our 2 get into enough trouble as it is so I don't think I'll start giving them ideas

[CO2000]

Use easy fill or similar not hard pollyfill(er) as it won't sand down well

[F i F]

The way I would do this is the same way as filling a hole in platerboard wall.

Get a strip of thin wood narrower than the hole but longer, so you can insert it through the hole and it will lie on top of the plasterboard.

Drill and countersink two small holes in the good plasterboard so you can screw through and attach the wood strip securely to the plasterboard.

Cut out a piece of plasterboard that is as near a fit to the hole as you can get, and drill c/sink that so you can screw that to the wooden strip.

Fill and gaps and skim with plaster or other suitable material. If you have a decent plasterer's trowek, skimming it up isn't as diificult as you first think.

Have done many ceiling holes like this as the previous owner had a thing for naff ceiling lights and had cut shed loads of holes in the ceiling, everyone done badly.

hth