Help! Wall not supporting curtain rail

[Bluerose27]

Hi,
Any DIY buffs out there? We have put in a curtain rail. The wall where the middle strut (perhaps not the correct name) was installed seems to be less solid than the two sides.
The top screw has just left a hole and the weight is on the bottom one.

Would putting poly filla in the hole work?

no

how deep is the hole you drilled, how long is the plug, how long is that part of the screw which penetrates the wall?

What sort of drill did you use, and what does the wall seem to be made of?

You need bigger rawl plugs.

Did you use rawl plugs?

We had to put a wooden ....plank thing...? up to screw the curtain pole into.

The wall seems to just be made of normal plaster. No visible difference between the middle and the sides. Rawl plugs are the plastic plugs, right? Yes we used them in all the holes. They worked fine in the other holes.
Drill was an electric drill.
Looking at it, the screw seems to be maybe 5/6 cm. The screw was drilled into the hole - so as far as I know, DH made a little hole to get a grip on the end of the screw. Then drilled the screw into the hole . And used a rawl plug.

We had similar issues and ended up sticking a strip of wood to the wall with some of that no more nails stuff, then drilling the screws into the wood. Will try to attach a pic.

Not the best photo but it shows the strip of wood - you don't notice it as we painted it to match the wall.

Yep, wooden baton on the wall between the wall and the curtain pole. You can screw the wood to the wall in loads of places rather than just the 3 points of the curtain pole. Therefore it's far more secure on a dodgy wall.

Thanks everyone for the quick response! Thanks cocolocos for the photo.

The house we're in is rented and over one window is a little strip of painted wood so it's possible/probable the previous tenant did the wood thing.
I'll suggest that to DH. It's been up for a while and was ok at the start but I'm getting a bit anxious that the whole thing is going to fall out one of these days and take chunks of the wall with it

BATON! that's the word I was looking for!

so the screw was about two inches long. That's longer than ordinary plugs. How far into the hole did the plug go?

Walls are never made of plaster. They are made of brick, or blocks, or timber, with plaster on the surface for cosmetic and fireproofing. Plaster has negligible strength, so it is no good putting a screw into the plaster for anything heavy, it has to go through the plaster and into the wall behind. In some cases plasterboard is spaced off the wall on wooden or metal studs, so there is an air gap, which will not hold a screw.

The age of the house, and the colour of the dust that comes out when you drill it, gives clues of what the wall is made of. Red dust is brick, grey is lightweight concrete blocks or possibly mortar if you hit a joint. Dense concrete, for example lintels, is hard and slow to drill.