How to drill a concrete wall with a drill. Choice of tool

How and what to drill a concrete wall?

Minor repair work is periodically a necessity in every home. Drilling was no exception. You need tools, experience and a little time to do it right, otherwise it’s an unwanted expenditure of money. To avoid the latter we have prepared for you an article on “How and what to drill a concrete wall with”?”. Let’s go over all the important points.

Many people ask the question: “How to drill a concrete wall with an ordinary drill?”. It is actually possible, but requires experience, effort, and time. If you’re a beginner, it’s better to buy or rent a more suitable tool. The peculiarity of the impact drill is clear from its name. The tool not only rotates, it also reciprocates, allowing you to reach through dry and old concrete. The conventional drill does not do it as well, because the non-homogeneous density of the material to be processed makes it difficult to maintain the same drill force and number of revolutions at all times. Because of this, beginners often break the drill bit.

Working with the new tool is easy and convenient: percussive movements pierce the dense layers of concrete walls, while rotary movements organize the accuracy of the performed hole and the removal of the formed crumbs. If you aim to buy a tool, do not save money!

Buying a modern model of a well-known brand, you get:

To a large extent, the final result will depend on you, but using a reliable tool, to achieve it will be easier. But before drilling into a concrete wall, we recommend reading the instructions.

Surface Preparation

When you want to drill a hole, you should first make sure that there are no wires, embedded pipes or cables in the selected area. An easy way to detect such elements is to use a metal detector. In the wall is almost always present armature, it is better to set the metal detector on non-ferrous metals (search for wiring), and then on steel. If you ignore the condition, there is a risk of bumping into rebar, the pobedite drill bit will be hopelessly destroyed.

Initially a point is marked on the wall. To prevent the tool from slipping, make an indentation with any strong metal object or drill at low speed. After careful preparation, the drill for concrete easily enters the wall. It is worth taking into account that on top of the cement is applied facing. it is softer than the wall itself, which means that initially the drill goes easily, then rests on the tough material.

Preparing the surface for work

Which bits to choose?

Before you drill a hole in a concrete wall, you need to choose a nozzle of the appropriate design. The following varieties are used for the work:

• Toothed drill bits of the percussion type, designed for drilling. When working with concrete, it is recommended to use varieties from the teeth of a separate solder, made of the most durable metal alloys. Many drill bits are equipped with SDS tails for installation into a drill with a quick-action chuck. Drills are good for concrete walls, but in contact with metal can begin to break down, so before you drill a reinforced concrete wall, you need to check that there is no reinforcement in the place of work used to reinforce.
• Diamond core bits, which are designed for hammerless drilling. Such nozzles are more modern, with their help it is easier to make a hole in a concrete wall. Edge bits have an abrasive structure and special notches, during production it is treated by spraying diamond crumbs or corundum. Before you make a hole in the wall, you only need to choose the right length of nozzle: varieties with a diameter of 100-120 mm are used in homes, while professional works use larger crowns. A distinctive feature is the ability to drill without the risk of damaging the fixture.
• CS: GO bits, which have a cutting edge with crystal diamond particles. These nozzles are used for most solid walls, including concrete slabs, exterior walls and masonry structures.

Before working with drilling equipment, you need to choose a suitable nozzle in terms of composition, thickness and length

Before you drill into a load-bearing wall or partition, you must make sure that the work will not hurt wires or cables, if any are laid inside.

Before drilling

Once you have decided what to drill a concrete wall, you should also ask how to prepare it. First of all, you must make sure that there is no electrical wiring. This also applies to other utilities, including sewer and water pipes.

In order to understand whether you can start manipulating, you should use a metal detector. This tool will also determine how deep you can drill into a concrete wall. If the hole is small, you can work with a drill. But when the diameter exceeds 13 mm, you should use a peorator. However, large holes in concrete can also be made with an ordinary drill, as long as the chuck can be used for a conical 13-mm drill bit.

Drilling Concrete

The tool you need

Due to the peculiarities of concrete, you will need a special tool to drill it :

• Peorator (percussion drill). provides a rotational-advancing movement of the drill.
• Concrete drill bits for percussion drills, made of hard alloys. Their shank and screw part is made of tool steel, and the cutting working area is a plate made of hard metal, ground at 60 degrees, which is sealed into the slot of the cutting part of the tool.
• Punching tool (needed when drilling with an ordinary drill).

I must say that it is possible to cope with the task at hand and the tool without the impact function. Below we take a closer look at how to drill a concrete wall with a drill.

Concrete carbide drill bits for drills

Drilling procedure with the drill bit

The procedure of drilling the wall with the torch and a special drill bit is quite simple:

• The concrete drill should be switched to drilling mode with a blow and start the operation. The drill bit should be positioned strictly at a 90-degree angle to the wall, except when drilling specifically at a certain angle.
• After a while, the drill bit should be soaked in cold water and continue working.
• If the tool encounters something hard and stops sinking in, you must try to drill through the wall in another place.
• Once you have reached the correct plunge depth, you must pull out the drill without stopping. To clean the dust out of the hole, you have to go a few more times and pull out the drill.

Tip! The drill can be used not only for drilling in hard materials. There are special attachments that turn this tool into a mixer. Thanks to them, the drill. mixer for concrete perfectly copes with stirring the solution.

Drilling with a drill

Many home masters doubt whether the drill can drill concrete? Of course, this procedure will take much longer than with the peorator, but it is possible to perform the hole.

To carry out this operation you will need a special punch. This tool is a rod with a sharpened, hard end. It is used to break the surface in the area of the drill.

The instructions for doing this work are as follows:

• First of all, to the place where the future hole will be located, it is necessary to attach the puncher and hit it several times with a hammer.
• Then, a drill bit is inserted into the resulting funnel and the hole is drilled. As when working with the peorator, it is necessary to make sure that the tool does not overheat.
• If the drill stops penetrating, you must again use the punch. put it in the hole and hit it hard several times with a hammer.
• This is how you drill until the required depth of hole is reached.

Tip! It is often necessary to cut concrete, in which case an angle grinder is used. However, it should be borne in mind that the cutting of reinforced concrete with diamond wheels.

As a result, and although an ordinary drill for concrete is not suitable, in the absence of a pioneer, it can also be used to drill through a reinforced concrete wall.

Tip! The drill can be used not only to make holes, but also to use it for some other purposes. For example, on our portal you can learn how to make a vibrator for concrete with your own hands from a drill.

Diamond drilling

Finally, it is necessary to tell about another effective method of drilling, which allows you to successfully perform holes in the walls. With its help, you can quickly cope with the task at hand and at the same time not to dust the room. We are talking about diamond drilling. (See also below). Also article Dusting concrete: features.)

This technology involves the use of special equipment, which is a set of the following elements:

With this design, water is fed directly to the drill to cool the tool. Therefore, there is no need to interrupt the process. In addition, the water washes away the dust, so it does not have time to get into the environment.Often, such a set includes a water vacuum cleaner, which allows you to remove the mixture of water and dust from the surface.

Of course, diamond drilling holes in concrete makes sense only for industrial purposes, where you need to perform a large number of holes, especially of large diameter. For domestic purposes, however, the equipment is unlikely to be useful.

In addition, the price of the kit, like any other professional tool, is quite high. Therefore, if it is necessary, for example, to fix a shelf on the wall, it is advisable to use peoratorom. (See also the article Putty on Concrete: How to Make It. See also the article Concrete putty: how to make.)

Special devices

In specialized stores you can find on sale special ring drills that have a diamond coating on the end. They are used for drill rigs, which are used to drill quite large holes, the diameter of which can even reach twenty-five centimeters. I immediately want to note that such devices are very expensive, so it makes absolutely no sense to buy them in order to drill walls at home.

In cases where the wall must be supplemented with a socket or switch during repair work, another variation of the tool is used. It is a drill bit that has a metal facing around the circumference of its cutting edge. Diameter of the bits varies in the range from thirty to one hundred and twenty millimeters, but the standard size is sixty-eight millimeters.

The thing is that this size hole needs to be drilled in the wall to install a switch or socket. If you keep asking yourself, what is the best way to drill through concrete with a drill bit, I can tell you that the ideal tool for this mission is a rotary hammer, which has the impact mode disabled. If the wall to be treated is too thick, you can use special extension nozzles.

The core bit itself can act as an attachment, but already for a drill. This type does not have a tipped surface, but is covered over the entire area with a spray consisting of a carbide-tungsten alloy. An additional advantage of this bit is that it is not necessary to change the tool in cases where it is necessary to drill a wall tiled with ceramic tiles. The thing is that such a nozzle perfectly passes, both tiles and concrete.

I would like to point out that this type of charging can only be used on those models of impact drill with a power of at least one thousand watts.

Paint the door from non-laminated Fiberboard

Often the work of the peorator is accompanied by the use of drills, the diameter of which can range from four to eighty millimeters. Many modern craftsmen are faced with the question of how to choose the right drill diameter.

Avoid such a situation can be avoided without much difficulty, because in order then not to think about what to drill concrete, you can immediately when buying a peoratora purchase and a set of special drill bits. Naturally, really high-quality kits, allowing easy drilling concrete walls, are quite expensive, so I advise to buy a drill as needed according to the diameter of the dowels used.

Is it possible to drill with a drill bit concrete?

To independently drill a concrete wall, a special heavy tool is used. the peorator, which is more powerful than a household drill. Its design features are aimed at penetrating the monolithic material, it makes large holes. But sometimes the use of a peorator is impractical, then a concrete drill is used. Its use is justified in such conditions:

• Drilling holes 1.0-1.2 cm deep.
• The base material. foam concrete, which breaks down under the action of the peorator.
• It is possible to make 10-15 holes.

Before the repair measures, choose a suitable tool. For work, use an impact drill, a simpler model can not withstand the stresses of working with concrete. fixing chuck and working attachments experience stress and wear out immediately. If there is an opportunity, it is better to buy a combination drill model with a switchable function peorator, more expensive than the classic version, but the power will allow you to perform the task at hand.

Can you drill through concrete with an electric screwdriver??

To give an answer to this question, you need to know in what material you need to drill holes, what depth and diameter. Holes with a diameter of 10 mm or more are difficult to produce with an electric screwdriver. But if the drill bit is thin (3-5 mm), then it is possible to drill with such elements with an electric screwdriver. The drill bit rotation speed affects the ability to drill in hard materials. A speed of 500 rpm is suitable for screwing./minute, and you can drill concrete with a tool with a twisting speed of 1300-1500 rpm./min. Equally important is the torque, namely how much force is applied to tighten the screws or the drilling process. For concrete, choose an electric screwdriver with a power of 140 N/m, using it in the working extreme position of the clutch at maximum power.

The design of an electric screwdriver consists of the following elements:

• pistol-shaped handle (for working with the leading hand);
• Electric motor;
• coupling;
• chuck for locking the bits;
• Limiter. a button that starts and regulates the rotation;
• pinion (gearbox), which transmits the rotation from the motor to the shaft;
• battery to supply power and constant voltage to the motor.

• Cordless. Self-contained by an internal accumulator.
• mains. When using it, a mains power supply is needed. Such a power tool is much more powerful and cheaper than a cordless type.

The cordless type loses performance when discharged, so you should charge the tool each time before working according to the instructions. Power-driven screwdrivers don’t have this problem because they are connected to the mains with a cable. For drilling in concrete, the unit is equipped with an impact drilling function with a head rotation side switch. reverse and reverse. The second mode is used for dismantling. To drill holes in concrete, the models include a torque adjustment feature. It is necessary so that the spline and replacement bits do not become unusable.

Tips for the craftsman

You have to use a variety of attachments when working. Concrete is often lined with different material. each requires a different drill bit. Professionals can sharpen the drill so that it passes through concrete and other materials freely, but it requires considerable experience. When starting work, the following recommendations should be observed:

• If the hole must penetrate deeper than 10 cm with a diameter greater than 12 mm. work with a peorator;
• start drilling at minimum rpm, attaching the percussion function only after the tip has sunk 4 mm;
• make the holes for the dowels 10 mm deeper than the plastic body of the fastener.

When the drill bit jams, you need to take it out, and then work out the hole with a puncher, breaking the interfering stone.