How to Install a Curtain Rod in a Hard Plaster Wall
Trying to install a curtain rod into a hard plaster wall can quickly turn into a disaster. The wall can break around the attaching hardware, ruining large portions of the finish, and when the curtain comes tumbling down, who knows what it will hit when it lands? There is a simple trick to installing the right hardware to support the weight of a curtain rod in a hard plaster wall, and it has less to do with knowing which hardware to choose than how to properly get it into the wall. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Level
- Box knife
- Nail
- Hammer
- Drill
- Lag bolts
- Box wrench
- Electrical tape (if desired)
Instructions
-
-
1
Hold your curtain rod in the position you want to place it, using a level to make sure it is straight, and mark with a sharp pencil where your bolts need to be.
-
2
With a sharp box knife, cut a small cross into the plaster, centered over the pencil mark.
-
-
3
Place a nail at the center of the cross-cut and gently tap it through the surface of the plaster with a hammer. You are not trying to drive the nail through the plaster, just to break the finished surface and start a hole into the plaster itself.
-
4
Drill very slowly through the plaster using the hole you began. Use a bit size that is specified on the package of the lag bolt you have purchased. The drill bit size will match the width of the flat lag (a metal anchor that can turn to form a T on the bolt) and not the bolt itself.
-
5
Hold your lag bolt so the three parts of the system (lag, bolt and shielding sleeve) are lined up with the lag coming off the bolt as straight as possible and the shielding sleeve held snug to the bolt head.
-
6
Push the lag bolt into the hole. When you feel the lag drop free inside the wall, tap the head of the bolt gently with a hammer until the shielding sleeve in firmly seated in the wall.
-
7
Fit a box wrench to the top of the lag bolt and turn it clockwise until you feel the lag drawn tight to the wall, and then you are ready to move on to the next one.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
If you are doing this job yourself, use a few loops of electrical tape to attach your level to the curtain rod so you are holding it up as one easily handled unit rather than trying to control them both with one hand while marking the wall with a pencil.
When you are tightening the lag bolt, as soon as you feel the resistance of the lag snugging up to the inside face of the wall, stop tightening. If you go any further you risk pulling the lag through the wall and creating a gaping hole.
