Curtain rail pulled down - advice needed for DIY novice

[Homster]

Hi all,

Apologies for such a basic question but I am a real novice at anything to do with DIY. Basically, my son has pulled down his curtain rail and one side of it has come away from the wall, the other side is still very solid. I have temporarilly re-inserted the rail but it is very loose.
I will have to polyfill the hole and re-drill the wall plugs etc - I guess though that drilling back into a polyfilled hole is not the way forward - it will not be strong enough. Therefore, do I have to go slightly higher or lower to drill into proper brickwork? If so, will I have to re-do the other side, which is solid at the moment, in order to get a straight curtain rail?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[daytona]

in my experience,its down to the decorator that put the filler in.
if hes/shes done it properly it will have good adhesion to the brick and be ok.
if not it will crack into twenty bits and end up all over your boots,he/she will then try and say that was your fault

seriously though,if your worried about it,drill not on hammer through the filler,go deeper and knock the plug past the filler into the brick.then use a longer screw.

or,drill the hole how i decribed and start the screw off,then fill and do up when dry.
basically,gopast the filler

 

[JohnD]

most important question: How far did the old screw go into the wall?

second most important question: what is the wall made of at the point the screws go in? (there may be a concrete or steel lintel above the indow, probably about 7" high)





third point - just a tip - no need to go higher or lower, you can normally move the fixings sideways a bit and go into a fresh bit of wall at teh same height IF we find you can't re-use the old position.

 

[Homster]

Thanks everyone for the advice, I have been away so will look at how far the screw went into the wall. From memory it looks like it was brick that I drilled into before.
Would it be practical to polyfil the original hole and then drill slightly to the left or right of the original position thus avoiding having to re-do the curtain fixing on the other side?

 

[JohnD]

it is IMO quite likely you can drill the old hole deeper, drive in a new plasplug, and use a longer screw.

but we won't know until you have looked at it.

 

[Homster]

Thanks John D - I will look at it in the morning and will let you know. Thanks again for help.

 

[Homster]

Hello JohnD - again a silly question but just need some clarification if possible. I have decided to re-drill current holes - the old screw and wall plug was 45mm long so I am going to use a 75mm screw this time. The question I have is can you get longer wall plugs to accommodate this length of screw or do I use the 45mm plugs that I currently have?

 

[JohnD]

45mm should have been long enough

When it came out, did the screw pull out of the plug? Or did the plug come out of the wall? is the wall made of soft blocks?

it is possible to buy plastic plug in long lengths that you cut to size, but in your position I think I would tap a brown plug right to the bottom of the hole, and use that. You could cut the end off another plug and use it as a sleeve near the surface of the wall, I suppose. but it is vital that the screw goes down the middle of the end plug. One way to be sure of this is to wind the screw into the plug a couple of turns (so it is not expanded) and tap the end of the screw to push it into the wall hole.

 

[Homster]

The screw was still in the plug, it was the plug that had come out of the hole, not all the way but enough for the fitting to be hanging from the wall. The wall does not seem to be made of soft blocks.
Am I right in saying that I may not need to drill again? If I clean out the original hole and push a new wall plug down to the end and then place the 45mm screw into the middle of it, it could be OK?

 

[Homster]

JohnD - sorry I forgot to ask, when re-inserting a new wall plug into original hole do you have to fill the areas where the old plaster came away? I am just thinking that if I push the new plug into the hole there is not the same support around the top of the plug due to plaster / brick falling away when fixing was pulled.

 

[JohnD]

as I visualise it, the old hole is loose. So you need to drill deeper to get a firm hold for your new plug. the new screw and plug must reach to the bottom of this new hole and be a close fit that will become tight when you do up the screw. I doubt the old hole is deep enough. The brick total thickness will be about 100m.

very little support is given by the plaster so the first inch or so of the screw will not get any significant support from any filler you put it. You can apply filler after putting the screw in. If you put it on first, it will spall off if there is any pressure when you tighten the screw.

 

[Homster]

Thanks JohnD - to summarise I will drill a little deeper and use same length wall plug and screw and may use filler after inserting screw.
I hope that all goes well!
Thanks again.

 

[JohnD]

Longer screw.

 

[Homster]

If I used a 45mm screw before do you think I should use a 50mm or 75mm this time?
Sorry for all these basic questions but would like to get it right this time.

 

[JohnD]

let's suppose you previously had a 45mm plug. It has pulled out and you have a loose, damaged hole 45mm deep.

You now need a strong, undamaged 45mm hole, so you drill one beyond the damaged section. the screw has to go into it by, I would say, at least 30mm. So your screw must be at least 45mm+30mm=75mm long.

It is very hard to pull out a screw that's 45mm into a plug in a brick wall, so I think the old hole must have been loose on its plug.