Curtain Rail? Spec me a drill

[iviv]

Right, this is going to be a pretty terrible thread for those of you reading who actually have some life skills, but we all have to start somewhere!

I live in a converted office block, the old single glazed windows had blinds attached to them, but they were just replaced with UPVC double glazed windows, which is great. Except they wouldn't install a curtain pole I bought. The issue lies in that I don't have any power tools because I've never needed them before.

Anyway, it seems like a waste buying an electric drill just to drill a handful of screws into the wall, but are there any alternatives? I see some Cheap £20-25 drills that will probably do the job, but will probably die after a year or so, since I know you need to go expensive to get anything of a decent quality.

 

[iviv]

Yeah, its just a one off thing, with possibility of small bits of work in the future. Looking at a Challenge Xtreme Cordless Drill Driver - 14.4V for £22.50 from a popular high street store that I happen to have some vouchers for. Not sure what exactly I should be looking for, but it has good reviews at least.

 

[iviv]

Is there any easy way to find out? I assume it's a concrete lintel, the opening is 1.2m wide by 1.5m high.

 

[iviv]

One suggestion I've had is to get a length of wood and use something like no more nails along the length to stick it firmly on, then the curtain rail can just drill into there, that way there is no worry about hitting some ridiculous lintel or something like that. Does this sound sensible?

 

[iviv]

I've done the wood thing, for curtains.

The reservation I have with blinds is that you have to pull on a cord which puts additional stress on the pile.

If it's concrete I tend to work from the method whereby you get an SDS drill, start with a small shank bit and then work up to the requisite size for the rawl plug.

Be sure to tap the rawl plug past the plaster.

I will be putting curtains up, not blinds, so that shouldn't be a problem.