After arriving home from a few nights away to find the ceiling falling down in the spare bedroom, Mark, my preferred contractor checked the rest of the ceilings in my house and found the ceiling was "one big wind" away from collapse in my lounge/dining room/kitchen as well. And the cornice had fallen off along one wall in my bathroom, so not even my bedroom/bathroom has escaped. So it has been an unplanned renovation, fixing the entire house. I wasn't ready for this. Was frantically trying to move and protect furniture etc as they worked. The entire house is covered in fine white dust from sanding ceilings. I think I am finally able to start getting back to normal after a fortnight I would rather not have to repeat again in my life.
The nightmare of almost every South African built house! The builders having been skimping wherever they can. I have a long list of friends with the same dilemma. So sad that we pay so much just to receive bad workmanship and builders skimping where ever they can.
@ludwigsdiana Mark explained to me that the builders had used nails to nail the ceiling up onto the brandering instead of screws because nails are much cheaper, and the labour is a lot cheaper than screwing the boards up. And then of course they skim the ceilings so there is the added weight of all that cement being held up by nails. As the wind blows it causes the ceilings to flex up and down ever so slightly, but over the years the constant movement of the ceilings causes the nails to start loosening. When one nail pops out, all the rest start popping in quick succession, which is why he said my ceiling was one wind away from falling as when he pressed up on the ceiling the nails all started popping out.
