Dear God, help me!

[Pizzicato]

Hello chaps,

This is my first post here and, initially, I wasn't quite sure where to post. Then I looked at my walls again, and I instinctively knew...

First, a tiny bit of info. I lived in the UK until about two months ago, but then a good job took me to Austria. I found an ideal apartment in Vienna and then moved in about three weeks ago. The only real downside was the complete and total lack of curtain rails or, more precisely, fittings to hold the aforementioned curtain rails.

Now, I've never attempted any DIY before, but what could be simpler than drilling a few holes and screwing a few brackets into the wall...?

As it turns out, the two most obvious answers to this are "Nuclear Physics (Advanced)" and "Chinese arithmetic (in Urdu)".

God alone knows what my walls are made of, but it appears to be someting akin to biscuit. As soon as the drill bit starts to bite, the wall starts crumbling and flaking. In fact, the drill bit goes through it as though it's a particularly fresh digestive. This inevitably results in holes that are somewhat wider than initially envisaged.

The wall plugs go into place incredibly easily, but then the walls are so fragile that the screws just cause them to rotate in place, widening the holes even further. This also means that the screwsonly go in so far before they just start rotating along with the wall plugs. Needless to say, the brackets end up not being secured to the walls and the weight of a curtain rail just rips them out of the wall (leaving crater-sized holes in their wakes).

I've had to use the Austrian equivalent of Polyfilla to cover my mistakes, but my previously pristine walls have now taken on the appearance of Swiss cheese.

Frankly, I'm at my wits' end. Worse still, so is my girlfriend. I've reached the point where I haven't got a ****ing clue what to do in order to salvage the siuation. My ego lies in tatters on the plaster covered floor and I'm sorely tempted to shunt the drill up my nose and have done with the whole thing.

PLEASE!!!! There MUST be someone out there who can provide some helpful advice! Any helpful suggestions would be ENORMOUSLY appreciated. My sanity is in your hands...

Cheers

Utterly-Useless-Matt

 

[big-all]

i think youll have to try asking localy

the walls are obviously not sutable for plugs
your neibours or local builder will be better informed
as what you can fill the mine working in with

good luck any way

big all

 

[Pizzicato]

i think youll have to try asking localy

the walls are obviously not sutable for plugs
your neibours or local builder will be better informed
as what you can fill the mine working in with

good luck any way

big all

Cheers Big.

I think you're right - I reckon I'm going to have to get a professional in. I'm a bit gutted though, because I reckon I'll die of embarrassment when he sees what I've done to the walls...

 

[planenut]

Could you not ask a neighbour to see how they have dealt with the problem which must be identical. Maybe there are some internal plates at certain distances from the opening. Worth a try before employing a professional.
Good luck

 

[Pizzicato]

Could you not ask a neighbour to see how they have dealt with the problem which must be identical. Maybe there are some internal plates at certain distances from the opening. Worth a try before employing a professional.
Good luck

It's a nice idea, but our new neighbour is an eighty year old lady who doesn't speak a word of English. Not exactly ideal...

 

[planenut]

Couldn't you just tell her you've come to read her meter?

 

[billythekid]

excellent 1st post pizzicato, how about the austrian equivalent of no nails?

 

[pipme]

Most of us will imagine a crater as a hole which is very deep ... better to give some dimensions ... could give an idea of wall finish depth, 1" screw into 1.5" poor plaster or substitute .. aint gonna hold much weight.

Take a closer look in one of the 'craters' can you see anything resembling something, which may, in the furthest reaches of your imagination, resemble a wall or some other supportative structure ?
May be worth gently probing a little deeper into a 'crater', there is possibly a thick layer of plaster or substitute 'x' covering a wall, if so, you could afix wooden block to a revealed area of the wall, such that wood block surface is just below the 'plaster' surface level .... afix your rail to the block, make good with plaster or substitute 'x'. to the surrounding plaster level.

P

 

[Muzungo]

As others have suggested, you need to establish *what* you're drilling into. If you're fixing curtain rails, it stands to reason that you are drilling into an external wall, which generally (though there are some exceptions in modern buildings) will be solid as it is likely to be load bearing.
Its possible that what you are seeing flake off is a deep layer of plaster - in which case you need to drill deeper. Or, the brick or stone core itself could be crumbly.
In which case, you can try using chemical fixings from Fischer. They bond the porous surface together with a resin and grip to the stud or anchor. I believe they are German or Austrian, so they should be available from a good ironmonger.

 

[pipme]

Do remember if you use adhesive on something which you later wish / worse -are asked - to remove, then you have a problem ... adhesive as a last resort on non-permanent load bearing features.

P

 

[TexMex]

I was once asked to mount a crucifix in a church. (about 12 ft tall, at a height of about 20ft to the top of his head.). It probably weighed in at a few hundred weight. (I think the cross was made of solid Oak.) It turned out that the wall finish was original 14th century "render" (some mixture of agregate, mud, sand, horse hair, and a maybe a bit of lime). It was about 8 inches thick and so soft, it would flake off if you were too close when you sneezed.

I ended up using 3ft long bolts going right through the walls (in the joints of the Kentish rag stone), counterbored the nuts outside and repointed over, made good the scabs inside with a mix of agregate, sharp sand and Lime to match the texture. Finally attached chains and lock rings to the bolts and eylets to the back of the crucifix. sorted! By adjusting the lengths of the chains, I managed to get it leaning forwards, so the top was hanging about 4ft away from the wall. Reminded me a bit of a bird of prey, but the vicar loved it!

Using the same philosophy, If you cant get anything to attach from the inside, just run some bolts right through from the outside, trim to length, push your curtain rail over the bolts and counterbore some nuts into the wood. You can then fill over the top of the nuts to hide them. Just make sure you make good the "plaster" before you finally mount the curtain rail.

 

[pipme]

Tex forgot to mention,
You could need a sky hook if living above 2nd floor in flat, to facilitate fixing the bolts.

 

[Pizzicato]

Damn, guys - there are some fantastic responses there. Massive thanks!

I think the observations about continuing to drill until you hit something solid are spot on. The depth of the windows in our new apartment are quite impressive - probably about two and a half feet from inside of inner wall to outside of outer wall. Due to the screws that I'm using, however, I'm only drilling about 5 to 6 inches into the walls. In all likelihood, I'm just not drilling far enough to hit the "good stuff".

Given that it's an outside wall, you'd kind of imagine that there must be a solid layer at some point...

@Pipme - In my case, "crater" defines something that is around 3 to 4 inches in diameter and maybe two inches deep. May not sound like much, but it makes for a highly noticable and not particularly attractive point-of-interest on the wall as you enter the room...

Thanks again for all the responses, guys.

Cheers

Matt

 

[TexMex]

The depth of the windows in our new apartment are quite impressive - probably about two and a half feet from inside of inner wall to outside of outer wall.

That is quite thick eh? You haven't got a spire on the end of the block, and some bloke hanging around in the corner of the room that don't say much, have you?

 

[Pizzicato]

The depth of the windows in our new apartment are quite impressive - probably about two and a half feet from inside of inner wall to outside of outer wall.

That is quite thick eh? You haven't got a spire on the end of the block, and some bloke hanging around in the corner of the room that don't say much, have you?

Hahahaha! It's lovely thought, but no.