On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:21:46 +0000, Rod
wrote:

Sam wrote:
Hello again,

The plaster over mesh thing wasn't as far-fetched as it might sound.
The builders decided (in the 1970s) to put out soil pipe inside the
cavity wall. Outside are bricks, in the middle is the soil pipe, and
on the other side is the mesh with plaster over. I hope I never need
to access the soil pipe!

I have drilled another hole and it seems that the window is not like
this. There is flaky plaster over a breeze block. The problem is that
the wall plug (and I'm using proper rawl ones, not the cheap ones
included with the rail) are expanding in the plaster section, rather
than inside the block. The double-threaded thing, simply does not go
far enough to reach the block. When the plug tries to expand, the
plaster is simply crumbling around it so that it will not secure.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
Sam.

Invest in intelligent curtain poles that shout out a warning before they
fall off the wall. :-)

Possibly drill a larger hole that goes well into the breeze and fill it
- with dowel, a piece of wood, car body filler - before screwing the
bracket to that.

Maybe bite the bullet and cut away all the plaster where the pole is
to go and fix a piece of timber securely to the breeze blocks and then
plaster or plasterboard over it then fit the rail .