Condo Blues: How to Keep a Shower Curtain Rod from Falling

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

How to Keep a Shower Curtain Rod from Falling

Scene: Night. The Condo residents are nestled all snug in their beds.

SFX:Silence except for Blitzkrieg, the 12 pound Pekingese who is snoring louder than a 300 pound man in desperate need of adenoid surgery.

“Klang!”

Thumpa! Thumpa!”

Bow-rowr- -rowr- -rowr- -rowr- -rowr- -rowr-!”

"Plink! Plink! Plink!”

Groggily I shuffle to the bathroom. The supposed stay up spring loaded shower curtain rod fell down. I raise my hands to the heavens and wonder how I pissed off the home improvement gods this time? Why must these things always happen in the middle of the night? Why can’t I get a good night’s sleep?

I though I took care of this problem months ago. Once I realized that the el cheapo nontension plastic shower curtain rod that came with the house was held up with nothing more than good intentions, I replaced it with a this exact metal tension shower curtain rod like this one with grippy rubber tips that are supposed to stay in place no matter what. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience. )

Apparently I was wrong about the long term stay uppidness. Time to break out the power tools.

how to keep a bathroom shower curtain rod from falling
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How I Made a Sturdy Stay Up Shower Curtain Rod




I went to the home improvement store and bought two closet rod brackets like theseI painted them the wall color with leftover paint. I screwed the brackets into the wall and placed the tension shower curtain rod into the closet rod brackets. Instant sturdy stay up shower curtain rod!
why won't my shower curtain rod stay up

Since I screwed the closet rod brackets into drywall I didn’t need any special equipment other than a regular drill bit on Mommy's Little Helper  this cordless electric drill. If need to install your brackets on tile, you can purchase a tile drill bit for a few dollars at any home improvement store.

how to make a shower curtain rod not fall down

After this little quick fix, I got an unintentional add-on. The wooden closet rod brackets make my curtain rod much more stable when I use it to line dry laundry on hangers during the winter. Bonus.


Blitzkrieg says hi.

how to keep a shower curtain rod staying up

Looking for more bathroom shower curtain rod ideas? Check out the following hacks - and more - below!

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9 comments :

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the chuckle and the idea! My shower rod in other houses has always fallen, but not here- so I just ran upstairs to take a look and sure enough, some brilliant previous owner had done this exact thing!

Kristin - The Goat said...

Excellent!! I have been wanting to put up those exact rods in my rental condos but was afraid that they would fall -- you have solved a problem for me (hopefully!)

I have those fancy curved shower rods in there now - but people keep pulling on them and they keep getting pulled out of the wall. Maybe those cups won't work afterall. Hmmm, well anyway, it is a brilliant idea.

Anonymous said...

That is great idea. The shower rod looks great and it is a good use of resources. I like it!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to see someone blogging on this solution! It's not just for shower curtain rods, BTW. I have a five foot doorway with no doors so I installed closet pole and these brackets. Perfect place to hang laundry during the day.

I've also got a couple entries minus doors in the living room and to zone heat the house, I hung quilts using curtain rings. Going into the room, the rings slide right on the rod and quilt is out of the way.

These pole brackets also are handy for creating window treatments.

I've got an exterior door in a four foot wide hallway that opens out so I am going to repeat the quilt project there to block some drafts.

Amazing how looking around the hardware store can solve so many problems, huh? Kirby, they make these rod holder cups with a deeper cup than the one in the photo. It might solve your problem.

Love this blog. The post on insulating the water heater was helpful. I do like the way Condo problem solves.

Anonymous said...

LOL:) I like how you came up with the sound effects of a shower curtain rod that dropped on the floor. Great storyteller you are:)

Sommer said...

I came across your blog while doing some research for an article on shower curtain rods. I couldn't believe it when I saw your Peke--does he (it's a he, right?) have just one eye?? I used to have a one-eyed Peke. Actually had two Peke brothers--same coloring--and one had one eye and dementia. They died three years ago, but it brought back wonderful memories of him! Gave me a laugh too--he was an interesting dog with his dementia.

Anonymous said...

"stay uppidness" lololol I love it!!! Anyway I was looking all over for something like this in the curtain and shower curtain sections in stores but found nothing. I never thought about the closet section!!! Thank you so much for the great idea. I notice that our shower curtain slowly slides down over time and it's ripping the wallpaper... now I can stop it from happening :)

Natalie Rosen said...

I am having that problem now. UNBELIEVABLE how you cannot get a shower curtain to stay up!!! Everything made in China or made as a shower curtain is so DANGEROUS if you are aged and it falls. NOT GOOD. Drilling into my new acrylic surround on the tub is not quite what I want to do. ANYONE know of one that can be ordered meant to stay up??? I had one once that had a plastic lock in the middle that was better than any I have found now. Perplexed!

Anonymous said...

You are a LIFESAVER!! Thank you SO much for helping me fix this problem :) :)

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