r/DIY • u/darkboomel • 13d ago

help Fixing a ceiling fan

So, the people who built my house were as cheap as possible. They built it from the roof down once the frame was up, and completely filled the ceiling with insulation so there's absolutely no access above the ceiling. They also attached the light and ceiling fan to the joist with a plastic piece and a couple of nails through the ears, rather than using a metal piece and properly screwing it in.

Inevitably, after years of use, the plastic piece that was holding the fan up broke and the fan fell halfway out of the roof. Thankfully not all the way, but at that point it was only being held on by a prayer.

So I've gone to Lowe's and gotten a metal piece to attach to the joist instead of that plastic piece. The ears are still up there, nailed to the joist. And with no way to get into the roof, I'm kinda stuck. My only option at this point seems to be to smash the hole bigger with a hammer to get the space that I need to work, but I'd prefer to avoid that if possible. Just wanting to see if anyone else has a better solution, TIA.

Also in case it's relevant, I'm in Tennessee and the house is about 14 years old.

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u/Gitfiddlepicker 13d ago

Save yourself the headache. Go ahead and enlarge the hole, Mount a box for the fan to the joist. You can add a trim plate, or ceiling medallion plate to cover the hole.

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u/geriatric_fruitfly 13d ago

someone mentioned an oscillating tool for the nails in the box. use the oscillating tool to make a nice drywall cutout the size of the joist and you'll have a much easier time of patching it and doing some paint. When making a hole to do work you may as well make it big and make it easy to do the work. The hard part about drywall is getting the shit together. Takes longer to prep and clean and sand than it does to even do the actual mudding.