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The batten holding the curtain track holding the world's heaviest full length winter weight blackout curtains came down in my daughters bedroom last night.
It was there when we moved in, but looks like the screws were not long enough and it was reinforced with No More Nails.
Apparently my successful middle of the night bodge of a towel, string and clothes pegs is not an acceptable solution till the weekend, so any tips on screws, fixings and drill bits would be appreciated.
They are solid concrete lintels between the top of the windows and the ceiling, and absolute buggers to drill into from previous experience.
Cheers
Get a bigger drill.
Plasma lance and rawlplugs.
I used my 5kg SDS with a 6mm bit to put up our curtain rail.
Couldn't help but feel it was a little overkill at the time but it certainly made the job easy!
Watches thread with anticipation....
I need to sink 4 10mm steel threaded bars into the lintel above our fireplace to hold the mantelpiece up...
Is this advised? Drilling 4 12mm diameter holes in a reinforced concrete bar??
DrP
It'll be fun when you hit the rebar...
What could possibly go wrong?
Blinds
Fixing direct onto window frame
Even if that means buying new windows it'll still be an easier job.
Good luck
There's usually only the one length of steel in the lintel pretty much centrally located so try and go slightly above. More chance of missing on a 150 lintel than a 75 obviously but that'll depend on what it's carrying above...
It'll be fun when you hit the rebar...
Which is why I've chickened out so far...
DrP
When you do it, DrP, could you video it.
Just for posterity, like...
Just get or borrow a half decent SDS drill.
I've got a £130 Bosch that will go through pretty much anything in our house.
I've so far put up several blinds & curtain rails without issue. My 'normal' drill with hammer won't make a dent in the concrete, but the SDS goes through it in seconds.
I use a smaller bit than required to make the majority of the hole, then go up to the size required, turn off the SDS function & finish the hole off. Otherwise you run the risk of your 6mm rawlpug hole being too baggy to hold the rawlplug in.
DrP - you may already have thought of it but I'd chemfix the threaded bar into the lintel if the holes are anywhere near the edge. Expanding anchors may blow the concrete
+ 1 on the chemfix that davosaurusrex mentions.
I've used this one to fix everything including the fixings for a very heavy steel gate that even wall anchors wouldn't hold without slipping:
As for drilling, if you're into the concrete then a very good masonry bit will do (look for Bosch blue or Dewalt Extreme). If you're having no look, change to a cobalt drill bit, in say a 4mm, then widen with successively wider bits. All this will have to be, at the very least, with a decent corded dripp. Even my £400 dewalt cordless drill would struggle to get through a lintel!
Chem fixing is a good idea, although I've never personally done it. One thing you an be sure of is that a rawl plug will bite in a material that hard, so shouldn't need a huge one (red would do nicely, brown at a push)
My 'normal' drill with hammer won't make a dent in the concrete, but the SDS goes through it in seconds
I really don't understand why this is so true but it is.
My Makita LXT goes through concrete, slowly but it does. Freshly charged batteries and a new (good*) drill bit are cheaper than buying an SDS drill for a one off job.
*Bought some cheap 'titan' ones in a big box from screwfix, never again, they were pretty blunt to begin with and effectively single use on anything more solid than mortar.
I've got a nice tube of 'mixy chem cement', don't worry!
DrP
Minor hijack, need to think up a christmas present, and also need to chisel out some bricks and drill a new tumble dryer outlet. So my combi won't be upto those jobs!
Not wanting to spend a fortune for something to be used only once in a while, is this good enough to survive occasional DIY use drilling 150mm cores into brick?
And is there any downside to a 5kg drill VS a 2kg drill beyong having to carry it?
http://m.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb278sds-5kg-sds-drill-230-240v/97533?
There's another in screw fix for £40 - I've asked Santa for that one.
The Screwfix Titan ones are great. They kick up a whole roomful of dust but they get the job done. They go through anything.
Yes, they break after a good bit of use, but as they have a no-quibble replace policy that doesn't matter. In fact they break because everybody knows about the 2 year guarantee so just keeps hammering away when it gets hot, when with any other drill they'd be a bit kinder and stop for a bit.
Pay a bit more and get the one with a full set of drills and chisels. They're good accessories and they get replaced too when the drill goes back.
As far as the OP, can you put a batten up that's wider than the lintel and suspend the curtain from that? Or get a blind from [url= http://www.247blinds.co.uk/venetian-blinds#isPage=1 ]247 Blinds[/url] which are cheap and good and made to measure and fit it inside the window frame.
Pneumatic sds hammer drills are awesome.
Expensive but awesome.
Will drill through anything.
Cheers, i was wondering about the accessories, i bought some titan bits before and they were shockingly bad.
It doesnt need to do much, I can only see 5 or 6 jobs to do with it but its only slightly more than hiring one and a lot cheaper than getting a pro in.
For the OP, decent drill and plugs should be fine. For Dr P, if you use chemical fixings make sure you get all the dust out the hole first.
As a structural engineer (working on bigger stuff than houses!), I was a bit aghast at wrightyson saying the steel would in about the centre - as I'd expect it to be in the bottom. Then I realised - it's in the centre so that it doesn't matter if the builder puts the lintel in upside down.
We are renovating a 60s house and the windows are huge. After failing to drill past the rebar I suspended the 2 piece curtain pole at both ends and joined it with some old flat handlebars from a1990s orange. Once I flipped it round it held in compression against the lintel and I was able to just screw the support into the plaster. It's is by far and away the best bodge I have ever come up with
What DrP is really planning...
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Ear plugs....
Ikea sell lightweight fabric stick up blinds which look entirely acceptable IME.
So reasonable that they've been up for 6 months longer than anticipated in our place!
Any decent SDS drill corded or cordless 7 mm bit and brown plugs with some 5x70mm screws job done. No need for chemical fixings as even when I worked on heavy mechanical installs we used hilti red eyes and 10mm bolts to hang 600kg condenser units on exterior walls.
Chem comes in when whatever your drilling into is weak or comprimised and/or over a 1000kg... I'm sure your curtains are less than this.
Hire places will hire you a SDS and go screwfix or Travis Perkins and buy a SDS bit. I use hilti bits or punk ones from Travis. Hilti are very expensive and they're used by me every day so I can justify 13 quid per bit. Travis punk ones are quite good too.
And use a bloody level!!!!
Ikea sell lightweight fabric stick up blinds which look entirely acceptable IME.
So reasonable that they've been up for 6 months longer than anticipated in our place!
Had them up, been taking them down as got curtains up now. Removing the glue from them nicely on the ones that have been up ages is turning into a MASSIVE hassle.
What solvent to remove glue from PVC windowframes?
BlindsFixing direct onto window frame
This is our solution. Blinds all round, with nice lighter curtains for prettyness.
DrP, I've got a proper sized SDS you can borrow, it will breeze through it.
Like ^ them, I've given up on my hammer drill even for 6mm holes. SDS goes into anything like butter and therefore you get a much neater hole. I always used to be a few mm out where the hammer drill 'walked' whilst drilling.
just put my hammer drill up for sale after procuring a bosch 2kg SDSplus unit at the weekedn - wish id done it years ago - prior to this i just stole my dads hilti gun.
So much faster on the holes i have drilled to date - much better quality hole as well - doesnt try to wander and needs much less force- let the drill do the force via hammer - means less ****ed drill bits.
Yes your makita is fine for the odd hole but more than about 5 and its worth getting an SDS and a decent drill bit- you wont eat drill bits and make a messy hole.
Whilst we're on the subject of lintels.. our house appears to have hollow box-section steel ones. And I need to mount fixings for a blind under one.
So I'm assuming I can drill a small hole and force a slightly larger wood screw into it?
probably be better off with a self tapping screw designed for use in metal (although I'm not sure if even they'll self tap through a lintel tbh) the thread on a woodscrew will be probably just break off rather than tap.
blind (sic) rivet ftw 🙂
Ok I probably was thinking of self tapping screws, that makes much more sense.
Blind rivet.. hm.. there's at least 1/2 inch of plaster on it.
Whilst we're on the subject of lintels.. our house appears to have hollow box-section steel ones. And I need to mount fixings for a blind under one.So I'm assuming I can drill a small hole and force a slightly larger wood screw into it?
Father in Law's new build came with these. Concrete outer, seemingly quite hard /thick steel box section about 3cm in from edge.
I think he put battens up in the end.
Don't drill into the steel concrete ones... Will vibrate and cause cracks inside use batons...
IA to remove anything off anything use upvc solvent cleaner... You be amazed how dirty white upvc gets... Very potent so use sparingly on a long free rag... Don't use coloured ones as the color will run off the rag onto what your cleaning.
Will look into that, cheers!
I put blinds and curtains up for a living. For concrete lintel use a decent SDS drill with 5.5mm bit and red raw plugs and No. 8 screws. For metal lintels, start with HSS 2.5mm, then enlarge to 3.2mm hole and use No. 6 screws. Suspect you could hire the SDS for the day, or borrow.