Installation and safety
A checklist for hanging each treatment, from the wall behind the bracket to the bedroom window that must still open, and a sheet that lists every cord a child could reach and what was done about it.
The installation checklist is essential for any window you drill into or hang weight on; skip it only for a treatment that needs no hardware. The cord sheet is essential in any home where a young child lives or visits, and optional otherwise. The reasoning is in Hardware and installing and Cords, children and fire; the load arithmetic is in the curtain weight calculator.
Installation checklist
Work through it for each window you hang something on. Write the window and what you found in the columns beside each line.
Every cord a child could reach
One row per window covering in every room a child uses or visits. List it even if you think it is safe: the point is that nothing is missed.
How to use these sheets
- Work the checklist per window. Write the window and what you found in the columns beside each line: the wall type, the estimated load, the rating and whether it is ultimate or working, the date of the landlord's written answer.
- List every covering in a child's rooms. Include the ones you think are safe. A row marked cordless and none needed is still a record that the window was checked.
- Record, do not conclude. The sheet holds what you saw and did. It does not say a window or a room is safe.
The example row is the Adeyemi household's nursery: the previous owner's 2 in faux wood blind with a pull cord and visible inner cords, over the crib. The action is to take it down now rather than wait for the cordless replacement, and the done date is blank until it is down.
Ticking a line here does not make a window or a wall safe. Published ratings are the makers' figures under their test conditions; CPSC's interim cord steps reduce the hazard without removing it; whether a bedroom window meets your local escape rules is for the local building department to say.