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.