Runners, Hooks & Brackets

Runners and gliders

The small carriers that ride inside the track and hold the curtain hooks. Wheeled runners for heavier systems, moulded gliders for lighter ones. They are profile-specific — a glider for one track section will not run in another, and there is no universal size — so when we are replacing parts on an existing system we match the profile from a photograph or from one old runner. Worn runners are the single most common cause of a curtain that has started to stick, and they are the cheapest thing on this page.

Dust is what wears them here. Fine sand works into the channel and grinds at the wheel, and a home that keeps windows open in the cooler months goes through runners faster than one that does not. A track that has become gritty rather than broken often only needs the channel wiped through and the runners swapped.

Hooks, and why the wrong one ruins the drop

Pin hooks push into the back of a pinch pleat curtain, standard hooks clip into a woven tape heading, and wave systems use their own dedicated hook or glider combination. The hook is what sets the hanging height, and swapping a type changes that height by a centimetre or two. That sounds trivial until you see it: a floor-length curtain that was cut to break exactly at the floor either drags and dirties along the bottom edge or hovers with a visible gap of light beneath it. When we re-hang an existing curtain we match the original hook type, or re-measure the drop if it has to change.

Ceiling brackets

The bracket carries everything — track, runners, curtain and the force of somebody pulling it shut. In most UAE apartments and villas the ceiling is concrete slab with gypsum board suspended below it, and a bracket fixed into the board alone will eventually pull out. We fix through to slab where the geometry allows, and use anchors rated for the load where it does not. Wall brackets above the frame face the same question in reverse: block, concrete and hollow partition all take different fixings, and the plastic plugs supplied in a hardware pack suit none of them particularly well.

End stops and joiners

End stops close off the track so the runners cannot ride out of the end — obvious in its absence, when the last runner comes free and the corner of the curtain hangs loose. Joiners let a long track be assembled from sections with the channel aligned closely enough that runners pass the join without catching, which is how we cover villa windows and full-height glazing without a break in the curtain.

Overlap arms, cords and small parts

The overlap arm on a drawing pair carries one curtain slightly past the other so the pair closes without a light gap in the middle — the part that matters most in a bedroom. Cord sets, pulleys and tension devices belong to corded and wave systems, where the cord is what holds the fold spacing even. We keep these as spares because they are exactly what nobody can find when one breaks.

Getting the right part without a site visit

For a straightforward replacement you do not need us in the room. Send a clear photograph of the track end-on, so the channel profile is visible, plus one old runner or hook next to a ruler or a coin for scale, and tell us how many you need. We match it from stock. If the track turns out to be a discontinued profile with no matching part left, we will say so rather than sell you something that nearly fits — at that point a new track is the honest answer.