Curtain Tracks, Blinds And Window Furnishing Fixings

A set of lined curtains on a wide window is heavy, and the load is applied at the end of a bracket projecting from the wall.

Which makes a curtain track a cantilever fixing rather than a decorating item, and it is why so many of them end up hanging off one screw with a hole in the plaster where the other one was.

Find out what you are fixing into

The failure is almost always the substrate rather than the hardware.

Plasterboard with nothing behind it, which will not hold a loaded bracket regardless of what anchor goes in. Toggle and expanding anchors spread the load and they are still fixing into a twelve millimetre sheet.

Timber framing, which holds well if the bracket lands on a stud or a nogging, and those are rarely where the bracket needs to go.

Masonry, which holds well with the right plug and screw.

Concrete, which holds well and needs a masonry drill and a suitable anchor rather than a plug meant for brick.

A window head with a lintel behind it, which is usually the strongest place available and is the reason tracks are so often fixed to the architrave or the window reveal rather than to the ceiling.

Scanning or probing before drilling is a two minute step that decides whether the fixing lasts, and it also avoids the wiring and pipework that runs above a window head.

The three fixing positions

Into the window reveal or architrave, which is the simplest and lands on the window frame or the lintel. Limits the track to the width of the opening, which is fine for a blind and not for curtains that need to stack beyond the window.

Onto the face of the wall above the window, which needs the track to reach timber or masonry. On a plasterboard wall that means finding the studs and accepting that the brackets go where the studs are.

Into the ceiling, for a recessed or face fixed track running past the window. The hardest fixing, because a plasterboard ceiling has nothing in it, and the right answer is to fix into the joists above or to install noggings. A ceiling mounted track on anchors into bare plasterboard is the classic failure.

Where none of those work, the answer is a timber batten or a pelmet board fixed properly into structure, with the track fixed to the batten. One good fixing arrangement carrying everything, rather than six marginal ones.

Weight, and why it is more than people think

Blockout curtains with a lining on a wide window are substantially heavier than they look, and the load is dynamic: every open and close applies a jerk rather than a steady pull.

Which means the bracket spacing comes from the track manufacturer's load table rather than from how it looks, and a long track needs an intermediate bracket whether or not there is a stud there. Adding a centre bracket to a sagging track is the most common repair and it only works if there is something to fix it to.

Blinds have their own problems

Roller blinds put the whole load on two end brackets, so each one is carrying half the weight at the end of a short lever. The fixing has to be right on both.

Venetians and verticals are lighter and need the headrail supported along its length so it does not bow.

Motorised blinds need power at the head of the window, which makes them an electrical job as well as a carpentry one. Which is why they are far easier to do during a renovation than afterwards, and the general point about it sits with [adding power points and circuits in older apartments](/blog/adding-power-points-and-circuits-in-older-apartments).

Cords, which are a safety item rather than a convenience. Looped cords within reach of a small child are the subject of specific requirements, and the practical answer in a rental or a family home is a cordless or wand operated blind. A cord cleat fixed to the wall is the minimum where a looped cord exists.

Security screens and locks interact with the furnishing, because a screen changes what can be fixed in the reveal, as in [security screens, window locks and rental compliance](/blog/security-screens-window-locks-and-rental-compliance).

Where it goes wrong afterwards

Holes in plasterboard from a failed fixing, which have to be properly repaired rather than filled, because a filled hole has no more strength than the hole did. The repair is the work in [plaster repair after a water leak](/blog/plaster-repair-after-a-water-leak) applied to a smaller area.

Refixing into the same hole, which never holds. The fix is a new position or a plugged and re-drilled hole, which is the same principle as the hinge repair in [doors that drop and hinges that fail](/blog/doors-that-drop-and-hinges-that-fail).

A track fitted so the curtain fouls the window hardware, so a window cannot be opened without moving the curtain. Measured before, not discovered after.

Condensation behind a heavy curtain, which is a ventilation issue the furnishing creates. A blockout curtain against a single glazed window in winter produces a cold pocket and mould on the reveal, which is the mechanism in [bathroom condensation, mould and the exhaust fan](/blog/bathroom-condensation-mould-and-the-exhaust-fan) appearing in a bedroom.

For a relet or a new tenancy

Window furnishings are one of the first things a prospective tenant notices and one of the last things anybody schedules.

Which is why they belong on the relet scope with everything else rather than on a separate trip: the track repaired or replaced, the blind replaced where it is beyond cleaning, the holes made good and the paint touched in. One team doing the carpentry, the patching and the painting in the same attendance is the difference between a finished room and a room with a filled hole above the window. That whole sequence is [end of lease, made re-let ready, fast](/blog/end-of-lease-made-re-let-ready-fast).

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