House of Doom IV: curtain batten attached to batten cut into plaster

edinburgher

Excuse the silly title, I thought I'd chart my DIYohwhythehelldidn'tIbuyanewbuild adventures for my own amusement and possibly so that future generations can laugh at me.

This is the 4th item I need to query.

When stripping the wallpaper in a bedroom, I thought 'I'll take down the curtain batten, it's ugly, caked in gloss and needs stripped back at least'. It also wobbled to the touch, a great idea in a child's room :rotfl:

Unfortunately for me, the batten was nailed into another batten that was sunk about 1.5cm into plaster, with occasional 'wedges' nailed onto that and squashed into chiselled out holes in the brickwork. So now I have a hole about an 1" deep, 2" across and 6' long :eek:

Battens are ugly as hell anyway, so doubt I'll be replacing it. Suggestions for how to proceed with a repair and hanging a new curtain pole?

1. Fill hole with timber batten of similar size, attach to bricks... somehow and then plaster over the top? Then hang curtain pole like a sane person, getting my hands on a decent drill if there's a lintel in the way?
2. The same as above, but plaster to fill the whole hole?

New house DIY is great, I like the sense of despair.

TheCyclingProgrammer

I wouldn't fill with another batten as plaster skim doesn't really stick to wood very well. I would fill the hole with bonding plaster, set back a few mm then finish with a skim coat or if you're worried about getting a good blended finish, some easifill which you can sand back flush with the wall once dry.

phil24_7

I would sink a piece of treated timber into the wall and put some metal lath over the top for the plaster to adhere to. Or you could just drill through the plaster into the brick to mount your curtain poles.