How to secure blinds when lintels are in the way?

[Sprogginz]

I'm trying to put several zebra (night & day) roller blinds up.
They're quite heavy compared to your usual ones.
They don't have side brackets but clips that are fixed to the roof of the window recesses.

The problem is with this new build house is that there seems to be lintels directly behind the plaster, therefore, I can only drill about 20mm before hitting them which is not enough length to secure the clips, which I found out!

What am I supposed to do in this situation? Maybe 20mm is long enough but I had to improvise (shorter screws & plugs) as the screws and plugs that came with the blinds were too long.

Can I drill into the lintel and if so how thick are they usually?
I'm guessing that I need a drill bit that is only about 1/2mm less than the screw.

Thanks very much and hope you can help.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Use TEK screws that screw directly into the steel lintels.

 

[Sprogginz]

Use TEK screws that screw directly into the steel lintels.

Thanks for that, that looks simpler.
Had a look at some video tutorials and it seems crucial to make sure the lintel is not thicker than the drilling part of the screw.
How thick is your typical window lintel? Did a search and it seems to be about 6mm.
Also would there be normally brick placed directly above the lintel whereby these TEK screws will need to partially drill into them too?
Thanks again.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

A steel lintel is unlikely to be 6mm unless the opening is massive and the lintel is really heavy duty, probably more like 3mm, your self tapper will just drill into the mortar/brick above the lintel.

 

[Sprogginz]

A steel lintel is unlikely to be 6mm unless the opening is massive and the lintel is really heavy duty, probably more like 3mm, your self tapper will just drill into the mortar/brick above the lintel.

Fantastic, thank you, really appreciate this as I'm doing this for someone else.
So if the thickness of the plaster is just over 20mm then do I just need 25mm like this one or the 32mm to be sure?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Minimum 32 I would say.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Remember you have 20mm plasterboard plus about 5mm for the ickle drill bit at the end and then you want about 10mm of thread through the lintel.

 

[Sprogginz]

Remember you have 20mm plasterboard plus about 5mm for the ickle drill bit at the end and then you want about 10mm of thread through the lintel.

Thank you, I understand now. I already bought a box of 32mm, I'll double-check to try to be sure in case I might need longer ones.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Or do this:

 

[Sprogginz]

Yes, I saw that and prepped the HSS drill bit and screws as a backup.

I'm so glad I did because the 32mm TEK screws were just too short.

I've never really drilled into steel before and watched a few other videos on how to do it using a cordless drill taken into account the speed and torque needed.

I needed to do four holes, after successfully doing two I exerted too much pressure at low speed and snapped the drill bit. Screwfix were out of stock but Toolstation had one left! That cost nearly an hour.

All done now. The screws I used weren't that long so only got a few millimetres in but felt very secure just as Charlie demonstrates, although wouldn't do that with mine!

For me, it was quite tough drilling those holes and wonder if the TEK screws would've been even harder.

Thanks for your help.