Redidrive chews up crumbling plasterboard: what can I use to bond/fill and redrill for a smaller fixing? General problems, solutions, information and advice on fixing to walls of all kinds

[joepairman]

I'm fixing a roller blind inside a window recess. First choice was to drill into the top of the fixing and suspend the brackets, but I didn't get far because it turns out that it's very hard concrete.

So I tried putting redidrive-type fixings into the sides of the recess. I guess it's plasterboard as it's an early 70's house, but it seems to be more plaster than board, as the fixings have now chewed large holes in it and are rotating freely.

My best guess now is to fill the holes with something that's liquid enough to bond the edges of the plaster too. Then I would redrill for narrower fixing; possibly those butterfly-style plastic ones where the wings pop out on the rear side of the plasterboard. My questions are:

1. Is this a good idea?
2. What kind of bond / filling stuff should I use, or do I need to bond the plaster edges first then fill the rest?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

[welsh brickie]

remove the screw, dig out the hole much larger than it is now, 50mm in diameter will do.
Mix dry wall adhesive, and overfill the hole. Leave to set for 24 hours and sand back to original plaster. Drill the hole with a 7mm masonry drill insert brown rawplug and use 50mm screw and tighten

[joepairman]

Thank you! That's exactly the info I was looking for.

By the way, do you reckon it is actually regular plasterboard? It's around a centimeter thick I guess, and as I said, very crumbly. But the interior walls in the house are made of thinner but better plasterboard that takes a redidrive plug fine.