Plaster nails constantly popping out of ceiling

Hello everyone

I am trying to solve a reoccurring problem with my plasterboard roof. It seems that the roof is fixed to the ceiling joists with these odd black nails, the heads look completely rounded like a discus or a smartie. There are a couple of these that seem to keep popping out of the plasterboard every time I walk on the ceiling joists in my roof space, dropping white power all over my carpet. :(( Hammering them back in and sealing with plaster only lasts until the next time I have to go back up there, and they pop out again.

It seems to be the same 6 nails every time, 3 each across the two closest joists to load bearing internal brick wall. Right where this troubled section meets the brick wall, a small section of the roof seems to have been cut out, right through the cornice, to allow the exhaust outlet of a vulcan gass heater to pass through.

Anyway, here is where it gets tricky. I have been told to do 3 seperate things to fix it :?

Suggestion one was to reinforce the joists in the area, as the nails popping out was result of excess deflection in these beams

Suggestion two was to pull out the black nails that are causing trouble and start again with new ones

Suggestion three was that due to the vulcan heater, the troubled section of plasterboard was no longer fixed to the internal brick wall, and as result the fixings to the two closest joists are failing. This seems logical but I dont really see how it could result in the screws being pushed DOWN and OUT of the plaster... it should be the other way around.

I assume this is a common enough problem... any ideas what I should try first?


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