Wall fixings for soft plaster

[Sickboy]

Hi

I am having trouble finding a fixing that will hold firm in my wall and thought I may some useful advice here.

I have a house that was built in the 80s. All the external walls have a lightweight concrete block inner skin which is covered with about 1 inch of very crumbly grey plaster and then a normal plaster skim. Above the windows, the crumbly plaster goes straight on to the metal lintels which are set about 1 inch in to the wall.

I have tried putting up replacement curtain poles using a few different types of rawl plug and screw in type of plasterboard fixing but the plaster is so crumly that they all pull out after a few weeks of drawing the curtains. I can't use fixings that go in deeper because I hit the metal lintels.

Does anyone have any suggestions (other than getting all the rooms replastered!). Would resin fixings be better?

Thanks
John

 

[Nige F]

The crumbly grey plaster is probably Thistle Hardwall backing plaster you need to go into the metal lintol with a HSS metal drill and use a self tapper screw - a pain in the bum , but the only way really