Curtain pole woes

[cadenza]

We moved into this house just over a year ago - it's a 1958 semi, that's had quite a few extensions. Before the winter, we're trying to get decent curtain poles and curtains up - at the moment, not very many rooms have these, or they have useless blinds.

We've got several problems. On the side of the house is a garage which was converted into a room about 15 years ago. We reckon the conversion was really just putting flooring down and plastering the walls. It has a decent double-glazed window and door which runs the full width (2.2m) and height of the room at the front, so obviously we can't just put up a curtain pole above it. The walls on either side seem to me to be plasterboard straight onto brick. The ceiling looks like some kind of painted wood, and sounds hollow. We have the same setup in the utility room which could also do with curtains, though this room is narrower. What's the best way of getting a pole up? I had thought that it could be attched to the ceiling in some way, but I don't know if this would hold.

Secondly, in the bedrooms, the walls above the windows sounds pretty solid, but when we get screws in, they seem very loose. One pole has already fallen down, pulling the screws and plugs out with it. Wonder if there's maybe some sort of lintel? It's daft really as it sounds so solid!

And thirdly, the dining end of the kitchen has a window which runs the whole width of the room. What's the best way of getting a curtain over it? The top of the window is level with the ceiling; one wall on one side sounds solid, the other sounds hollow.

Amazingly, I think this is a pretty solid, well-built house, but over the years it's been knocked about and bodged a lot!

Any ideas appreciated - I have no real idea about DIY - be gentle! I'm happy to go and measure/tap anything!

David

 

[misterhelpful]

Attaching to the ceiling would have been my initial thought but it is surprising how heavy some curtains are, so you would really need to find the ceiling joists for a good, solid, reliable fixing and use a curtain pole suitable for ceiling mounting (not all are).

As for the bedrooms, there is likely to be a lintel of some sort above the windows but drilling into these is very difficult so I would assume that the current fixings are not in them.
It sounds as though you may have the fixings in the mortar joints, if the walls are brick, or if they are plasterboard over block walls then the screws may be too short and thus not going deep enough into the blockwork.

If at all possible, a few pictures may help determine the causes of your problems and help us find you a good solution.
Also, there have been quite a few threads on fixing curtain poles etc in the General DIY section so it could well be worth using the search facility for some tips.

 

[cadenza]

Thanks very much for such a quick reply. I'll start with the pole that fell down - so far as I can see, although the wall above the window sounds solid, where the screws are seems to be very flakey plaster/mortar - not sure if these pictures help or not!

View media item 37404 View media item 37405

 

[misterhelpful]

To be honest, the images are not overly helpful but the ragged edges around the holes make it look like the walls have lining paper on them unless it is plasterboard. I can see what appears to be the edges of some tape on the wall around two of the holes. Is this your doing? If not, it could be the signs of a previous repair which has been unsuccessful and caused the pole to fall.

If you poke a pen/pencil into the holes can you feel solid walls behind or is there a void?

If the walls are solid you could try using better plugs (I find Uno Rawlplugs are the best) but if there is a void, you may need to either drill deeper to hit some brick/blockwork to fix into or repostition the brackets altogether. Until we can determine exactly what type of wall you have it's a bit of guesswork really.

 

[cadenza]

Yes, you're quite right - useless photos!

I've poked several things in, and it seems to me that they definitely hit something very solid about 1" in - could this be a lintel? There doesn't seem to be plasterboard, and what the screws were in before just seems like a rather loose dusty plaster/mortar. Would this be a normal setup? Don't think this photo helps either, but it shows a bit of what's behind the lining paper (and a pile of dust in the hole!) View media item 37409

 

[misterhelpful]

Well I'm still not 100% sure but I think I can see a little bit of grey paper where the paint has been peeled back and the fact you say there seems to be something solid about an inch deep leads me to believe it is plasterboard. Perhaps the walls have dot and dabbed.
The screws should have had some form of plug to secure them in the wall whatever the substrate is. My advice now would be to drill into the solid part deep enough to fit a brown wallplug (use 7mm masonry drillbit) like I mentioned previously. Effectively you will then have a 2" - 2½" deep hole and will then be able to use a screw of a similar length which should fix more solidly into the underlying brick/block and hold the poles weight much better. You could drill deeper and use slightly longer screws if necessary.

Just make sure there are no cables/pipes in the wall before drilling.

 

[TheDec]

David,

It is impossible to offer advice with regard to your problem and any offered will be nothing short of mere guesswork & speculation, you need to get in touch with someone who can both view and determine why your problem exists.

Dec

 

[joe-90]

That looks like sand/cement render. There will be a concrete lintel behind it. You need a SDS drill.