Draperies and Top Treatments - Advice on hanging heavy draperies in sheetrock / metal studs.

I am trying to hang both sheers and heavy draperies over a span of 100 inches. The rods are made of wood and both have a diameter of 2 inches. I used two double wooden brackets – one on each end. The problem with the wooden brackets is that the two small screws pulled out of the wood on one side, and the bracket itself pulled out of the sheetrock wall. The bracket was attached using two small screws and two wall anchors. Needless to say, all came falling down with the pole impacting my wood floor!!! My thinking now is slanted towards the purchase of three metal double drapery brackets that will accept the 2 inch pole. Ideally I want to screw three equally spaced metal brackets into the metal studs and not use wall anchors. My problem is that the metal studs don’t line up at either end or exact middle of the area above the draperies. I’m thinking of attaching two or three horizontal (100”) 1 x 2’s to the wall into the metal studs then screw the three equally spaced metal brackets into the ends and middle of the 1 x 2’s. My goal is to make drapery supports that will support my weight (145 lbs.)!!! Can anyone tell me another way of accomplishing this so that the heavy draperies WILL NEVER fall to the floor again? I rather not use wall anchors. Please help. Thank you.

Hi fix it, your idea of installing a 1x2 the full length of your drapes sounds correct, except you may need to increase the width to accomodate the weight and the distance from the wall. If your brackets are 4 inches long, that is one force. If they are 8 inches long, that is twice the force. So you may have to consider something like a 1x4" or 1x6" boards. Three 1x2's would not be the same as one 1x6.

I'm sure others will jump in here with more (better):) advice.

Bud

without removing the sheetrock and putting a wood backing in, your going to have to use the proper wall anchors where studs are not.

If you used plastic plugs in your original installation, this would not suffice even for a 10 pound drape and is the wrong wall anchor to consider. If you really need to support 145 pounds (which i very much suspect you dont) then your wood pole would never cut it either without bowing and bending.

if for some extremely odd reason you actually need to support 145 pounds then ripping out the drywall and putting in the proper backing is the only way to go..

if your drape is realistically weighing in at under 50 pound, then the proper wall anchors will be fine. The anchors you should be using are toggle bolts.

DO NOT USE MOLLYS. as a home owner you have one shot with mollys, and if you need to move your bracket and molly the integrity of your drywall is compromised and you will not be able to use it to support much of anything.