AB-05Fit the right fixing for your wallOn solid brick or block, drill 6mm holes 40mm deep, fit a red wall plug, and drive in a 50mm screw. On lath and plaster, look for a timber upright behind the laths and use a 60-75mm wood screw driven through the lath into it; if you're fixing between laths, use a spring toggle or lath-rated hollow-wall fixing that grips the plaster and lath, rated for at least 5kg per bracket. On plasterboard over timber studs, drive a 40-50mm wood screw into the centre of the stud, never just into the board. On plasterboard over metal studs, use a self-drilling metal-stud fixing or a toggle-type hollow-wall anchor rated for the load — never a plain plastic plug or an ordinary wood screw, which strips straight through 0.5mm steel. On dot-and-dab plasterboard, use a long fixing (75-100mm) that passes through the board and the dab void to grip the masonry behind, checked against your pilot hole depth. A curtain pole is light, but if a metal-stud fixing feels loose or spins, stop and fix into the masonry behind instead, or fit a timber noggin.