Removing lights

by **RoyG** » Sat Jan 01, 2011 10:40 am

Not sure if this belongs in here or in Decorating, but as it's a bit of electrical kit I'm worrying about I'll try here first

We have a brand new kitchen with a bare plaster ceiling. As far as I know it's a plaster skim over plasterboard. Because the ceiling is extremely low (it's a converted garage) the lights are GU10 LED bulbs in flush mounted fittings held in by spring loaded clamps. It looks from below as if the fittings have a cylindrical enclosure behind them

The problem is painting the ceiling. In an ideal world we'd remove the fittings and paint behind them. But every time I try to g-e-n-t-l-y pull one out I can feel the spring tension increasing until it seems as if the plasterboard will break away rather than the light pulling through.

Am I being over cautious? Should the lights pull through without breaking the plasterboard? Incidentally, there's no prospect of reaching them from the other side. There's a laminate floor on the room above which is not coming up any time soon.

by **ericmark** » Sat Jan 01, 2011 10:24 pm

Normally they will pull through but I have had lumps of plaster come out. I would suspect damaged as lamp went in but of course no way of knowing.

In past I have wrapped insulation tape around the edge of lamp after spacing with a couple of nuts just in case. OK in ones own house you can repair and replace next day but no way do I want to have to do a second visit after repair to replace lamp. Rocking side to side often helps.