wall fixings for curtain pole

Hello,

The other day a curtain pole fell down without warning. It was an old pole that had been there when we moved into the house so I decided to take the opportunity to replace it with a fresh shiny one. The new one comes with two nylon wall plugs.

I drilled two holes for the plugs but it seems that the wall above the windows consists of very flaky plaster over nothing. The hole is too small to see into but after going through the surface, there doesn't seem to be any resistance on the drill bit. It's as if there's a big hole! Could it be that the builders bricked up to the window and then in the foot or so above the window got lazy and just put plaster over that wire mesh stuff that they use? (This is a bedroom window so has nothing above it).

What is the best thing to use to anchor the curtain pole into the wall? The problem is that the curtain pole bracket has a screw hole in the back and comes with a double-ended thread so that one end screws into the bracket and the other end screws into the wall IYSWIM.

TIA.

Reply to
Sam
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Hello again,

The plaster over mesh thing wasn't as far-fetched as it might sound. The builders decided (in the 1970s) to put out soil pipe inside the cavity wall. Outside are bricks, in the middle is the soil pipe, and on the other side is the mesh with plaster over. I hope I never need to access the soil pipe!

I have drilled another hole and it seems that the window is not like this. There is flaky plaster over a breeze block. The problem is that the wall plug (and I'm using proper rawl ones, not the cheap ones included with the rail) are expanding in the plaster section, rather than inside the block. The double-threaded thing, simply does not go far enough to reach the block. When the plug tries to expand, the plaster is simply crumbling around it so that it will not secure.

Any ideas?

Thanks. Sam.

Reply to
Sam

Invest in intelligent curtain poles that shout out a warning before they fall off the wall. :-)

Possibly drill a larger hole that goes well into the breeze and fill it

- with dowel, a piece of wood, car body filler - before screwing the bracket to that.

Reply to
Rod

Maybe bite the bullet and cut away all the plaster where the pole is to go and fix a piece of timber securely to the breeze blocks and then plaster or plasterboard over it then fit the rail .

Reply to
NOSPAMnet

Do what most people end up doing. Fix a wooden batten along the wall above the window with big screws into the brieze block. Paint the wood to match the wall so it becomes mostly invisible. Fix curtain pole to this.

Reply to
Bob Mannix

with big screws.....or if you have ever lived in a victorian place where the walls seem to be made of god knows what...with No More Nails!

Steve

Reply to
Steve

I've done the same many times, using screws - and No More Nails to make sure. If you use MDF for the batten you can emulsion straight over it to match the wall.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

with big screws.....or if you have ever lived in a victorian place where

BTDTGTTS. I had to re-attach a curtain rail in my mother's house with (IIRC) 3" no. 10 screws to get a decent fixing into something solid. I wouldn't use anything near that to hang kitchen cabinets in my modern house!

Reply to
Hugo Nebula

To be fair, if you use tree wood you can emulsion straight over it (well after knotting compund). Most builders use the wall emulsion as the primer (and undercoat if they're really hurrying) for the skirting boards. The fitting screw go better into tree wood than into MDF IMHO.

Reply to
Bob Mannix

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