I feel useless because I can't drill into a brick wall

[Cavalierchaos]

I'm sure I have the right drill parts and I used a hammer drill. I'm trying to put up a curtain pole by my front door so I can have curtains for insulation. I just couldn't get deep enough. It was so loud and I put all my weight behind it.

I'm a single woman who lives alone. I think maybe I just didn't have the strength for it. I don't know. But I feel really stupid and useless that I can't do this simple task and also angry that I'll need to get a man in to do it.

Now I have a wall that needs fixing. Sorry, just needed a rant. I'm very annoyed.

Many years ago (when we were in our last house) we ordered some bespoke blinds which included fitting.
Come fitting day, the chaps came out and struggled to drill into any of the lintels. In the end said they would just drill shallow holes into the plaster and use short plugs & screws. My OH was (correctly) having none of this so armed with an SDS drill made short work of drilling every hole (much to the embarrassment of the fitters).

They were obviously impressed and said they would buy something similar but we wondered how a national company could send out their engineers so poorly equipped?

What drill are you using? I agree with @Resilience it's usually to do with having the right equipment.

I rent so can't have nice things like proper curtain poles so I have these for door curtains. Bit of a bastard to put up on your own and you do need to follow the instructions properly but surprisingly sturdy once in situ.
"No Drills Extendable Eyelet Curtain Pole | Dunelm" www.dunelm.com/product/no-drills-extendable-eyelet-curtain-pole-1000200168

Thank you all. The drill is one from Argos years ago, and the box does say 'simple value' or something like that on it...

I like the baton idea, but not really suitable here as I don't think the curtain would be close enough to the wall for me if that makes sense.

@notprincehamlet I looked at those but it wasn't suitable for the way my hall and front door is. Going to get one for my back door though, as I don't want to go through this drilling fiasco again!

So I think I'm going to get some smaller screws and plugs to use in the shallow holes I made, and then I was planning to attach the other end of the pole somehow to the door so it will swing with it, so I'll try to make a support on that end too.

Sigh! Why can't things ever be easy! Nice to know it's hopefully just the kit though that's bad and not me😂

If you're drilling into concrete, you'll really need an SDS-type drill plus the proper drill bits. SDS drills have a much stronger hammer action that ordinary drills. They also have the advantage that you can fit power chisels & other accessories, for example to remove tiles, or break up concrete. For this you would use the drill in vibrate mode only (no rotation).