Diamond drilling can be used to make a hole in anything: concrete, wood, brick - any material is no barrier. Are there any obstacles to diamond installation? And what does the law say about this? We figure out where you can and cannot drill holes.

Types of holes in walls

Holes in walls can be divided into two types: through, passing through the entire thickness of the wall, and blind, reaching only to a certain depth.

Blind holes in walls are usually intended for fastening objects, for example, hanging shelves, mirrors, cabinets, paintings. Such holes have a diameter of about 15 mm and are made using a drill or hammer drill. There are also blind holes for socket boxes with a diameter of about 65 mm. To make such a hole, a crown of the appropriate diameter is put on a drill or hammer drill.

Through holes are usually needed in three cases:

• for installing an air conditioner (split system)
  Hole in external wall with a diameter of 40-60 mm is done in order to lay pipes with refrigerant between the external and indoor units air conditioner
• for ventilation equipment
  Any ventilation device (except for window supply valves) requires. The only difference is the number of holes and their size. For example, for a recuperator you will have to drill either two holes with a diameter of 80-90 mm, or one wide one - 225 mm. Supply valves and ventilators are installed on one hole with a diameter of 90-150 mm. One hole of 132 mm is also made under it.
• for laying pipes
  The need to drill holes for water, sewer or gas pipes often occurs during the construction of a private house or cottage.

How to drill through holes? If the wall is thin and the diameter of the hole is small, up to 60-70 mm, then a drill or hammer drill, on which a crown is installed if necessary, will be sufficient. In all other cases, it is preferable to use for drilling. She can make a through hole large diameter in a wall of any thickness. With all this, drilling will be fast and clean.

What holes can be made in an apartment building by law?

There are some legal restrictions on drilling holes in apartment buildings. They mainly concern through holes. Blind holes for fasteners and socket boxes do not threaten the integrity of the structure of a residential building and do not affect appearance facade, so drilling such holes is not regulated in any way.

With through holes it is somewhat more difficult. In this case, the answer to the question “Is it possible to drill a hole in the wall?” will depend on:

• hole diameter,
• structural load of the wall (whether it is load-bearing or not),
• the building has a special status (cultural heritage site, architectural monument).

Let's deal with all the cases in order.

Hole diameter

According to current legislation, permission to drill a through hole is not required if the hole diameter does not exceed 200 mm.

This provision is enshrined in some local legislative acts. Let us refer, for example, to Decree of the Government of St. Petersburg dated January 31, 2017 No. 40 entitled “On approval of the Rules for the improvement of the territory of St. Petersburg in terms of aesthetic regulations of improvement objects and improvement elements.” It says the following: “The placement of air conditioning and ventilation systems without an outdoor unit with air supply through an opening in the wall with a diameter of up to 0.20 m is permitted on all facades without developing a design for an architectural opening.”

If the diameter of the hole you need exceeds 200 mm, then the function of the wall becomes more important. Walls in apartment buildings may or may not be load-bearing.

Load-bearing walls are a kind of spine of the building. The floors rest on them. And the load-bearing walls, in turn, rest directly on the foundation and transfer to it the load from the weight of the floors and from their own weight. Load-bearing walls are responsible for the integrity of the entire structure.

A curtain wall, on the contrary, does not affect the strength of the “skeleton” of the building. Such walls rest on the floors within one floor and do not take on the load of other structural elements.

Often the question “Is it possible to drill a hole?” occurs in relation to the outer wall. Are external walls load-bearing? There is no definite answer: it all depends on the design of the building. For example, in frame panel houses external walls are load-bearing, but in monolithic buildings they are not.

Load-bearing walls are protected by the Housing Code of the Russian Federation. It prohibits any unauthorized actions that could lead to “impairment of strength or destruction load-bearing structures buildings." This prohibition also applies to drilling holes exceeding the permitted diameter of 200 mm. If you require such a hole or want to make it in load-bearing wall opening, arch, niche, then you will have to get permits. Different institutions issue them in different cities. You can start by contacting the architectural department in the local administration or the regional housing inspection.

What about walls that are not load-bearing? Logically, through holes in them do not affect the stability of the building in any way. However, here everything depends on the size of the hole. If it is so large that it borders the opening (generally the size of a door or window), then approval will still be required.

Special status of the building

Requirements for the use of houses that are architectural monuments are enshrined in Federal Law No. 73-FZ of June 25, 2002 “On objects of cultural heritage (historical and cultural monuments) of the peoples of the Russian Federation.”

Owners of living space in a building classified as a cultural heritage site sign a security bond. This document lists all elements of the building that are under state protection. For example, if the façade of a house is one of these elements, then changes in its external appearance may require approval from the authorized bodies. Such a body may be the regional Ministry of Culture or any special institution. For example, in St. Petersburg this is the Committee for State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments.

Good afternoon, gentlemen!

I need your advice. Unlike the majority, I decided to first ask for advice on whether it is possible to break down walls, and then begin this exciting process. =)

Input data:
Apartment in a new building in St. Petersburg. Like, I don’t know, and I don’t even know/don’t understand where to look.
No gas, underground parking available

The house looks like this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21678677/1.jpg
23 floors, I'm on the 18th floor.

Floor plan:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21678677/2.jpg
Apartment - upper right.

Apartment plan:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21678677/3.jpg

What I would like to do:
1. I want to swap the kitchen with room No. 2. I need to transfer communications. To do this, you need to drill the wall between the kitchen and room No. 2 ( purple marked on the plan), for the hood (100mm), sink drain (50mm), cold water and hot water pipes (16mm metal-plastic). This wall is 190mm. Concrete. Where I suppose the holes are, see 2 photos below.

2. In addition, I want to redo the electrics. Replace the shield in the apartment, and extend additional. cables If everything is clear with the rest of the apartment (the partitions are plaster everywhere), then questions arise again with room No. 2 precisely because of the fear of making a 190mm hole in this wall. I bought NYM 2.5mm cables, plastic corrugation for them, I’ll just nail the plastic one to the ceiling fasteners, a corrugation with a cable in it, I will cover everything with a stretch ceiling.
In room No. 2 I want to have:
2.5mm2 cable for sockets.
3x6mm for hob.
3x6mm for oven.
2.5mm for sockets kitchen apron.
2.5mm separately for the refrigerator.

I assume that the holes for the cables are best placed above the door to room 2 (from the hallway along the ceiling of the corridor I’ll just stretch it to the door to room 2, and there I’ll go through a 190mm wall) then I’ll stretch it across the room, again there are two photos below , you can look there.

3. I want to install an air conditioner on the balcony. Yes, yes, right on the balcony. At glassed balcony, when the air conditioner is working, you just need to open the window on the balcony. I want to hang the console itself (the one that hangs in the room and blows cold - I forgot what it’s called) in the upper right corner (on the plan) of room No. 2. Accordingly, for this it is necessary to make holes in the outer wall, and the wall between the kitchen and room No. 2, for all sorts of pipes and wires. These places are marked with red dots on the plan.

Having mastered 100 pages of this thread (I couldn’t do any more), I came to the following conclusion: horizontal grooves are prohibited, only vertical ones are allowed. The builders received an apartment with plaster - vertical grooves are easier to make - this is already a plus. For the grooves, I will call a team equipped with a wall chaser and a vacuum cleaner =). When I redo the electrical system, I’ll run all the wires along the ceiling, and then I’ll hit it there too. suspended ceilings. For through holes in the wall, I will call diamond drilling experts.

Photos:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21678677/4.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21678677/5.jpg

Accordingly, the questions that are tormenting us at the moment (point by point):

1. Is it even possible to drill into the wall between the kitchen and room No. 2? Is she load-bearing? And with so many holes?
1.1 If you can make holes in it, what is the best way to do it? For the hood, I plan to make a 100mm hole, insert a sleeve into it, and an 80mm exhaust gas duct into the sleeve (the gas duct itself is wider, I just want to make it narrower when passing the wall, just in case). For hot water supply, hot water supply, and sink drain, you can make one 80mm hole, insert an iron sleeve into the hole, and push two hot water supply and hot water pipes into the sleeve and sink drain. Or is it better to make different holes for each pipe?
1.2 What is the best way to position these holes? Strictly next to each other? To the left or to the right relative to each other?
1.3 At what distances from the ceiling is it permissible to make a hole for the hood? From the doorway?
1.4 At what height is it permissible to make a hole for hot water supply, hot water supply, or sink drain? From the doorway?
2. What is the best way to make holes for cables? Is it possible to make many holes horizontally above the door? Or one big one? Or a pair of medium ones but vertically? What is the best way to do it?
3. What is the best way to make a hole in an external wall for an air conditioner? How to properly make a hole for an air conditioner in the wall between the kitchen and room No. 2
4. If you call specially trained people to examine the possibility of making these holes, how much might it cost? At least roughly? Can anyone recommend someone in St. Petersburg? I don’t want to get involved with anyone, otherwise they’ll take money, and I’m so fucking unsure of their qualifications. I'm not sure even about large companies. And it’s not so scary if the money disappears; woefully, the experts will give the wrong conclusion. Does it make sense to legalize these openings, as well as moving the kitchen to room No. 2?

I apologize for a lot of information, I wanted to highlight the problem as clearly as possible for you (specialists) in order to get a more correct answer. Let me remind you that I haven't done anything yet. I want to find out first, then build...

In advance Thanks a lot. You will help me a lot.

Sooner or later, most people living in houses with concrete walls need to hang a cabinet, lamp, shelf or picture. At this point, the pressing question arises of how to drill concrete wall. It's no secret that everyone home handyman I have encountered this problem at least once in my life, but not everyone knows how to solve it. Many bravely torture the drill and own strength, but not achieving the required result, they give up everything until the next attempt to make a hole in the wall. But the drill eventually breaks, and the shelves remain standing somewhere in the corner of the room or collecting dust in the pantry. But there are still options - you just need to know them and be able to use them.

Concrete structures are quite strong and difficult to drill. In addition, quite often drills come across crushed stone included in the composition. concrete mixture, from which wall and ceiling slabs are formed.

Holes in concrete have to be made quite often, especially during the process:

• finishing works;
• furniture installation;
• air conditioner suspensions;
• additional electrical wiring device;
• installation of plumbing.

There are two ways to solve the problem of holes in a concrete wall:

• an impact drill, or better yet a hammer drill, with a Pobedit drill bit;
• diamond drilling.

It is worth noting that ordinary drills It will not be possible to make a hole in a concrete wall, so before starting work you need to purchase drills with specially soldered plates made of high-strength pobedite alloy, which do an excellent job with concrete and brick. But for soft materials It is not recommended to use them, since pobedit drills do not cut them, but crumble them.

What will help the home handyman?

IN living conditions, when you need to make 2-3 holes in concrete, you can get by a regular drill, without shock function. To do this, it is necessary, as the Pobedit drill is immersed into the body of the wall, to break the concrete from time to time with a strong metal pin (punch) matching in size to the diameter of the hole. It is used when the drill begins to “stick” in the wall. At this moment, a steel punch is inserted into the hole and they begin to hit it with a hammer or sledgehammer, trying to crush areas that are too dense and punch the hole deeper. In this case, the pin is turned a little. Then the hammerless drill can start working again.

All the above steps are repeated one after another until the hole increases to the required depth. This method is quite labor-intensive and tedious, but quite acceptable for a couple of holes.

Alternatively, when drilling a hole in concrete, you can use universal diamond-coated drills. They are highly effective when working with metal, crushed stone and concrete. They can only be installed on a conventional electric drill, or on a tool with the vibration function disabled.

You need to work with the drill extremely carefully, otherwise it will fail too quickly. The advice that professionals give is that to avoid overheating of the drill, it should be moistened with cold water from time to time.

How to choose a tool?

For a larger volume of work, you need a hammer drill or drill with an impact function and drills with pobedite tips. Impact drill combines rotational with reciprocating motion, which helps it cope perfectly with lightweight concrete, and to the question of how to drill through a concrete wall, which is a load-bearing wall, there is a simple answer - the best assistant will be a hammer drill, the main purpose of which is to punch through concrete fences. There is one more difference:

• an impact drill is designed to drill holes no more than 12 mm in diameter;
• The hammer drill is capable of drilling large holes.

Reinforcement found in the body of a concrete wall should be drilled using metal drills.

What do you use to drill large holes?

Professionals who are constantly faced with the problem of drilling holes in concrete use special equipment, which includes:

• powerful electric motor;
• drilling drive;
• diamond core drills of different diameters;
• a guide post fixed to the base.

Diamond drilling allows you to make holes of large diameter - up to 40 cm. The process occurs quite quickly, efficiently, without unnecessary dust and noise. Water is automatically supplied to the drilling site, which simultaneously cools the diamond bit and washes away dust.

When diamond drilling, the holes are accurate in shape and clear in outline, with a polished inner surface. They can be made in various enclosing structures at any angle to the horizon, and the possibility of cracks or chips in the concrete is completely excluded. Destruction occurs only at the location of the future hole.

Diamond drilling is carried out by specialized companies, so if necessary, you can invite specialists with their own equipment to drill holes in concrete of large diameters. And you don’t have to buy a diamond drilling machine specifically for this.