Has anybody found any way of getting a 4" duct pipe through a two foot thick rubble fill stone wall? I need to fit a fan to a wall of an ensuite bit (basin and toilet). The usual diamond hole cutter you would use on a brick/block wall won't be suitable as the infill will drop and block the hole as you drill through. If there is no way I will have to use a window fan, which is pretty clunky and ugly. Any suggestions?
- Thread starter geoff
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Penners
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I did this once when we lived in a Hornton stone house in Oxfordshire. And it confirmed my lifelong love of timberframe buildings!
I found that the best - indeed the only practicable - way of doing the job was to abandon any hope of cutting precisely circular holes through the outer and inner skins. I removed whole stones from both skins, to create holes sufficiently large for the ducting to pass through easily.
I scooped the dross out of the middle until I had joined up the holes in the inner and outer skins, and then pushed the duct through. (Make sure it angles slightly downwards towards the outside, to stop rain from trickling in).
I then made good the oversize holes around the ducting using small stones and mortar.
The whole job took me an entire day. In my current timberframe house it took a little over an hour. But I don't expect you wanted to know that!
I found that the best - indeed the only practicable - way of doing the job was to abandon any hope of cutting precisely circular holes through the outer and inner skins. I removed whole stones from both skins, to create holes sufficiently large for the ducting to pass through easily.
I scooped the dross out of the middle until I had joined up the holes in the inner and outer skins, and then pushed the duct through. (Make sure it angles slightly downwards towards the outside, to stop rain from trickling in).
I then made good the oversize holes around the ducting using small stones and mortar.
The whole job took me an entire day. In my current timberframe house it took a little over an hour. But I don't expect you wanted to know that!
Gervase
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Aye, in the past week I've knocked through three four-inch and one six-inch ducts in a barn conversion and it's a pig of a job. Invest in or make some very long and very heavy chisels - three feet long and an inch in diameter isn't excessive (I was lucky to be able to use an old drive-shaft to make mine) - and get the tips sharp and hard. Then be prepared for your arm toache like bily-o and your ears to be ringing.
It's hard to get a neat hole, but, dpending on the stone, it is often possible to break through the stones rather than having to remve whole ones (particularly handy if yur wall happens to be made of socking great big stones.
Drill a pilot hole first with a long bit on a rotary hammer drill - a 10mm bit should be fine, just to make sure you can line up the attack from both sides of the wall.
It's hard to get a neat hole, but, dpending on the stone, it is often possible to break through the stones rather than having to remve whole ones (particularly handy if yur wall happens to be made of socking great big stones.
Drill a pilot hole first with a long bit on a rotary hammer drill - a 10mm bit should be fine, just to make sure you can line up the attack from both sides of the wall.
Just did a 6" hole for Kitchen fan. What a bloody pain in the arse the whole thing turned out to be. (Just getting a 6" plastic pipe was a joke.)
Hired a 6" diamond drill. Made a pigsear of it. Then used the old method of hammer and chisel. As the stone was ironstone dead easy to cut through and the rubble held firm in the middle.
I learnt that I was no builder and should have got someone in to do the job. Ohh well at least I had a go and learnt some personal limits.
So as previous advice, do it slowly with hammer and chisel. Then mortar up the hole once pipe in.
MJ
Hired a 6" diamond drill. Made a pigsear of it. Then used the old method of hammer and chisel. As the stone was ironstone dead easy to cut through and the rubble held firm in the middle.
I learnt that I was no builder and should have got someone in to do the job. Ohh well at least I had a go and learnt some personal limits.
So as previous advice, do it slowly with hammer and chisel. Then mortar up the hole once pipe in.
MJ
biffvernon
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Wear ear defenders whenever hitting hammer on big chisel.
What's that you said?
Penners
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Middi - if you're gonna make a bang, make a big bang!
