Lintel drilling

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Lintel drilling

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jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28233
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 21 4:38 am Post subject: Lintel drilling
My insulation effort this year is a curtain across a room to shield off the open plan stairs. It's up (ish) but plainly won't last as I failed to penetrate a lintel. A quick magnet test has explained why! Any particular tips?

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46207
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 21 6:18 am Post subject:
you could use a combination of small fixings into the cladding/plaster and strong builders adhesive from a mastic gun to attach a batten and fasten the rail to that if required remove any paper and scratch the paint/plaster for a good key

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46207
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 21 6:29 am Post subject:

ps drilling most structural metal is difficult and often considered a bad thing

if it is a box form lintel and close to the surface they can be drilled and self tapping screws used for the fixing.
good kit and accurate drilling is required, any wonkyness and the curtains will not swish

if it is rsj work outside the plaster, it is possible to attach things to them but a bit industrial for a curtain rail

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46207
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 21 6:47 am Post subject:
pps the weight of the curtain is a factor, as is how much swishing is expected. curtains can be surprisingly dynamic in response to inadequate fixings ppps identifying the sort of lintel/beam can be done with a magnet a box will have a constant pull with a transverse sweep, a rsj will have different pulls over a transverse sweep

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46207
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 21 7:08 am Post subject:
pppps are you attaching to a vertical or horizontal surface? if you are under the lintel the pull strength test won't work to identify the type unless you can get to a side as well

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 21 8:38 am Post subject: Re: Lintel drilling

jema wrote:

Any particular tips?

Wooden battern with embedded rare earth magnets might hold up (ensure they don't get eaten by dogs etc). Or a woodern battern glued with a decent sticks like **** building adhesive.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28233
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 21 9:43 am Post subject:
I don't think a 6mm hole is going to bring things tumbling down. So I'm going to try that on the failing hole. Glued batton was also my thought as the fallback.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46207
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 21 11:01 am Post subject:
use a pilot hole and then scale up to the fixing size, keep things cool, lubricant and a slow speed, a minimum of vibration, get best quality self tappers the right size for the holes and lube them before working them in and out until fully in snapping a self tapper is no fun to remedy, drill well, take your time screwing them in by stages

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9878
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 21 1:54 pm Post subject:

I have a lot of trouble drilling into the walls in my house as they are made from kryptonite stones....

What I have found is to drill around and get a raw plug/ wedge of wood in as near as I can, between stones, which wont be where I want the fixing, and then attach a wooden batten to that rawplug/ wedge of wood. THEN you can put the fixing on the battern/plank of wood where you actually want it to be.

so in your case I would see if I could get a fixing above or alongside the lintel , attach wood to that.. then your curtain hanging onto that.... if you follow my explanation...

using something like no more nails to attach a curtain pole wont work in the long run. This is the voice of experience....

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46207
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 21 2:06 pm Post subject:
granite is best done with industrial stuff a good sds drill is a basic some jobs need that to just to mount the proper drill(hole for a flue or suchlike holes) under 25 mm hand held might work, if the hands know how to use 2 or 3 kw turned into torque and pecking sparking in yorshire gritstone houses is almost as much fun as granite

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28233
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Oct 23, 21 10:02 am Post subject:

Well a bosch HSS bit has certainly made should work of the bad fixing point.
I am glueing a rawlplug into the newly deeper hole and think that might be enough.
At any rate if it isn't, it does seem things are looking very doable. Lots of pretty metal attached to the drill bit. Used a mains drill and some water as lube. Seen SDS drills recommended but whilst I have one, it seems this job is 99% down to the bit and not the power of the drill.

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