DIY Question - drilling through plaster?

[aldi]

I hope someone can help me, I'm afraid I'm about to make a big mess....

I'm running a network cable for my ex, in exchange for some lovely cooked tea's. The only area of concern is where I need to drill a hole through a double skinned brick wall. I've got a 700W SDS drill and a really long bit so I'm sure that one way or another, theres going to be a hole in that wall.

The only problem is, the wall is plastered on both sides cause it comes out just under the roof in a conservatory in a very visible location. The last time I drilled through the back of plaster, I knocked a huge chunk out of it and ended up paying someone to redecorate that wall. I'm keen to avoid a repeat of this situation.

One thing that springs to mind is that if I could drill from the conservatory into the inside, it wouldnt matter so much if there was a little damage there cause its not as visible and I could just put the box over it. (Its coming out near the ground on the 1st floor) But the hole needs to come out in exactly the right place which I cant do if I do it that way.

Failing that, how can I avoid trashing the plaster in the conservatory?? My future levels of nutrition and pot-belliedness depend on it!

[m1spw]

Drill a small pilot hole through the wall first or then you are half way through, so you can see the center of the hole on the other side. then just drill through so you have 2 holes meeting in the middle and no chance of a drill bit (big enough to do damage) meeting the back of some plater.

Jobs a gud'n

[hiasakite]

or get someone to hold a piece of wood on the other side so that instead of the drill 'pushing' chunks of plaster off the othersider..it will drill through the plaster until it reaches the wood without knocking big chunks of plaster out..



Once its got to the wood you have a 'pilot hole' through the plaster and you can go round the other side and drill the plaster out without risk of knocking chunks of wall out.....

You don't need to drill throught the wood to do this..just to touch it..

Obviously be very gentle pushing the drill through or you may cause an accident to whoever is holding the wood the otherside....


NB: All of the above is at your own risk..!

EDIT: for pap spelling...

>> Edited by hiasakite on Sunday 2nd October 13:51

[dilbert]

The only trouble with that is that the hole for a network cable isn't going to be that big in the first place. I dont think they do a four foot 1/8" SDS bit.

SDS drills have the ability to run both in hammer mode, hammer and spin, and spin only.

Work out how thick the wall is, drill most of it in rotary hammer, and the last inch or two in rotary only.

Edited to add;

The block of wood idea wouldn't go amiss either.

>> Edited by dilbert on Sunday 2nd October 13:53

[GreenV8S]

Supporting the plaster as you break through sounds like your best bet, but I don't have enough experience at that to judge how well it is going to work. Is there any possibility of fitting a redundant box/cover plate inside the conservatory to hide damage to the plaster? Failing that, do you have any possibility of routing it up and over via the roof space, anything to avoid a hole which has to look pretty at both ends. If all else fails, some polyfiller and touch up paint?

[miniman]

Does your need for quality home cooked food stretch to setting them up with wireless???

[aldi]

Thanks for all the replies, I think i'm going to use the block of wood idea combined with rotary only for the last inch or two and touch up as required. There are one or two other routes but they're not without their pitfalls, and are much longer with much more visible cable. Theres allready a cable ending just the other side of that wall, and in the conservatory i'm doing a 90 right, straight through another wall and into the roof space of the substantial ground floor extention, plain sailing from there.

miniman said:

Does your need for quality home cooked food stretch to setting them up with wireless???

The distance/number of walls in the way is too much for wireless all the way, it would be too ropey. I suppose a pair of these in bridge mode, one in the afore-mentioned roofspace and one 2 feet away in the house might work for 30 squid assuming I could easily get power to both locations. But a little voice is telling me I'd end up regretting not just doing the cable If it was in my house in easy reach of tweakery I'd give it ago, but I need this to be something I can walk away from and just work.

Thanks again all,

Neil

Edited: spelling...

>> Edited by aldi on Sunday 2nd October 16:04

[glocko]

aldi said:

I'm running a network cable for my ex, in exchange for some lovely ........

Insert as appropriate!!!

[aldi]

I'l be the perfect gentleman

[Chris Type R]

There's always the option of network over mains www.mutek.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_Ethernet_Mains_network_adaptor.html Potentially 85Mps with the newer kit.

>> Edited by Chris Type R on Sunday 2nd October 19:44