Putting up curtain poles without drilling?

[Metalhead]

Just tried to put a curtain pole up in DD's room, but there must be some sort of lintel above the window. The drill doesn't go in far enough to fix it with screws & rawlplugs, even after we bought some new drill bits that supposedly go through metal/concrete/anything else hard you can think of. So, any ideas how we could put a curtain pole up securely without drilling holes into the wall...?

Only thing I can think of depending on how heavy the pole and curtains are, is to glue a wooden batton on to the wall and attach to that..?

from the ceiling?

ceiling curtain pole

I've had this problem. I think we solved it by using an SDS (?) drillbit and lots of swearing.

It does depend how heavy the curtains are. If they're unlined and it's a light pole you should be ok to stick up a batten with No More Nails and attach the pole to that, but anything heavier really ought to be fixed directly into the wall. Sorry!

Polyfil the holes.
Then try again higher up ie above the lintel - assuming you have the space. Use a pipe / wire detector to find where the lintel stops.

'mmmm

there are two sorts of lintel in common use

hollow pressed steel - this you attack with an ordinary HSS drill with no hammer action HSS drills are black or blue.

Reinforced concrete - this you attack with a TCT masonry bit (if you look at the tip, you will see it has a squarish pice of alloy notched and brazed into the tip and use hammer action on your drill Masonry drills are silvery coloured. The tips might be painted.

A budget cordless drill may have insufficient power, but you can buy a corded drill (with switchable hammer action) that will do the job.

Very occasionally you will be going into reinforced concrete and hit the reinforcing steel. In this case it is best to move up or down an inch and try again. more often you will be going into RC and hit a very hard, flinty stone. The masonry bit will go through this, with the hammer.

A masonry bit will not cut through steel

An HSS bit will not cut through concrete. Hammer action will ruin it almost immediately.

Your hole needs to go into the brick, block or lintel at least an inch after you have gone through the plaster. So assume you have to drill a 2-inch (50mm) deep hole. If the hole is too wide and the plasplug is loose, start a new thread in DIY called "Plasplug is loose in hole in wall" and I will tell you the magic trick.

Thanks all for the replies!

We did of course try drilling a bit higher and slightly off to one side, but no luck there either. I think DH tried a masonry drill too, but will check with him again. I guess the only thing left is trying a more powerful drill like PigletJohn suggests. Ours is a corded one but don't think it's got hammer action...

The curtains are quite big although not too heavy, but I'd still be a bit apprehensive using the wood/glue combo. The ceiling brackets might be a last resort, though we'd probably have to buy new curtains as these won't be long enough.

I never thought putting up a simple curtain pole could be so bloody difficult that you need industrial-strength tools for it!!