Curtain rods in old house

oceanclub

We've a period house with rather poor plaster. We tried putting up curtain rods with normal screws; no luck. Then tried much longer screws in the masonry - again, no luck, still not holding.

Builder has suggested putting wooden plugs into the wall then replastering/painting. Doing this for four windows will cost a grand. It sounds like it'll be the best solution but wondering if anyone has fixed a similar problem for cheaper?

P.

Calahonda52

Maybe some ideas here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=104032140

type of masonry is key the solution suggested here my me fein

antiskeptic

oceanclub wrote: »

We've a period house with rather poor plaster. We tried putting up curtain rods with normal screws; no luck. Then tried much longer screws in the masonry - again, no luck, still not holding.

Builder has suggested putting wooden plugs into the wall then replastering/painting. Doing this for four windows will cost a grand. It sounds like it'll be the best solution but wondering if anyone has fixed a similar problem for cheaper?

P.

The state of the plaster isn't the issue - you're not going to fix anything to it anyway. What's the wall behind it? Brick or random rubble (the latter usually showing up by your having very thick walls).

The former is easy enough to fix into - so long as you're hitting brick and not the (probably) soft, crumbling mortar in between the bricks. A few test holes in the plaster (with a 3mm drill bit) will locate the brick/mortar pattern, after which fixing into the brick. There are any number of fixings but if worried the brick itself is a bit weak, then the threaded bar solution below.

Random rubble is a bit more problematic, since there can be larger areas of mortar around the boulders and rocks used to build the wall. And if these soft mortar areas happen to lie in the area you want to fix into then normal fixings won't work...

In this case, I'd look at drilling a 6mm hole as deep as you need to go to hit something solid. Or if nothing solid, then a foot or so deep. Squirt chemical anchor (comes in a cartridge) into the hole, ramming it down incrementally with length of 6mm threaded bar. Fill the hole with the amount proscribed (if it's fully filled then you won't have room to get the threaded bar in), then insert the threaded bar fully and wait for it to set.

The chemical anchor seeps into the surrounding material and locks the threaded bar in solid. You just need to ensure the holes in your curtain pole fixture are opened out to get the 6mm bar through (I assume the curtain mountings are L-type brackets rather than having hidden screws fixing them up)

A mornings work and material?

listermint

Get some timber architrave Plainest you can find. Gunoprene to the wall and fix your curtain poles to the timber.