A baton for curtain rail

[Lucked]

Just had JL round to measure up for a rail above our bay window. Apparently it is lathe and plaster so we will have to put up a baton to support the rail. Will probably have to get someone in as we are clueless and it has to be angled around the bay.

My question is how should the baton be secured to the wall and why won't it just fall down when and take the wall with it when we hang curtains. We are planning on heavyweight curtains.

Thanks.

I'm a bit surprised that it would be lath and plaster above a bay window. Surely it must be an external wall and therefore brick? I suppose maybe it has a lath and plaster internal "skin". Or, I wonder if there is a wooden beam above the window which they have mistaken for lath and plaster.

I'd do a bit of investigating of the wall if I were you. Drilling a small hole in a discreet place will quickly tell you if it's brick or lath and plaster depending on what sort of dust comes out.

I agree I'm not sure how a baton would help if it really is lath and plaster. I guess it would be screwed in in multiple places so the weight would be more evenly distributed. But still a risk of it all falling out in a year or two after a bit of tugging on the curtains I'd have thought.

Sorry that isn't much help!

is it a Victorian terrace? Ours is the same - the plaster is rubbish (no laths there though, just the old Victorian plaster)

The batten will need to be screwed into the brick behind the soft plaster - then it will be secure & your curtain rail can be soundly fixed to it

Ah I see TheOne. Why can't the rail brackets be screwed directly into the brick though?

I think it's because the batten spreads the load - so if eg one of the brackets was swung on (curtains can be such fun ) it might pull out if it was straight into the wall

something like that anyway

The batten spreads the load. We just had it done in a Georgian house. The batten is screwed in to the plaster with multiple screws then the brackets attached to that. The plaster is notoriously weak - 200 year old lime hair plaster is not like modern gypsum brown plaster. It just crumbles and it isn't even stuck to the wall in places.

We did ask JL for a quote but got a better quote from a very very good local firm who fitted the batten for us. I am very surprised JL suggested you get someone to fit the batten. They said they would do our batten as part of the job.

JL will surely do it if you ask.

Thanks really helpful

No JL firmly stated that they couldn't do the batten and to give them a call back when it is in place and they will do the rest of the fitting. (I am in the Glasgow area).

Sounds like it will be safe and secure though. No idea who to get to do it, will have to ask around if anyone knows a good carpenter/handyman, I wish JL would just do it all.

the laths will be nailed to something. Most often timber studs about 18" - 2' apart. You detect where these studs are, perhaps by tapping with the knuckles, or squinting for the shadows of the nails through the plaster, or by using a bent wire coathanger poked through a hole special tool which I can send you for £25, and you drill into them, and screw your batten to the studs.

Occasionally laths are fixed to thin brick walls, so you drill through the plaster and screw to the bricks. There is a some chance that some all the plaster will fall off, so JL don't want to do it and get the blame.

If you hang a heavy curtain off L&P itself, it will fall off either immediately, or at an inconvenient time. The weight must be taken by something solid.

Lucked - I would go somewhere else.

JL were expensive compared to our local very high quality curtain and soft furnishing shop. The local shop came out and did everything.

Really have a good look for a quality local curtain home furnishings supplier. This JL shop in Glasgow is not offering the same service as our local JL. There must be other suppliers in Glasgow.

Struggling to find anyone to do the whole job. I am going to get remnant kings to do the curtains but they don't do tracks and can't recommend anyone either. Everyone else seems to be interior design and wants to do the curtains too. If anyone can recommend anyone in the Glasgow area let me know.

a local small builder, if you can find one who is recommended by a friend or neighbour and look at a sample of her work, who is familiar with old houses like yours, should know how to put up such a batten in a trice. Sometimes older people who have given up carrying sacks of cement around like these light jobs.

Lucked did you find anyone as similar problem