Advice sort on how to fix dud ceiling

I am about to repaint the study. House is built in 1964 and is of Brick Veneer construction (cut Hardwood Frame). The problem is that the gyprock in the ceiling has quite a few "fang" marks - see attached photo (not very clear but should give you an idea) These are due to the nails (or screws?) are falling out of the battens.
What is the best way of fixing this. Options that spring to mind are;

1. Get a nail punch and smash the nail back from whence it came. Then fill hole with Spackfiller or plaster etc. I suspect though that in a year or two the nails will be protruding again.

2. Extract nail completely and replace with a bugle screw. Then fix hole.

3. Do what somebody who actually knows what they are doing advises me to do.

I hear that plasterers just use Cornice Cement to patch holes left by banging nails etc back in. Any substance in this rumour. If so what are the pros and cons of this?

The green hardwood has shrunk as the timber seasoned so the nails are poopping out.
Just hammer them up into the joists. Use polyfilla to fill the holes.

use gyprock screws next to the protruding nails to help pull ceiling back up and then either remove nails or nock them back in. use as many screws as you think you need.

you can use cornice cement to first flush the screw holes but you should use a skim coat to finish off (sands up nice, cornice cement sets like cement and is very hard to sand)

I used to fit & flush gyprock with a mate who has been doing it for over 30 years
hope that helps

Ian :)
ps i could get all long winded if you want

What Ian said and use CSR or Crommellins Gyprock jointing compound pre-mix. Trust me on this one and you'll never use polyfilla again.

Cheers

just finished doing a plasterboarding course at the local TAFE.

We put our plasterboards up in our little mock up rooms and then the instructor came along with a hammer and put a hole in the middle of one of our sheets so we could practise filling it up. Also had various nail holes to fill in.

The hammer hole got patched with fibreglass tape + cornice cement + 2 coats of base coat + top coat. ditto the nail holes ( without the fibreglass tape ).

The Trick seems to be that each time ( except for the top coat ) you make the coat cover slightly more area than the first, making sure you feather the
edges i.e. scrape off the excess at the edges of your patch. That way you aren't getting a big build up of layers all in the same place which is going to be "in your face" when you look at the wall or ceiling.

though i will strongly point out 4 evenings doesn't make me an expert - most of the course was the instructor teaching me how to "recover" from my mistakes - but better make them on a wall which was ripped down at the end of lesson 4 than on my house wall which is going to be there for a LONG time.

And make sure that you use screws/nails with bugle heads as they ( apparently) don't tear the paper.

Just a bit of advice from someone who has done this more times than I care to remember. Knock the nails back in - you will know whether they are holding or just going straight through - use another nail or screw - doesn't matter.
Filling and sanding is a matter of preference - use what you find easiest and improve your technique 'cause sanding is a pain in the @#$%.
Now from some one who has sanded & refilled so many times it's embarrassing - PAINT IT then PAINT IT again.
Now if you or your guests get to the point where they are laying on their backs on the floor inspecting your handiwork on the ceiling all you have to do is make sure they are pleasantly with a fine bottle of red or six :D
Only blondes will look at a ceiling and say "beige, beige, think the ceiling needs to be painted beige" - Goes back to my theory PAINT IT ;)
Good Luck

Jamie

Thanks for the advice guys. A few tips there that I amn sure will help

What Ian said is the go BUT I personally wouldn't use cornice cement it is very hard and a bugger to sand. You can also give it another smear of plaster after your first undercoat if it doesn't look any good to make it neat and tidy. Good Luck with it :)