The short answer is No. Stand beside it.

How to safety stand on your core drill rig.

This is a updated post from one of our older websites in Charlotte, NC.

(Disclaimer ) These following methods are definely non standard, and possibility dangerous to attempt or implement at any level of experience. When core drilling any slab, sidewalk or floor if possible always use built in safety measures as stated in the manual that accompanied the rig and drill motor when purchsed or rented. Use this advice only if you are an experienced core drill operator, and then only at your own risk.

What if I can not use a traditional way to anchor or vaccum base my core drill rig and base plaste to the concrete?

If you are a core drill operator for very long you are going to find out that every job, though simular in alot of cases, is different in many others. Sometimes in a days work you may be asked not to attach a concrete anchor into the floor or get vaccum on the floor to suck the core drill base to the floor for various raseons. We have found that more often than not our task that day will include areas we have to free style drill the core drill hole. It is always best to have a plan and a well layed out method for doing free style drilling and the picture above best demostrates the way to accomplish this. Never actually stand on your core drill rigs base when drilling. Always prepare to have a finger on the power switch to immediately cut the power off. It does not take but a second for the rig to suddenly spin faster than you can react. In a perfect world the vacuum base attached to the core drill rig would suck the core drill down tight every where you needed to core drill a concrete hole. But it don't and won't in every situation. If the concrete is smooth and revetively flat the vacuum base will suck down to the concrete surface and hold the drill perfectly still and rigid while you drill the hole. But often this is not the case. Some simple and usually easy items to find to fix this problem may be mud. Mud can be used to pack around the bottom of the core drill base where the rubber gasket could be losing vacuum. This trick works good where line breaks are in the concrete.Otherwise you may be in an area trying to core drill where the vacuum base just won't work.If this is the case you can remove the vacuum base altogether and use a 4 to 5 inch concrete wedge anchor, or even a 1/4 inch x 4 inch masonary screw, to hold the core drill rig in place while you core drill. Tools for this task would be a hammer drill, hammer, wedge anchor and socket set or crescent wrench to tighten the anchor down. If you are planning to remove the wedge anchor after you have drilled a grinder may be needed too. This method works great where you can not get vacuum to the concrete.But wait. What if you can't get vacuum and can for some reason use a wedge anchor to fasten the core drill down? Well...Stand on it. Or better yet, NEXT to it. This is probably breaking the #1 rule that is posted on each core drill when sold new and definably in the core drilling manual. But at time it is the only thing that will really work. Of course when even breaking the rules there are some basic's you should pay attention to. Especially if you are core drilling on a balcony or dangerous place.

Some simple rules to follow.

• A ) Always stand to the left of the drill. The Core drill motor spins the core drill bit clockwise. If the core drill bit gets hung up for some reason the core drill rig will always spin to your right side.
• B ) Position the power cord tight to the left under your boot so that if the core drill does spin the power will disconnect itself and stop the drill from turning. For this reason don't use locking electrical plugs ONLY. If you are able use electrical adapters that will let the power cord totally disconnect from the core drill power box or motor if the drill starts to spin away from your very stout left foot on the power cord.
• C ) Do Not apply too much pressure while free styling it and let the base of the rig rise up in front. Easy does it.
• D ) Do not try this with core drill motors that are rated over 15 amps. Well I had to say it anyhow. 15 amp motors are usually for drilling 3 inch and smaller holes in concrete. 20 amp motors for 3 inch and above. So it is harder to stop a 20 amp machine that can bore a 12 inch hole becasue of the additional horsepower needed to turn the weight of the bit.
• E ) Do not ever actually stand on your core drill rig, stand beside it.

Core drill operators in Greensboro North Carolina

Part of the Carolina Precision Core Drilling family of core drilling companies located in the heart of the Tarheel state. Three service trucks to cover towns between the Virginia state line to the South Carolina border. We have cored many types of penetrations in all styles of buildings, slabs and walls.

Call 704-245-0119

From core barrel sizes of on-half inch to 14-inches in diameter, and as deep as 36 inches most cases. Recently we have drilled at the new Guildford county Childrens musuem, the federal court house and the Comfort Suites on Spingfield st.

Core drilling services for southern Virginia

Reasonable prices concrete core drilling for South Hill, Lake Gaston and of course Petersburg, Virginia.

Professional Core drillers with 35 years experience core drilling reinforced concrete walls and floors.

Specializing in boring holes in reinforced block walls, solid concrete walls, foundations, concrete sidewalks and, concrete floors from diameters of 1 to 14 inches with depths of up to 36 inches. Many projects are for commercial services where a penetration or opening is needed to pass through a water pipe, electrical conduit or wires, HVAC air ducts as examples.

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Professional core drilling company. Charlotte. NC

You haven't found another site that just wants to list an array of useless information about core drilling in Charlotte NC to get website visitors. You want a core drilling company that can core drill holes in reinforced concrete walls and floors for any type of hole you need core drilled.

We are the core drilling company that your looking for!

We specialize exclusively in core drilling reinforced concrete walls and floors in Charlotte, NC. We offer core drilling sizes from 1-inch to 14-inches in hole diameter and depths from 6-inches to 36-inches in depth or thickness. We service the areas of central North Carolina. Including the grand Queen City of Charlotte.

New artwork at 631 Cross Trail Dr. Greenway.

Today we got to do some crossover work and show our creative side as we core drilled some 5-inch holes in concrete so that a new flamboyant and stylish swing that has been installed at 631 Jackson St. in Charlotte, NC. Not that we are not already artists in our own right. This particular project made us proud to be able to work with different people who take the time to appreciate the crafter side of life in their work.

This has become one of our most popular photos.

It was pleasure to core drill this project. The passingbyers has plenty of good cheer to spread with the wonderful park addition to their local nature trail near downtown Charlotte, NC.

Speed is the key to completing a large core drilling project.

keeping

the core drill bit sharp and cutting at top efficiency is an enormous responsibility of any core drill operator who has the goal of cutting as many holes in a workday as possible when the opportunity presents itself. One of the things about core drilling holes in concrete for a living is that usually, you are not on any 1 job site for very long. A well-outfitted core drilling truck and crew can accomplish miracles for contractors in getting work done quickly if there are 40 holes to be done or less. So when the chance comes along to act like regular workers, by which I mean to the work at the same place, use the same tools and park in the same spot for more than a week then it is a special time indeed. I like to test our mettle and see at what extremes we can get a job, no matter the size, completed. So when a core drilling job came over the wire with over 500 two-inch holes in a concrete floor to be done. I had to jump on it.

Time spent between holes is cruicial

the average time to core drill a 2-inch hole into a reinforced concrete floor can vary depending on the material that is being core drilled, of course, the depth, mounting, and other considerations while putting holes in a concrete floor. Our average time on this job was 97 seconds between the start of one core drill hole and the next. That of course 2 core drilling machines running at top speed and moving as fast as one can while safely performing the work. But alas we only kept up this pace for a short period as there were other considerations such as limited power and water supply. Can every core drilling company core drill this fast. Most likely if they wanted to, they could. well maybe, or maybe not. But we can. But in truth that is showing off. Something we like to call job site performance.

Every job site is different in construction. One of many things we need to operate the machines is water. Water cools the core drill bit and produces slurry, which is a byproduct of the core drilling process. Sometimes there is water on the site, while more often than not water can not be found for more than 500 yards away from where we need it. This was the case on this job so to solve the problem we bought a 275-gallon water tank (fig-b) from a local water tank dealer ( yes, there is such a thing. thank goodness he lives nearby), that had the unique feature of being able to be forklifted to and fro to where it was needed on the job site to provide water for the core drilling. Adding a three-quarter house power water pump and two 100 foot lengths of water hoses and we had water for both machines to operate.

Extracting anchors byway of core drilling

So why was this work being done? Why core drill over 500 holes into a concrete floor. To extract half-inch by 5-inch long concrete sleeve anchors that had used to hold an older style packaging rack system in place for a shipping company near Kannapolis, NC. The racks were being replaced with a new robotic automatic racking system that would speed up the production of getting products out to the trucks that are delivering products to the stores and our happy homes. After the holes were drilled each day we refilled them with anchoring cement like we use to mud-in handrails on our railing projects. Essentially we were taking out the bolts and filling the hole back in. Speaking of being in the Army. Just one of the many ways core drilling is used to accomplish objectives in this world that you might not have thought of. So is the life of a core drill operator.

December 2021 Core drilling projects in North Carolina

Core drilling through concrete walls and floors

It seems to be a windy fall this last half of November into December of this miserable year. Pandemics, scam-a-demics, terror-a-demics, they are all amuck as Christmas rolls upon us this blessed year.

Luckily we are too busy core drilling to take part in any of that as two jobs this early winter has us coring 6-inch holes for dryer vents into some places that dryer vents don't normally go.

In fig-1, and fig-3 is shown the holes after they were cored both from the top and from the side to effectively make a ninety-degree corner that a plumber could fit some 3-inch PVC pipes into so that he could make an exhaust for a dryer vent. Unlike most dryer exhausts these were made to go out of the building through the foundation. As you can see there was quite a bit of water that was used to cool the core drill bit as it cut the concrete. These types of core drilling jobs are not like what you find during a course at your local tech school of construction. These foundation walls were uneven, low to the ground and already filled with water when we arrived. But we had been in tough situations before and with a few wooden wedges, a level, and some clever hammer drilling to anchor the core drill rig to the wall we soon had the holes drilled.

Coring concrete foundations

fig-2 is a picture of a small job on Fairview Rd, Charlotte, NC, right before you cross Park Rd when going past the South Park Mall on Sharon Rd. This is another 6-inch core drill hole for where another plumber needed to make a connection from the new home being built to the city's main sewer lines. As you can see it is full of water like a lot of foundation core drilling is. Again we did not have time to take a picture until after we had finished the job but we got one nonetheless. Fig-4 is a look at our new core drilling Ford f-350, magnum V-8 work truck that we have outfitted especially to take care of the toughest core drilling projects in North Carolina. Over 9000 starting watts, 50 gallons of water, 50 core drill bits, 3 core drill motors, and 3 rigs and core drilling stands, this truck is packed to hunt the bear of concrete walls or floors. Quickly accomplishing any core drilling need a customer may have. Retractable water hoses and electric reels make setup and teardown a breeze with any task that is within 100 ln. ft of this beast. With the ability to pump water as high as 40 ft vertically and 180 ft on grade. But back to our subject most core drilling for dryer vents is a minimum of 4 and a half inches to let a 4-inch piece metal dryer vent pass through a wall with just enough room left to apply water sealant around the outside to set it in place. It was because the plumber needed to have the pipe turn at a sharp 90 that the holes were drilled at 6-inches. This allowed two 3-inch pieces of PVC pipe to be joined with a 90-degree elbow inside the hole where the horizontal and the vertical cores met. A technic used by many commercial trades to make junctions inside walls and floors to make pipe go a different way when obstacles appear.

making 4-inch holes in concrete for restaurants

Ever wonder how the tables and chairs that look like they are planted in the concrete or tile found at many restaurants get to appear that way? Core drilling is many times a preferred method for installing such things. At some point, a designer or owner decided on a plan to make the business, or in some cases, even homes, have embedded tables and chairs as a way of seating for the dining or entertainment area. This is even more popular with swimming pools and swim-up bars and tiki's that some like to have.

Here in North Carolina we have core drilled holes for restaurants tables and chairs for years. A recent trend we would like to note is the before the great pandemic most of these types of core drilling projects took place indoors, usually through commercial-grade floor tile or carpet, down into the concrete sub-floor below. Now coming to the second winter of the pandemic most of these types of projects are taking place outdoors. We assume to limit the number of people inside the building.

Pretty blue core holes

the pictures are from two different jobs near the Raleigh area, one in Cary the other in Apex, NC. The second picture, though a bit sun bright, shows the concrete pad where the coring took place. The BlueFlag color blue dots are the core drill holes before we took a 3-pound hammer and a chisel and popped the cores so they would break and come out the holes. As you can see the pattern right now doe not make much sense. But once the table is installed and the chairs are put in place then it all comes together to make the dining areas that we have gotten used to in these modern ages. Years ago our providing contractor had asked that we core all the way through the subfloor and hit the dirt below, or in most cases in North Carolina, clay or sand. Recently the requests are to stop just short of busting through to the bottom so that it makes pouring the liquid pourable anchoring cement into the holes not seep out through the bottom into the mud and make pouring the dining furniture a long endeavor. Of course, this is an ole handrail installer's trick to save on wasting anchoring cement into porous holes,..yea we suggested it.

Commericial Restaurants often use core drilling.

Of the number of projects we do that Commercial restaurants make up about 10 percent of the work we perform each year. Other types of uses that a restauranteur might find a need for a core drilled hole are floor drains, electrical floor boxes, barriers, and bollards.

What type of concrete anchor to use?

Every once in a while on a construction site here in North Carolina we come across some other persons that also operator core drilling machinery and like all people, we are nosey so we stick around to catch a glimpse of how other core drillers use various core drilling anchoring methods and how they differ from our own when performing the same type of work. We have witnessed just about every type of machine that will run a wet or dry core drill bit to our amazement. this includes the standard stand up rig, wall-mounted rigs, stair mounted rigs, directional rigs that core at almost any angle, and the handy but efficient 4 1/2" grinder that a fellow was using one day that I swore could almost knock out 3-inch core drill holes in a 3rd story concrete floor as fast as we could with a stand-up rig.

Without trying to argue with anyone we would ask why they used drop-in anchors instead of wedge anchors when mounting the base of the coring unit to the wall or floor. The most common reply was because that was what was supplied by the contracting company that employed them. Having met over 300 people in our line of work we don't mind sharing what we believe to be the best and safest way to make a small or large hole in the concrete.

Wedge anchor vs Drop-in anchor

In our opinion the pros of using wedge anchors over drop-in anchors is obvious. A 7-inch by 1/2 inch wedge anchor as pictured is driven into the concrete at least 4-inches. A drop-in anchor, which is not pictured because the boss man does not allow them in the shop or work truck, by comparison, is driven into the concrete by less than 1 1/2" and sometimes less. With a wedge anchor even if the hole to be penetrated is more than head high on a wall and you have to use a ladder, you can still manage to hang the base onto the anchor and then secure the mounting screw and tighten down the rig in place onto the wall. With a drop-in, well your guess is as good as ours. Our advice is to use caution and common sense with any concrete anchoring system that is holding your 140 pounds plus rig to a spot high on any concrete wall.

Tapcons. masonry screws, sleeve anchors

These three types are the other most common concrete anchors that our company uses.

Tapcons or masonry screws utilized correctly can be a great way to hold down your rig while drilling floors, tops of retaining walls, and other vertical holes. Which is a ten-dollar way of saying floors or downward drilling. Great for holding things down, but not up, so Never used masonry screw to attach a rig to a wall.

Sleeve anchors are made to hold things in not-so-solid walls such as cement block and brick. Though a single wedge anchor might do the trick when coring a solid concrete wall, it is our advice that when coring a brick or block wall to use more than one sleeve anchor to hold the weight of the rig, motor and bit along with the additional weight of the water hose and electrical setup for the control panel. If possible use a larger 4 to 6 inch by 1/2 inch size anchor in the middle slot and a smaller 3-inch by 3/8 inch or, maybe 1/2 inch by 4-inch if you are able to do so where the leveling hole bolts are typically found.

Vacuum pumps and Roof jacks

Most modern core drilling rigs come with a funny-looking screw top on the tip of the mast that can be confusing. It usually has a metal point to it and you may wonder what on earth it is for. It is for using a 4 x 4 piece of lumber to act as a clamp between solid concrete floors on multi-story buildings. You place the core drill where the hole needs to go, measure just a bit short of how tall the concrete ceiling above is, cut your 4 x 4 lumber and stick it on top of the point part of the jack and begin screw clockwise to tighten the core drill rig down to the floor you are standing on.

Vacuum pumps use rubber seals around the base and a vacuum module that suck the rig down to the concrete and probably the most common method of anchoring a core drill rig to most concrete floors.

Core drilling for new infrastructure

Recently the number of core drill holes we have been drilling has been for upgrading of 5g fiber service for individual buildings. There is not much difference in the holes for any other type of utility service except because the data lines that are being installed themselves are usually small, meaning that typical 3-inch penetration will accommodate more than an entire buildings' worth of data lines.

Updating the Fayetteville NC Veterans hospital

While we provide professional core drilling services Fayetteville NC. When we are able to be part of something as important as helping armed force veterans we are proud to be of service. The VA hospital on Ramsey St. in Fayetteville is a particular older building. Made of brick and mortar on the outside facade. The interior floors where we core drilled happens to consist of precast concrete planks that are barely 4 inches thick. You can imagine that it did not take long to drill each hole. The real challenge was the difficulty of keeping dust and water under control so as not to contaminate the air filtration system that is so important to patients with respiratory ailments. Of course, we have had plenty of practice at not making a mess while we are performing our task of boring perfectly round holes into precast floors. But still, it's not what you have done before but what you are doing now that dictates the moment.

This not the first hospital we have core drilled. Having already performed the same type of service for the Concord, Salisbury, and some of the Charlotte area hospitals we were familiar with the protocol. In this time of world pandemic, we naturally had to be masked, but more than that we had to be perfect and not drop even a drop of water or rock down onto the room below which in many cases were occupied by patients of the facility.

Not a rock dropped.

The natural way of things is that when core drilling concrete on a second story floor that the rock drops to the floor below. Luckily we have several methods of catching the rock in case gravity does win out over our countermeasures.

These are the simplest and most common methods used to catch rocks when core drilling.

Core drilling the Cumberland county landfill

Additional Core drilling projects we have recently done in Fayetteville this year is coring twelve-inch holes in water drain basins at the Cumberland county landfill for new sewer and wastewater runoff at the landfill. The Fayetteville landfill is located on Ann St, Fayetteville, NC.

Coring drilling on Bragg Blvd, Fayetteville, NC

Another recent project is 4-inch core drill holes for homeowners right off of Bragg Blvd. The local plumber was remodeling a bathroom and need core drill holes size 4-inch for new shower drains.

Core drilling the Durham VA hospital

turns out a few months later we core drilled some 3-inch holes in the foundation of the Durham Veterans Administration Hospital in Durham, North Carolina. These particular penetrations were for new natural gas piping to be installed into the hospital. Often we are called upon to perform core drilling for the utility companies such as the local power company, internet providers that are running new data cabling to the hubs that power the internet. This, of course, is now September 2021, and when on hospital grounds these days you must practice social distancing to be safe, so everyone on our crew masked up and drilled safely.

The core drilling job in South Carolina.

Recently we were called to do a core drilling job in Bennettsville, South Carolina for a local artificial turf contractor that has been a customer of ours for more than 8 years. The order for core drill holes was as this. The Customer needs 3 10-inch holes for an eight-inch schedule forty PVC drainage pipe. He also needs 1 fourteen inch hole for a 12-inch drainage pipe. Both of these sizes of pipe would be depositing their waste load into some brick drainage water basins that had been installed in the Marlboro High School football field since it was built back in the latter part of the 20th century.

It turns out that after arrival and some inspection that the brick water basins were too decrypted to attach our trusty rig to the side of the basin with any type of concrete or masonry anchors that would hold it on the basin wall while the drilling was being done.

The decision to chip the hole out with a hammer drill.

Not all core drill operators core drill all-day, or everyday on any given job. Many times the hole that is needed is located in less than desirable core drilling places and not always can one accomplish the mission at hand with by core drilling. Sometimes you have to get your hammer drill out and do some chipping. Especially if the brick that you are about to try to penetrate is old, terribly falling apart, or high on the wall and tough to reach with a core drilling rig just won't go.

So how do you go about hammer drilling a hole in a brick structure?

List of tools you may need

1. Rotary SDS style hammer drill that hammer drilling and chips
2. A good SDS 1/2 inch or smaller diameter hammer drill bit.
3. A good heavy duty hammer
4. A steel-concrete chisel
5. Maybe a tape measure
6. brush, Rag or shop vac for the dust
7. A pair of good gloves that can take digging in brick

You start by making a pattern

of the size of opening that you want to make in the brick structure. Any type of pattern is acceptable but if you have to fill in around the material that is going to be inserted into the hole then you might not want to make it larger than is needed.

Then take your SDS masonry drill bit and drill around the pattern you make every 1/2" to 1". Drill the holes all the way through and as straight as you can so that your hole will be better formed and it won't look like this is the first hole that you have chipped out of a brick wall.

Make as many holes as you can where the holes in needed. Larger holes and patterns call for more holes to be drilled so the brick will chip or knock out more easily.

Once you are happy with how many holes that you have drilled into the brick then switch your hammer drill to chipping mode and start chipping. On occasion, you may have to take your heavy hammer and give the spot a few good whacks to loosen up the brick so it will fall out more readily. When chipping out brick it it never going to be the prettiest hole in the world so if the hole is to covered up then don't worry about it.

Do I need to use a core drill or hammer drill?

How to install a pipe through a block wall? Contractors, tradesmen, and homeowners have used many methods to run pipe through concrete block walls since building with precast cement products began back in the early 1900s. This according to Ball State University and a thesis paper I found online on their site about the history of the cement block. Sometimes, but not always, to get the best results required one may be required to core drill.

But if the cost is a consideration, or the hole is in a place that can not be seen such as above ceiling level or below grade, and if indeed the cement block wall is hollow you may consider other methods.

Hammer drilling

One such method for holes 5-inches in size and under is to take a hammer drill with a masonry bit drill and make an outline of the size hole you are trying to make where you think the hollow cell of the block is located and drill small holes all the way around the outline as close as you can make them while at the same time making sure to drill straight and level all the way through the wall. We call this perforating the wall. When the outline drilling is completed you should be able to take a hammer and knock out the center, leaving a hole to pass your pipe through. Do not be disappointed if it does not come out perfect, or if a bit of chipping or tapping with the hammer is needed to knock out all the debris.

Almost Core Drilling

Another method that is similar to dry core drilling is to use one of the newly carbide-tipped hole saws that have come out on the market at the beginning of 2019. Often in sizes of 1" to 6" at your local Lowes, Home Depot, or hardware store. With these type bits your don't hammer drill but use the drilling mode of your drill and cut relatively quick through a hollow block wall

Core Drilling

But if cement block is reinforced with 5000 psi. concrete and filled with rebar, and you need a professional-looking hole then core drilling may be the answer. Core drilling bits are engineered with embedded diamonds that allow the bit to cut both metal and concrete. Core drill rigs and motors and all the accessories that are needed to go with them are expensive tools and not something that the average person will want to invest in, but they can be rented from many places.

Setting up a core drill is where the magic happens. Most core drills are heavy and must be anchored to the wall being drilled. If the wall you are drilling is poured and reinforced with rebar you can use wedge anchors to mount the rig. If the wall is hollow then the best anchors to use are sleeve anchors, and do not be afraid to use more than one, a core drill rig coming off the wall while you are drilling is not something anyone wants to have happened. You will also need water and a way to pump and connect to the water inlet to keep the diamond-tipped core bit cool during the core drilling process. When finally set up. Start the drill. Do not force the core drill; just apply steady downward pressure on the feed handle, letting the bit do the work. Diamonds are indestructible, but the diamond teeth can break away from the metal barrel they are mounted on so be aware. Apply even pressure throughout the drilling process. Never force down when cutting rebar, which usually produces black or metallic-looking slurry instead of the milky white slurry when cutting concrete.

When running any pipe through a core drill hole make sure to select a core drill bit one size larger than the pipe being installed, especially if your pipe has to be sleeved. Which is one pipe inside another pipe. A hole larger than the outside diameter of the pipe will give you a little wiggle room in case the hole does not line up perfectly with where the pipe has to go. Once you have the pipe installed, you will want to seal up space around the pipe. If the holes were drilled through interior CMU block walls, you might need to use an expanding foam, but if the holes were drilled through an exterior wall, or needs a sleeve, use a masonry water seal mix found at most hardware stores to patch the hole and seal out moisture and humidity. The foam is even tough enough to keep out household pests.

Core drilling 12" holes in asphalt in Charlotte, NC.

Every once in a while we get asked to do some misc. ironwork. This type of work has gone hand in hand with our normal job of core drilling as sometimes the products and or services are closely related. Often handrails, bollards, bike racks, and other misc. metalwork requires that core drilling is involved.

Since our first major project back in 1999. Which was the majority of the installation of all the misc. metal throughout the Concord Mills Mall located in Concord, North Carolina. We have developed many techniques for installing ornamental ironwork of some type which of course core drilling and installing 6-inch metal schedule 40 bollards. Over the years we have drilled 10-inch, 8-inch holes for bollards but eventually, we found that Twelve-inch holes for bollards work best, maybe even 14-inch when the bollards are to be set in asphalt. The larger core drill hole sizes allow more concrete to be poured around the six-inch steel pipe so it is harder to knock over.

Once we cored through the asphalt there was gravel and mud, which meant it was time to get out the post holes diggers and breaker bar so that we could make the hole 24-inches deep, hoping to get as much concrete around the pipe for a good foundation for the pipe to adhere too.

Digging in the dirt is not what we like to do,

in fact, I hate it, but when you got work to do, well you know, you have to do it. So after the dirt was extracted and everything was ready we set the bollards into the holes. What you can see in the picture is the layout of the installation. I always make a circle for where the core drilling will take place. Many times center of the hole is what we use to mark the circumference of the hole to be drilled, and of course a template of the correct size. To our surprise, the asphalt was only four inches deep, which made for more post-hole digging than we like, yuk! The holes had to be at least 2 and a half feet deep, so it took a little while for the digging to get complete. But in the end, it was done. The total number of bollards was 5. They were being installed to protect the transformers for the extra storage facility on Wendover Ave, Charlotte, North Carolina. Right across the street from Sir. Gus, which is a small restaurant I have always wanted to try, and it turns out the wait was worth it as they do have delicious food.

Was any building code involved?

Apparently, it was as the bollards were placed more than 5 feet from the transformers as the grey boxes in the picture. In general, they were installed 60" from each other to make everything up to snuff and presentable. The depth of the bollards below grade was 30 inches. A ratio of more than 30 percent of the height was buried to allow for impact. We painted them safety yellow and filled the metal tubes with 5000 psi concrete for extra sturdiness.

The Fame Statue before it was relocated

Today it was our honor to be core drilling for the Daughters of the Confederacy at the new site of the relocated Fame statue to the Old Lutheran Cemetery in Salisbury, North Carolina. Established in 1768 by John Lewis Beard, the cemetery is located at 515 N. Lee Street. 175 tombstones for Confederate soldiers were installed at the cemetery in 1996 according to a WBTV channel 3, Charlotte, NC news story on the subject.

We ourselves we just proud to be part of any historical site work no matter who it is for. We drilled 14 4-inch holes in the 10-inch slab of concrete that the statue will rest on. the reason for the holes was to install solid ironwork provided by Cornette Ironworks, which is a talented and well-established steel fence and ironwork fabrication company here near Charlotte, NC. The reason is clear these days as to why heavy-duty fencing is needed, as vandals sometimes get giddy and tear things up. At one point I was timed on the amount of time it took to core drill one 4-inch hole through the concrete. Turns out it took 2 min. and 3 seconds. How about that? So in the end we got the 14 holes drilled in about an hour and a half, mainly because I am a yapper once you get me started. The concrete itself was indeed 10 inches thick but was not too tough to drill at all. The diamond core drill bits we sell and also use can cut pretty fast. The total time may have taken 2 hours from job start to job finish. Much of that could be attributed to the comparison of Cornette ironworks and Carolina Precision Core Drilling and the types of work that each of us respective two companies do in the North Carolina and Virginia areas

Fast enough to do a small project like this one in the two hours total time, including yapping, setup, teardown, and back in the truck to go if you put your mind to it. Though we expected some protesters the day that we did the work, amazingly there were none to be found. our position on the subject is as follows: Everybody has a right to live and be free from oppression and to have their own opinions, often walking in the shoes of your foe, adversary or partner will change your opinion, for better or worse.

Anyhow the iron bars that will be built around the new located statue will be strong and it will take more than a few dozen persons to uproot it. For years I had passed the Fame statue as it stood at the upper heart of Salisbury on Innes St. but now it will be tucked away in one of the town's hidden corners for fewer to see. While coring this project probably one of the things I have heard that made me stop and think for the moment is "those people should have picked their own cotton", think how that would have changed things. I wonder if that idea had ever occurred to anyone else. Maybe there is one of those altered reality fiction books that is based on that type of story. If there is I am not aware of it.

The Fame Statue after it was relocated

During the summer month of August we had another small core drilling project in Salisbury, North Carolina. The early morning job consisted of core drilling three 1 1/2 inch penetrations through the back of the new Smoke Pit restaurant, which used to be called Wings, on Faith Rd, just across from the Aldi's grocery store. The holes were to get power into the freezer to provide power to the cooling units.

Afterwards we stopped by the old confederate graveyard to check to see if the Fame statue had been moved yet or not. Alas, indeed it had. So we had to get a picture of it in the new location. The long black 2 x 2 steel posts are embedded into the concrete that we had bored holes for early this year. In between are solid bar pickets and cross-members. Quite a formidable caging to keep the statue safe.

Core drilling a brick wall on a ladder

This year 2021 has seen an uptick in the number of core drill holes we do for data companies. It seems every fourth in-coming phone call is from a customer that needs to run data lines for the 5G service. Whether it be for a multi-story building, a grocery store, college, bus station, or home. Everyone wants the fastest internet connection possible in their area. This core drilling project occurred on Margret Wallace rd in Matthews, North Carolina. A tough job, to say the least when a 4-foot deep ditch is below you and you have to use a ladder to bore a 5-inch hole through a 20-inch brick wall. Most of the time our company policy is to try to lock the core drill rig to the wall to make drilling a smooth perfect hole look easy. Not all the time is this policy able to be enforced. This particular brick wall was too brittle to hold the weight of the core drill rig so it was hand-core drilling we had to go. Never mind that below the area where the holes need to go was a ditch dug out with rebar sticking straight up like spears ready for piercing. Much like a horror story in a Hollywood movie

5" template

I often use a carbide-tipped hole saw with a masonry centering bit to start a template for the holes when using our handheld motor. In place of that, I also set the lite wall rig on the floor with some cardboard underneath to allow tracing of a cardboard temple to be used to mark each hole and distance center to center of each hole to be transferred to the inside wall to make sure everything matched up. A five-inch bit is quite the heavy bit to use when mounted on a hand-held core drill motor. I do not recommend it, but with a little patience and experience, we were able to make these pretty bore drilled 5-inch holes through the brick wall.

Of course, you say I can see your rig firmly mounted on the brick wall in the picture. Well, that was the only one we were able to mount too and use the rig, the others were hand-core drilled. I made another pre-cut cardboard template like the one that had been created earlier to mount the core drill in the picture at the upside-down position that it is in. Getting the core drill rig, motor, and bit with all the accessories needed to make the hole turned out not to be the most fun job to say the least. If you ever try to mount a core rig upside down then you know what I mean. Topping off the challenge of core drilling a brick wall was the fact it had to match the pre-determined cut-outs of the already set up electric panel that was installed inside on the other side of the wall. I forgot to get a picture of the inside of the wall but I tell the truth when I tell ya I nailed it dead center each and every hole.

Core drilling a house foundation in North Carolina

What a hole. Not so much the 5-inch core drill hole through the foundation in Connelly Springs NC, but the hill or better yet small mountain that had to be traversed to walk down to it.Most of our projects in North Carolina are within 100 to 150 feet of our 2006 ford work truck which houses our generator and water supply for core drilling projects in remote areas. But this hill declined more than 250 feet down a Carolina red clay mudslide to the back of a newly constructed home beside the river of the main road of Connelly Springs.

Up, Down, Up again

It took 5 pain-staking trips up and back down the muddy mess to accomplish our mission of getting our customer a penetration through the 16-inch foundation wall where the drain lines for the home to the local sewer systems could be passed. Nobody was happy about the walking, but I would have been even unhappier if for some reason we did not complete our mission and failed to drill a hole through the house's foundation.

After all the walking we finally got set up. the time it took to push the bit through the wall was about 10 minutes. I was tired from all the going up and down the hill.

Fast core drilling in North Carolina

Sometimes on large jobs, we get to test our mettle and see how many holes we can drill on an average worksite day. Out of core drilling the 202 total holes on a concrete platform, this particular day we racked up 77 holes. No small feat as this was done between the times of 7:30 AM and 5:00 PM, or a little less than 10 hours. A general average of 8 holes an hour is the amount of time it took. Of course this not top speed for us, but a pretty good lick nonetheless. Our plumber, for which we were coring, laid out the holes, and we, Carolina Precision Core drilling, set to get them done.

Most of the holes were between 2 inches and 6 inches core drill bit size, luckily we were able to advance in blocks of rooms with holes the same size that leads to being able to drill one size in a single pass with each bit. In other words, we drilled all the 2-inch holes for four rooms and then all of the 3-inch core drill holes for the same four rooms, etc. I know, I know,..you say 77 core drill holes is not really all that great of a number for a daily totals worth of work. But consider, this entire event took place with water, power, and tools. Laying out the holes, ie: I like to draw pretty circles around the centers of each size hole to make it easier to tell where the hole is and where it should be drilled. Actually doing the drilling, and of course in cases of redrilling where obstacles that might inhibit the path of the PVC water lines and drain pipes had been found below the podiums concrete floor. Obstacles, by which I mean are steel beams that hold up the 2nd floor. Total project teardown, and repacking everything back into the truck, and last but not least throwing the cores in the dumpster for clean up.

This was all done by 1 man and his wife.

Naturally, this could not be done by any novice core drill operator but we have experience in these matters, always wanted to say that, like Zemo on the avengers, or close enough if that is not the exact quote. The next week of April 2021 we finished most of the rest of the job by putting 31 total 7-inch, 6-inch, 3-inch, and 2-inch holes in the upper podium courtyard, all in one shorter day of course. But this particular day it took about 6 hours to finish up the 2nd-floor podium. Not the greatest time, for now, our average was down to less than 4 holes and hour but heck, sometimes setting up is a good 25 percent to forty percent of the time spent for each job anyway. thriving for efficiency and accuracy is our goal, and anytime that we make a completion we are grateful to have the opportunity to do so. Thank you, General contractors of North Carolina, we are daily grateful for the opportunity to provide excellent core drilling services to you.

This is a picture of a six-inch core drill hole in a foundation wall

on the new building going up at 352 south walker street, Cary, North Carolina. Of course, it hasn't been popped yet, which is the term our company uses to indicate that the core rock had been drilled as deep as it needs in order for a steel chisel to been inserted into the kerf of the cut in the concrete and hit with a 3-pound hammer in break the core inside the wall at the base of where the core drill bit had been drilled too.

The black bubbly-looking covering on the foundation wall core drilling Cary, North Carolina is waterproofing that is typically used in the central North Carolina areas like Raleigh, Cary, Chapel Hill, and Durham. Like many newer concrete hardscape worksites built-in NC it was a fully masked Jobsite during the great pandemic which was raging at the time. The reinforced concrete wall happened to be 20 inches thick with a 1 1/4 inch rebar placed every 12 inches in the center. The is a tough, tough wall is all we could say when we were done, but not tough enough as we penetrated it several times to make way for 4-inch pipes to drain away waste from the new plumbing going into the building.

Afterward we headed to another job on the other side of the town of Wake Forest, NC. To drill several holes for a roofer who had to make for new roof drains for a building they had been doing for a few weeks and now was ready for the core drilling.

Just another typical day of a North Carolina Core Driller

Spreading our wings and expanding our core drilling service to Richmond, Virginia.

This is a small commercial core drilling job we took on that happened to be located on Fitzhugh St. The task to drill three 3-inch holes in a pre-cast floor from the 3rd floor to the 2nd, and then from the 2nd to the parking garage below.Not too hard of a job though every core drilling operation is a dangerous prospect to take on. We accomplished completion by using a trusty garden pond water pump that runs off of 120 volts and a 5-gallon bucket of cooling water to keep the bit sharp. The floor as can been seen is has a ceramic tile covering to enhance the usefulness of the utility room. Diamond embedded core drill bits have no problems cutting tile leaving a token core of the top layer of the floor. A talisman of the core drilling project we did in near downtown Richmond VA. Core drill slurry was not a problem as we caught all of it with a simple shop vac.