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.