Putting up blinds and hitting lintel

[savvysquirrel]

Hi,

So we have bought two lots of wooden venetian blinds from Blinds2go to go up in the window recess of two of our bedrooms. We put the smallest one up on the weekend which was 177cm wide by side fixing the brackets to the recess, it came with a middle support bracket but it appears to be ok without it. However, our main bedroom window is bigger and the blind is 235cm wide, we've put the side brackets up and this one came with two support brackets which need to be top fixed to the recess. I tried to drill the holes for the support brackets yesterday but I think we have lintel above the recess so I can only drill so far before coming to a halt. I've read that a HSS drill bit might get through the lintel, however I'm also wondering whether I definitely need to put up the support brackets or whether the side brackets will be enough? The headrail is made of metal so is pretty solid and the blinds won't be pulled up and down that much. What do you think?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

You could try it without and see if it sags/still functions OK. If not then you'll need to do a centre mount. Assuming it's a steel lintel then yes a HSS bit is the way to go.

 

[savvysquirrel]

Thanks @freddiemercurystwin! That's a good point I'm just assuming it's steel, I guess it could also be concrete. How would I know? If it's concrete would I be able to drill through it?

Annoyingly we need to trim a couple of mm off the headrail as it's a tiny bit too long even though our measurements were correct, but once I've done that I will see what it looks like without the middle support first.

 

[savvysquirrel]

Ok so I bought a HSS drill bit and gave it another go in a couple of different positions and still no joy. I'm not 100% certain that it's metal as the drill bit didn't seem to have any metal shavings on it and a white dust was coming out. Any ideas?

I've got the side brackets up but I feel like the blind is going to be too heavy to not have any middle support brackets.

 

[JohnD]

I guess it could also be concrete.

in which case you would need a masonry bit and a hammer drill.

what sort of drill do you own?

what sort of bit did you start with?

 

[savvysquirrel]

@JohnD I have the Dewalt DCD796 drill, I started out with a masonry drill bit on the hammer setting and it went about 2cm in before hitting something hard which I assumed was steel lintel. I then tried again with a HSS drill bit but same thing happened again and no matter how much I tried it wouldn't go in any further. I also tried it in another position but that one didn't even go in as far as the first one.

 

[Alec_t]

I started out with a masonry drill bit

A new one, or a blunt one?

 

[savvysquirrel]

As I'm a novice DIYer please tell me if this is a stupid idea, but I'm thinking if I can make holes 20mm deep before hitting lintel (or whatever it is that's there) could I trim a rawl plug and screw the brackets in with 20mm screws? The side brackets are screwed in properly on the side so these are just the support ones which I'm assuming (maybe wrongly) might not take as much weight, and would be better than nothing.

 

[savvysquirrel]

@Alec_t a new one, all the drill bits I used were brand new ones so not blunt.

 

[JohnD]

As I'm a novice DIYer please tell me if this is a stupid idea, but I'm thinking if I can make holes 20mm deep before hitting lintel (or whatever it is that's there) could I trim a rawl plug and screw the brackets in with 20mm screws? The side brackets are screwed in properly on the side so these are just the support ones which I'm assuming (maybe wrongly) might not take as much weight, and would be better than nothing.

No. You will just be screwing into the plaster, which has no strength.

Can you photograph the tips of your drill bits please so we can see how sharp they are.

What is the power and weight of your electric drill?

Can you check (sorry, this is not an insult) the drill is set to forward, not reverse?

 

[savvysquirrel]

This is the HSS drill bit I was using it's the DeWalt Extreme 4mm.

Power of drill is 18v not sure on the weight.

Yep drill is definitely set to forward.

 

[JohnD]

please photograph your masonry bit.

the hss drill tip is not well focussed in your pic. Is it blunt and rounded? You must not use hammer on hss.

Am 18v hammer drill will drill into blocks OK, but into reinforced concrete will take quite a while. You can put a mark on the shaft of the drill and watch to see if it has gone in after a minute

would you mind buying a bigger, mains drill that eats concrete?

 

[RobTi]

Does it sound like steel when the hammer drill hits it .

 

[savvysquirrel]

Does it sound like steel when the hammer drill hits it .

Kind of but there's not steel shavings coming off it more of a white powder comes out. I also didn't have it on the hammer setting when using the HSS drill bit as I read that might blunt the drill bit, but I did when using the masonry one.

I think I might have to admit defeat and see if I can get someone to come in that has better tools than me to put up these last 2 brackets.

 

[RobTi]

On masonry you need some pressure behind the drill for a lintel