Drilling thick old wall.

[chunkolini]

I have thick old walls circa 600mm.
Made of all sorts of stuff, some the drill just bounces off, some it ploughs through. makes life a right pain.
I want to fit an outside tap onto my kitchen wall.
I have a big SDS+drill from screwfix that has done 13mm holes through the same wall.
What is the best thing to go on the the business end?
The Other Half does the plumbing and says the pipe must be insulated all the way through the wall which makes some sense to me. Any thoughts on insulation and hole size?
Pipe is standard water pipe circa 20mm?

 

[Martinb]

About 50mm you'll need a core drill for that.

 

[brightspark]

dont bother insulating it in wall just have an isolator valve inside to shut off in winter a 20mm sds masonary drill will be ok the pipes only 15mm. mines never frozen before

 

[Barking Mat]

As @brightspark said.

Borrow / hire a Hilti job done.

 

[Kayos]

20mm 600mm long sds from screwfix and mash it through, ive fitted hundreds of outside taps and never insulated one.

Those candlestick type fittings make a neat job

 

[Hitch]

20mm SDS bit, Bosch ones are good... but for a one hole wonder, a cheapy should do fine.

Assume you're using 15mm copper pipe?

Is a 600 bit long enough to go right through? 1000mm are available...

If you have a long 13, you could go through with that, then approach from both sides wth a larger but shorter bit.... (this sometimes wanders and the pipe is hard going to get through.)

I probably dont need to suggest wedging a bit of board against the wall in the exit hole area to prevent masonry blowing out...

 

[mechman]

When I was involved in that sort of thing you had to have a sleeve over the live pipe that was going through a wall.

 

[Parm]

When I was involved in that sort of thing you had to have a sleeve over the live pipe that was going through a wall.

That’s for steel gas pipe I believe. Never seen it on water pipe

 

[brightspark]

That’s for steel gas pipe I believe. Never seen it on water pipe

and copper gas pipe sealed at both sides in case of a gas leak that could potentially go in to the cavity and we know the rest

 

[mechman]

We had to do it on any pipe work, steel copper etc, that's what the company wanted. Don't know what the spec was so I suppose they were covering their asres.

 

[Kayos]

and copper gas pipe sealed at both sides in case of a gas leak that could potentially go in to the cavity and we know the rest

Sealed one end, ideally inside, so if it leaks the gas will go to outside

 

[qwakers]

concrete corrodes copper, stick a bit of mdpe over it where it goes through the wall.....

the gas company moved the gas meter in my parents place outside and didn't sleeve the pipe. 6 years later it pin holed.

my parents are lucky to be alive....

 

[brightspark]

i use gaffer tape over copper water pipe if it buried down a wall or in concrete

 

[qwakers]

ive done that too.

 

[Parm]

concrete corrodes copper, stick a bit of mdpe over it where it goes through the wall.....

the gas company moved the gas meter in my parents place outside and didn't sleeve the pipe. 6 years later it pin holed.

my parents are lucky to be alive....

They of all people should know of this. How did the job get signed off?

 

[brightspark]

They of all people should know of this. How did the job get signed off?

by the gas safe engineer who give the cert for there own work same as some of the pat p merchants

 

[bigegg]

nobody mentioned it, so I thought I would:
Make sure the hole slopes downwards from inside to outside (ie, outside lower) so water doesn't find its way in.

 

[brightspark]

nobody mentioned it, so I thought I would:
Make sure the hole slopes downwards from inside to outside (ie, outside lower) so water doesn't find its way in.

then the taps cockeyed on its plate outside

 

[Seadog]

As mentioned, have a service valve inside, but make sure that it is above the outgoing pipe. During winter close it off and open the outer tap to drain residual water. I believe that the pipe should be sleeved.

 

[gaz1]

by the gas safe engineer who give the cert for there own work same as some of the pat p merchants

the forced outside gas meter is a joke

the meter box is falling off the wall as goes for the copper pipe, well thats been left to the elements by the gas company