Plaster over spotlight fittings, what to do?

3 years ago

Recently had a ceiling replastered, and the housings for the spotlights have been plastered over, meaning the lights won't go back in.
New to the house and spotlights, so didn't notice until ceiling fully painted and came back to try put the lights back!
Any ideas how to fix?
Probably need to cut the ceiling, either to uncover the old housing, or maybe to fit new, bigger spotlights in place. But don't want to make a mess of the freshly plastered ceiling by doing this either.
Room above is tiled so can't attack from above either, and believe gluing would likely be unsafe
Any advice would be appreciated.

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Thank you everyone, I sincerely appreciate all your interest and advice. Since I posted last week the electrician has installed a piece of kit that allows one of the circuits of 12 spots to dim to dark. It's called a Hamilton GRID-IT LED dimmer. The same piece of kit has not worked for the other circuit of 18 spots. As instructed by my electrician I have returned the fitting to get a replacement as he thinks it may be faulty. We will try again next week. I have attached a photo of as much of the ceiling for you to see for yourselves. Jonathan, thank you so much. The ceiling is the bog standard 'Brilliant White' but the walls are Farrow and Ball 'Strong White' which is a very pale grey which has helped reduce the dazzle. I will look into toning down the ceiling too. I hadn't thought of that, so thanks again. Clever, thanks for all your interest. I can't find the technical details of the spot or the dimmer but have attached a photo of the spot. As mentioned above, only the circuit of 18 in the extension doesn't dim to dark now, but the electrician is going to try and fit a replacement dimmer next week. Thank you so much. Source, thank you, I did wonder if that is possible. I'm not sure if my budget can stretch to that but in some ways I think that would be the best solution. I will ask my very patient builder to quote. Thanks again.
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Hi Anita, Yes moving the spotlights is possible - A quick tip is asking him to keep the new cut outs and fit them into the old holes (a bit of timber behind slightly longer will hold it in place with dry wall screws either side) - then it is much easier for a plasterer to hide the existing holes (especially if they aren't the best plasterer in the world - even they can make the move invisible). A good electrician will know his route through the ceiling too, the biggest issue is if he has to drill through beams or joists, then then you don't want to go down that route as you will have to take down parts of the ceiling to re-route. Most electricians will say no first time too.. so push it a little and see whether he just cant be bothered or whether it is actually complicated. I have found that 90% of the time they just cant be bothered :-) (except for with an expensive project - then they can be bothered, but you will be charged for the change, of course). It looks like in this instance the restrictions are what you are talking about so that is probably what they will be referring to. Some options for you to think about are: Depending on how those downlighters are wired - if that row is on a separate circuit, the sparky could rewire them at the light switch for the pendants instead - then he just has to replace the fittings and make up the extra lighting in the kitchen - possibly with under or over counter lightings (strip LEDs in the same colour as the down-lights which could be hidden in the joinery etc) If those three downlights are on the same circuit - like you suggested, try to reposition them - or get rid of them altogether. It sounds like the separate circuit for the pendants might be there already (is that right?) so more than likely you will want to have the pendants on anyway when using the space to keep the mood you created, so they should always take precedence over the downlighters (which at that angle and distance are working super hard to illuminate a work surface below anyway). The spacing of the pendants would be my concern, i cant tell from the photo if they are equally spaced (if so thats great) if not being creative with the lamps could be a solution (for example if one is farther away give it a similar style but wider shade to the other two). I hope that gave you some ideas. Jo
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Plaster over spotlight fittings, what to do?

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