I've read a few of the old posts about putting up curtain poles, but none seem to cover the area that is inside the indentation of the window (sorry, sure there is a name for this recess but I can't think of it) rather than in the classic area above the window. We previously had a blind inside the window recess, which held reasonably firm to the plasterwork but kept falling apart within itself. We have decided to change to a blackout curtain mounted inside the window recess (so we can continue to have the original curtains open or closed over the blackout) on a rail, but I tried for hours yesterday to find anything vaguely solid into which I could potentially mount the rail and found nothing.

Everything I can find online is about the bit above a window or the general structure of walls, floors and ceilings, but what is normally behind the plasterwork in the window area? What am I looking for as a secure object that I can secure something into? Plasterboard plugs of any kind are no use as the plaster is about 4mm thick and absolutely crumbly and useless, I've got to find a solid object in there somewhere. There is definitely a big steel rail towards the front (assume the outside wall is "the back") of the recess but it's in a poor position and I cannot drill it with the tools I have available. There must be something solid there somewhere as I have a blind secured to the kitchen that has been up for 11 years and is regularly yanked downwards with a pull cord, but I'm not sure if that is just coincidence that I happened to find something downstairs and perhaps there is no equivalent upstairs.

I'm loathe to drill any more holes without information, it's like a golf course up there. But for the fact that two screws have gone into something solid (by pure chance) I would have given it up.

Can anyone help?

Your title mentions "timber frame" ; is it a timber frame house?

If it is a timber-frame house you should find some studwork (large pieces of wood) in there somewhere and if not it should be brick or block.

The recess is generally known as a reveal.

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One day it will all be firewood.

Yes it's a timber frame house, but I have been unable to find any studwork, just the all metal piece across the front of the towards-the-room side of the reveal (thanks for the word!)

I've knocked all over and it all feels hollow, and all the pilot holes I've put in seem hollow too and the metal detector doesn't find anything, and it's usually very good. There are no nail heads or any of the usual things I can use to find where the boards are attached. Then again the house cannot be made out of pure air, there must be something in there somewhere! Is there any standard or typical structure for this area of a timber frame construction? Even if there are 3 or 4 different standard methods it would at least give us something to aim at.

The house is generally pretty odd, in the downstairs bathroom the walls appear to be made out of sheet steel or something, the metal detector goes off on every part of every wall and I tried to drill the wall once and couldn't get through it at all (with a standard non-hammer 14V battery drill), there's about 5mm plaster then a dead stop.

Hi Rose,

Inside the window reveal, next to the window, there will be a timber-frame Catnic lintel bridging the cavity between the brickwork/render and the timber of the frame. Built into the lintel is insulation, this is probably what your trying to drill into? If you move your curtain pole nearer to the edge of the reveal i.e. nearer into the room, if you drill in, you will find the timber header to the window reveal.

http://www.catnic.com/libraries/documen ... lector.pdf

Page 12 of this PDF will show you your wall construction.

SSM

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Measure twice, cut once!

Thanks for that, who could have imagined you could make 84 pages out of a lintel catalogue! That makes more sense of the structure, albeit bad news for what we actually wanted to do. I have no idea how the blind ever stayed up given that it seems to be secured into nothing at all. Presumably if we really wanted to we could anchor some kind of batten onto the timber and run it back towards the window so we could put the curtain rail onto that? The object of the exercise was to mount a curtain rail hard up against the window rather than on the outside of the reveal. They are not heavy curtains. Otherwise I think we will have to construct some kind of timber frame and nail the blackout onto it to put up and down WWII style.

Is there a facility on the blind for fixing them to the side rather than to the top? (Have to admit I thought initially that that's what you were trying to do).

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One day it will all be firewood.

If you have a catnic type lintol, have you tried longer self tapping screws, so as they go through the plaster and into the underside of catnic.

To drill into the lintel drill through the plaster with a masonry drill (or even an ordinary old bit) then swap to a metal drilling bit and make a pilot hole then use a suitable length self tapping screw (as CB said).

Or get a suitable piece of decent prepared timber wide enough to connect to your timber header (by wide I mean deep as into the reveal, does that make sense) so if your header was 120mm away from the window, timber to be 150mm wide/deep and maybe 19mm thick. get some good adhesive, pink grip or similar and glue and screw the batten in place, let it all go off, caulk round the joins, paint to match reveals, fix curtain/blind wherever you like.

If you fit a blind too close to a window it can snag on the window catches, please don't ask me how I know this

Upagumtree....How do you know that?????

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Verwood Handyman
I Know it says I'm On-line, but I might have just left myself logged in, whilst I'm out....

What type of blind are you trying to fit. I can advise a couple of solutions as i have fitted many blinds in the past.(its my job). Have never needed to fit timber battens inside a recess even when fitting very large wooden blinds.