Drilling hard brick work

winchman · 2026-02-04T13:21:34+0000

My new garage is brick but I am struggling to drill even a 6mm hole?
Any top tops or recommended bits?

Pete. · 2026-02-04T13:26:05+0000

The only thing that usually bothers drilling in brick is using too light a drill at too fast a speed and even then it's unusual.

What bricks are they? Semi engineering? Full engineering? Staffordshire blue?

Are you sure it's not brick slips dressing a concrete precast lintel?

winchman · 2026-02-04T13:28:44+0000

The just look like standard bricks
I had to drill a 32mm hole for a diesel heater exhaust, it took a carbide insert cutter that managed 1/4". A diamond cutter did about 3/4" then fell apart, I chain drilled and chiseled it.
Just need to hang some stuff on the wall

Dapph2 · 2026-02-04T13:50:44+0000

Try an SDS heavy duty hammer on a slower speed on hammer with a new quality drill bit and take it in short bursts of pressure to get a pilot hole . Same with the bigger drill
If you don't have a heavy duty SDS hammer drill see if you can hire one for half a day but that will likely entail hiring a transformer as well these days for they tend to be 110v

Seadog · 2026-02-04T13:53:08+0000

winchman said:
The just look like standard bricks
I had to drill a 32mm hole for a diesel heater exhaust, it took a carbide insert cutter that managed 1/4". A diamond cutter did about 3/4" then fell apart, I chain drilled and chiseled it.
Just need to hang some stuff on the wall

You weren't using the drill in hammer mode, were you?
A definite no-no when boring.

fizzy · 2026-02-04T13:53:27+0000

SDS drill and bit is the only way to go. Makes a hard job simple.

gaz1 · 2026-02-04T14:03:03+0000

if its anything like the birkby bricks chain drill it which means use trigger pull but keep the speed down

i had the same issue drilling aberdeen stone had to chain drill it keeping the bit cool which takes alot of time to drill one hole

zzr1200 · 2026-02-04T14:21:40+0000

You need an SDS drill, for a 32 mm hole, possibly a 8/10 mm pilot, would be my advice to start with.....

If your trying to use a hammer drill, throw it in the corner, they're a waste of space on large/tough hole drilling.

Even cheap ones are better than the best hammer drills.

fizzy · 2026-02-04T14:46:09+0000

gaz1 said:
if its anything like the birkby bricks chain drill it which means use trigger pull but keep the speed down

i had the same issue drilling aberdeen stone had to chain drill it keeping the bit cool which takes alot of time to drill one hole

View attachment 528874

A drill? Was that before you used the explosives - BOOM

Smallfry · 2026-02-04T15:03:16+0000

What drill are you using ? If its a percussion drill then no chance, you need an SDS drill

Best bits I find are Dewalt Extreme 2

winchman · 2026-02-04T15:08:59+0000

The 32mm was done with out hammer
I just have the 6mm holes to do

JOEPRO · 2026-02-04T15:13:40+0000

You need a decent sized SDS drill

Stuartg1 · 2026-02-04T15:42:26+0000

Sds, although Im not a fan on small holes as they tend to get bigger...
Or decent masonry bits... cordless specific heller is what I use although not sure they're available anymore...
If your not in a hurry I could bring the sds/hammer drill and sort them

500e · 2026-02-04T15:50:12+0000

British rail used a brick that was harder than anything known to man. we had to put up aerials on some stations and it was a labor of love,
Slow it was like watching paint dry, quality bits Bosch drills nothing phased them lost money on that job.
Never found a brick like them anywhere else

fizzy · 2026-02-04T16:13:43+0000

500e said:
British rail used a brick that was harder than anything known to man. we had to put up aerials on some stations and it was a labor of love,
Slow it was like watching paint dry, quality bits Bosch drills nothing phased them lost money on that job.
Never found a brick like them anywhere else

Bricks are awesome. Even a severe fire in a warehouse stuffed full of cars and the warehouse attached to it next door was fine!
Been plenty of severe railway tunnel fires - the bricks survived no problem.

Pigeon_Droppings2 · 2026-02-04T16:17:16+0000

For small stuff I quite like the Bosch multi material drills (blue drills). On a 6mm hole I wouldn't be using hammer....and as above don't overheat the drill bits.

Pete. · 2026-02-04T16:43:01+0000

You can hammer drill a SDS 32mm bit no problem if you drill it first with a 16mm Drill. If you're trying to do it without percussion then that is your problem. I mean you could do it easily in London Stocks but they are as soft as cheese.

Kayos · 2026-02-04T17:05:06+0000

Lots of hard fired bricks across the north, decent SDS hits them no problem

Coring is another matter, some can be easy, some can be an 8 hour mission while you question all your life choices

indykid · 2026-02-04T17:21:02+0000

Smallfry said:
Best bits I find are Dewalt Extreme 2

+1. Our house is all engineering brick but I've drilled plenty of holes with a 5.5mm dewalt extreme masonry bit in a dewalt 796 combi drill (only for context, I'm not a dewalt fanboi, it's just what I have). Once the pilot hole is in, you can open up for whatever size plug with a lesser drill bit. I recently had to drill prestressed concrete lintels too and while it struggled on some of the aggregate, it managed it.

When we first moved in, we fully rewired and I got through 2 bosch blue masonry bits putting socket backboxes in before I tried the dewalt offering and I've been using that one bit since (13 years now).

I find SDS drills can be a bit too aggressive and can turn a nice hole into a decimated brick, so would always prefer the above combo as an opening gambit.

fizzy · 2026-02-04T17:28:50+0000

My favourite story of just how good Victorian bricks were.

VERY interesting reading. Also a good reminder of how different people were in 1984. Fighting petrol tankers on fire in a tunnel