curtain-rail
I am putting up a curtain across a large gap, to separate two rooms in my open plan house. I'm concerned about the weight of the curtains combined with children passing through it everyday and don't want to see it pulled down.
It's 4.6kg for the curtain + pole. Walls are brick and plaster board.
What type of fixing will a strong enough?
Will normal screws + rawl plugs be strong enough or they will just get pulled out once some weight is put on them?
If by "stack," you mean that the curtain hooks get out of order, which makes opening the curtains back up impossible, then you could put a small screw or nail in the top/window side of each hook (perhaps two in each hook if it is really bad.) Or you could just get bigger hooks. That would make it would be impossible for them to overlap.
If the problem is that too much friction is created by pulling on the curtain material, then I would suggest finding a curtain pulley system (or attaching a rod to the middle-most hook on each side of the curtain.) Such systems would create an entirely horizontal force on the curtain's hooks, as opposed to the diagonal downward force created by simply pulling on the curtain material, which will create friction between the hooks and the rail. Or, if the rail and hooks are metal, you could simply try oiling them to reduce friction.
If the problem is something other than the hooks overlapping and becoming inseparable, please explain the problem... maybe even a picture would be in order!
You're not showing all the pieces. What we see is a curtain rod and the center support.
There are brackets for the end that the rod hooks over.
Pictured is a dual curtain rod hanger bracket. The hole in the rod catches on the tang and it drops down onto the bracket.
The answer to your problem might be shown in the picture, use a nice board that spans across the window opening about six inches above. Use screws to hold it to the studs and then mount the curtain to that using stronger screws than came in the hardware pack. Graininess of the cellphone picture doesn't do the spar varnish finish on the hemlock board any justice.
For spanning that window (10') there are heavy-duty three piece curtain rods constructed exactly like these but with two of the screw-in supports available in addition to the end brackets.
Best Answer
"It's 4.6kg for the curtain + pole" + a hundred pounds of children (or one or more idiot adults). That calls for steel pipe and structural pipe base, preferably threaded and not setscrew, 1" or larger, with long enough masonry screws to embed 1" into the masonry.
If it's in a 'curtain catalogue', that's not good enough. If it needs to not fall down, then it needs to be able to take me doing pull-ups on it, which is a base prerequisite for anything I mount in a home.
If it's not going to be, then it should be flimsy enough that falling on someone's head won't definitely kill them. If it isn't going to be flimsy, then you'd better mount-the-shit-out-of-it. It basically is a pull-up/grab bar, and some poor sod is going to use it as such eventually.