Bollocks. Arse ache
Shit 
Oh fuck
OH MY GOSH … we had just the same thing happen when we moved in . the previous owners had not repaired a valley in the roof and the lathe and plaster just fell in , still got a dent in a chest of drawers
incredible it didn`t hurt the tenant, what a mercy
That is not good. The tenant is very lucky to have avoided injury, but sadly will be dusting like crazy for a while. We have had to open up a bunch of plaster and lathe walls and ceilings. The mess is phenomenal.
Tenant was very lucky.
The ceiling in a mate’s bedroom detached at one end of the room and the whole thing swung across like a giant vertical door, destroying everything in its path.
He was even luckier not to be in there at the time.
Bloody hell!
Who the fuck put a lathe on the roof? That’s just asking for trouble 
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We just went down & saw it. That area that had fallen in is about 9-10 ft in diameter. Huge lumps of the broken rose moulding scattered about & great heavy sections of plaster too. Joe, the tenant, had been sitting on the sofa in there & had heard creaking so was able to dash out of the room just in time.
He was very lucky it didn’t happen while he was in bed tonight as several of the big plaster slabs now on his bed would have landed on him.
looking up through the lath, it’s evident that above the old & frankly dodgy looking joists the floorboards for the flat above have been replaced with particle board sheet as you can see the modern printing on them. Whether that’s what has compromised the integrity of the structure so that movement would’ve allowed the ceiling to flex too much I don’t know. The joists don’t look great but I can’t imagine board would’ve helped.
The lighting ring is now out although the sockets everywhere are still working. But I think the whole ceiling, joists & boarding above will need to be replaced. It isn’t going to be quickly sorted. Building insurance should cover all of this although if there’s an excess to meet, the owners above should probably be paying it. (Those owners aren’t the ones who’ll have boarded the floor. That will have been the previous owners).
Oh my god, lucky tenant!
Jeez, could have been nasty.
Wow - Lucky escape but a heap of shit now to deal with.
The integrity of the floor/ceiling is almost exclusively down to the size, span, condition and centres of the joists. The role of the floorboards (or indeed the chipboard) is negligible. It is worth measuring the size/centres of the joists and the span. From that is is easy to compare them with current regulations.
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In a house of that age the timbers will be massively under spec by modern standards. The ceiling could have been damaged if the new flooring was nailed, but that’s pretty rare these days.
More than likely, but at least if he measures them he can find out by how much.
True, but replacement is pretty impractical. Maybe a steel beam at mid span could be an option.
You could ‘sister’ them
Given the age of the building (150 years) and the fact that the joists do look somewhat dry & iffy for that span (the room is probably 5m x 5m) do you think it would require the whole ceiling & floor above to be replaced or just some substantial reinforcement be added? We did look in the flat above this evening & there was a sofa right above where the rose had been. I suspect that was where the ‘action’ had been taking place. I don’t really blame the tenants above, they should have been able to assume that the floor of the flat they are renting would be able to take a bit of vigorous sexual activity. They also wouldn’t have seen the amount of deflection our tenants were seeing.