I am hanging a curved shower curtain rod to replace a spring loaded/standard curtain rod. The rod came with drywall anchors (3 each side) and I started drilling the holes for the anchors. First hole, no problem, 2nd and 3rd holes appear to have hit a stud (much more resistance and wood chips). As you can probably tell I am very much a novice with home repairs, and my question is can I use the drywall anchors in the stud? I was able to get one anchor to easily fit in the first hole, but I can't get them in the other two holes even though they were made with the same drill bit. Any suggestions? Can I use wood screws for the 2 stud holes and keep the drywall anchor for the other? Can I make the stud holes larger to fit the drywall anchor?
The three holes are in a triangle shape: 2 at the top about an inch apart and the 3rd below about an inch in between the top holes.
Best Answer
Wood screws directly into a stud are going to be many times stronger then drywall anchors. When you have hit a stud, use a screw. When you are just in the drywall, use a drywall anchor.
Drilling out the strong wood to replace with weak plastic doesn't make any sense.
If you really wanted to just use anchors, they make metal anchors that can be driven into a stud but the description of them is:
I emphasized the word even.
(source: easyanchors.com)