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How to Restring a Drapery Traverse Rod

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This is a very good video demonstration of how to restring a traverse rod.

The rod he is working with is called a two-way stack or center draw. A one-way stack rod draws everything off to one side and only has one carrier – the one where you tie the knots.

When you are restringing your drapery rod, if you notice some of the slides are broken or missing, on the back side of the end of the rod there will be an opening where you can remove old slides and add any new ones you might need.


This opening is usually covered by a spring loaded or pivoting door that keeps the slides from coming out when the rod is in use.

I like to add one more slide than I need for the drapery or curtain that is being installed. This helps to insure smoother operation of the rod.

The slide next to the access door can get caught in the door and hang up resulting in rough operation. One extra slide is all it takes to block the access door so that won’t happen.

7 thoughts on “How to Restring a Drapery Traverse Rod

  1. in the demo–you do not say to anchor the cord on the second slide. Is this not important to do?

  2. Hi Selma
    You’re right, it is important to anchor the cord on the second slide. Unless the cord is anchored to the second slide the two panels of the drapery may not come together properly in the center. It’s the last step in the installation process and should be done after the curtain is hanging from the rod. This video doesn’t go far enough to cover that point. Perhaps I should make a video of my own to show the whole thing from start to finish. Please let me know if you think that would be helpful to you.

  3. This was a VERY good demonstration of how to restring a drapery rod. I have one question for you. After completing the steps I am finding it more difficult to open/close the drapes. Is it because the string is new and pulls a little harder or is there something I missed?

  4. Hi Bette,
    In response to your question, I don’t think you should be having any problem with your drapery rod being difficult to operate. It should work easy and smooth. I suggest that you look for someplace where the new cord got pinched or caught in the traverse mechanism. The first place I would look is the pulley rollers at the end(s) of the rod. Sometimes a cord can get caught in between the nylon pulley wheel and the metal frame of the rod – this is especially likely on an older rod that has some miles on it. Good luck with your troubleshooting and if I can help, please don’t hesitate to ask.

    Glad you liked the video, I wish I could take credit for it. I found it on YouTube and I thought it was too good not to share.

  5. I just found your site and this video after trying for months to fix my traverse rod. This video was amazingly helpful! Thank you for sharing!

    I seem to be having a problem with the left panel opening all the way and then having them both come back together in the center. I think it has something to do with the first comment that talks about anchoring the cord on the second slide, but I’m not sure how to do that. Is there an easy way of explaining that?

  6. Hi Laura,
    I’m glad you liked the video. Here is some more information on How to Center a 2-Way Draw Curtain Rod. I hope you find it to be useful as well. If you have any further questions, let me know.

  7. This is an excellent video! We followed the steps exactly along with following Selma’s suggestion to anchor the cord on the secondary carrier. Our curtain was back up on the wall in no time! THANK YOU!

    Are there any more versions of restringing videos available? I have two other types of drapery operations; One window stacks to the left, the other is quite complicated: It’s a wall to wall expanse of drapery with a piece of wall in the middle which needs to remain covered. At the moment, I have one side pully which opens two sides of this expanse at the same time. It looks like two windows being covered and opened at one time, stacking left, right and center! I fear the time when I must figure this out myself!

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