I bought a flexible drill bit to retrofit some low voltage cable in my house. I drilled several holes in interior walls down to the crawl space successfully and was pretty confident in my ability to use it. I decided to do an exterior wall next. Things did not go so well this time as I must have been too far off vertical even using that L-shaped device to help guide the bit. The next thing I hear is noise that does not sound like wood. Sticking a rod down through the hole I hear what sounds like brick (house has brick on the exterior)! Apparently I drilled at too much of an angle as I am deep enough to be in the crawl space but when checked I see nothing coming through into the crawl space. Nothing is visible outside the house. Measuring the distance I have drilled I have not reached the concrete block of the crawl space so I know that is not what I am hearing.
Once all the snickering is done (deservedly so) can someone tell me is this something I need to be overly concerned about and what I should do about it. In the morning, I am going to call the GC that did my addition this fall and see what he thinks but I would like to get the opinions of the people on this forum.
In hindsight I guess I should have drilled from the crawl up this time. 🙁
Shawn
Replies
You screwwed up bigtime. Better call the plumber over and have him help you cut a good size access hole in the sheetrock (they're good at cutting big holes) and see if you can find the problem. But you may have to remove part of the brick on the outside too. You might want to call the power company and turn off the electricity to the house first.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
jeez.....a bit harsh, don't ya think.....
Oh ... I was just messing with him, being a first time poster. Like CAP says, other than the vapor barrier there's probably no harm done. Hope he hasn't told DW yet, or she'll remind him of it every time he picks up the drill.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
You just forgot the smiley face.
I was quite angry at myself for doing this and she was very laid back about it, "we'll just get whatever we need fixed, fixed"
You're right though, she will probably question me everytime I drill something.
Shawn
she was very laid back about it,
Hey ... a Breaktime kinda wife!
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
"she was very laid back about it, "we'll just get whatever we need fixed, fixed"
Shawn, sounds like your DW is a keeper. :-)
Another way to find out where you are in a deep floor or wall cavity is to chuck a length of coat hanger wire (a straight section, with the tip cut flat like a spade bit) in a drill.
After your preliminary checks for pipes, wires, ducts, etc, then do as 4lorn1 suggested. A coat hanger wire drills in a surprisingly straight line, and the hole is minuscule.http://www.costofwar.com/
Oh yeah ... welcome to Breaktime :)
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
If you don't see water pouring outta the wall, yo don't need a plumber.
If the lights and plugs still work, and there's no smoke or flame coming outta the drill hole, you don't need an electrician.
The only thing that might be an issue here is the hole through the wall's vapor barrier.
Don't feel bad, those flexible bits are essentially semi-guided missles. I was drilling horizontally through an exterior wall, the bit went through the sheetrock and inside the living room. When I realized that I had advanced the drill about a foot and a half but hadn't hit the next stud, I stopped. The bit was a couple inches short of the homeowner's TV. I got the bit backed out before she walked into the room....
Cliff
I had checked the area where I was drilling before I launched the missile and I am confident there is no electric or plumbing near its trajectory.
Can I tell if I have penetrated the vapour barrier? It is probably a safe assumption that I have. Can anything be done about it?
Shawn
Hey, I'm a stupid homeowner and I really can identify. Oh, and I'm LMAO, too:) However, about the vapor barrier, I live where it's cold and the vapor barrier is on the inside portion of the wall. I'd think it would be hard to miss it. Sealing it with some spray foam would probably fix it. If you put too much in, it might put a bigger hole in your wall so you could see where that darn drill is hiding. Don't ask my how I know about making the big hole thing if you use too much foam:)
Yes, you need to drill a hole at the top of the stud bay and, using a garden hose, fill the bay with water. If there's a hole in the vapor barrier, the water will leak out quicker (than in a stud bay with an intact VB). You'll need to determine the leak rate of a few other bays to set a baseline leak rate. Capisco?
Sorta like "we had to destroy the village to save it".
Really, I wouldn't worry about it. IF there's a hole in the VB, it's small. If the hole's in a bay that has a receptacle or switchbox in it, there could be some air exfiltration (houses are under positive pressure). It might be worth sealing any electrical box in that bay--it'll be a lot easier sealing any hole on the inside of the wall than trying to find and seal the mistake hole (if there is one, and it's on the outside of the wall).
Cliff
Well, I decided to knock a hole in the brick exterior to see what was going on behind it. After a couple of hours pounding with a sledge hammer I have a hole about 3' by 6'. Another mistake, hammer went through the drywall on the other side maybe I'll put an outlet there too. Just kidding :) (all of the above paragraph!)
Actually,
Per suggestions, I am just going to drill a hole up from the crawl space, run the cable, and then use a 'little' Great Stuff to fill in some of the damage, if I can reach it. I usually try to avoid using that stuff because it always ends up being such a mess.
Thanks everybody for you help and suggestions.
Shawn
Well, I decided to knock a hole in the brick exterior to see what was going on behind it. After a couple of hours pounding with a sledge hammer I have a hole about 3' by 6'. Another mistake, hammer went through the drywall on the other side maybe I'll put an outlet there too. Just kidding :) (all of the above paragraph!)
Hey, I kinda like this guy.
Whatchu talkin' about ? He passed up a perfectly good excuse to use dynamite or napalm !! I say he gets more razzing before he's in the club !
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. ~~ Eric Hoffer
What he missed out on was the opportunity to buy the Bobcat and demo hammer drill attachment.
There you go. Just as good !
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. ~~ Eric Hoffer
Seen this a lot. Odds are your drilling down into the hollow of the block or brick foundation. Another alternative is your running down the inside of the foundation and haven't found the bit. It happens. The bit and holes seem to have a magical ability to hide in plain sight. A trick is to spray paint the bit a fluorescent color. I have found the green or blue to be effective. Red, orange and green often blend in exactly like you think they can't.
A trick using these bits is to use the guiding tool to place the bit next to the inside finish surface and angle the bit so the shaft is traveled in a long arc that angles where your drilling toward the inside. It helps to tap the bit along the inside of the interior surface to you know your against it.
It pays to explore before drilling. Do a quick exploration so you know about ducts, water lines and such. Just note the general location and adapt your plan to avoid the worse of it. Use the spray paint to paint a long, 4" will usually do it, drywall screw. A few inches inside the wall screw it in straight. The gap between floorboards is good but be prepared to use wax sticks to disguise the small hole.
Once installed get under the house to find the screw sticking down. Needless to say all this goes more quickly if you have someone stuffed below while you work it from above. If your good you can drill accurately into a tight spot.
Drilling from below is also an option. Place the screw and then give direction to the person below. Along the lines of I'm 6" away from the wall with a stud 10 to the north. The drill operator then knows to drill at about 8" toward the wall to be within the wall cavity and that there is no stud in line with the screw. Pays to keep track of the studs. Beginners usually drill a few with the box cut in on one side of the stud and hole drilled in the bottom plate on the other.
Sometimes it is done on purpose to avoid blocking or obstacles under the floor.
Thanks for the suggestions should come in handy for the next hole. :)
Shawn
Is it possible that you hit brick and mortar fireblocking in the joist/stud bay? Up here in New England a lot of older homes that are balloon framed have a couple of bricks and a slosh of mortar in the stud bays at floor transitions to serve as fire stopping.
>>>>In the morning, I am going to call the GC that did my addition this fall and see what he thinks but I would like to get the opinions of the people on this forum.
Who was your lender ?
By law I am required to call them up now, and reccomend that they do an immediate call-in of the mortgage.
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. ~~ Eric Hoffer
No lender was used to finance the addition. :)
Shawn
Oh.Well in that case...My suggestion is that you cut a hole in the wall that will allow you to see what is going on in there. Use a mirror on a stick, and a flashlight.Or better yet, make the hole big enough, and stick a digital camera in there and take a bunch of pics. You do know you can do that without sticking yer head in there to look through the viewfinder, right ? he he he Just get yer hand and the camera in there. Move the camera around, and click a bunch of pics. Yer bound to get SOMETHING useful ! Don't forget to put the camera strap around your wrist...Then get a can of great stuff. While yer getting the can of great stuff, walk over to the plumbing department and look for vinyl tubing. Choose a piece of vinyl tubing that fits snugly over the straw from the great stuff. Get a couple three feet of that.Now go back home. Drill the hole where you intended it in the first place. Finish the work you were doing. Then, using the vinyl tubing on the end of the great stuff straw, direct enough great stuff foam in there to fill up the space you want to fill, and no more. Remember the expansion factor.Also remember, if it is cold in that wall, the great stuff will not expand much. But as soon as it gets warm again, that stuff is going to expand with a vengeance. (As stated by someone else above, don't ask me how I know this...)If you want to reuse that vinyl tubing, you have to wash it out with mineral spirits immediately.
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. ~~ Eric Hoffer
If, as the others said, you don't see fire, smoke, water or electrons pouring out of the wall, it's OK. The sound you were making was the drill bit trying to dig into the morter and/or block/stone/whatever is on the top of the wall. Sometimes, this goes out to the exterior of the house, sometimes there's a skirt board with blocking inside of that, which creates a cavity. Either way, it's a PITA working on the outside walls.
Old houses have thick foundation walls. You wouldn't have been able to see where the outside wall is even if you had aircraft landing lights. If there is a window near the location of the hole, measure the thickness of the wall, the distance to the inside surface of the wall and the inside surface of the foundation wall. My guess is that you're about 8" too far inside. What you can do to test the location is slide a putty knife behind the shoe moulding so there's a gap, get a long 1/8" drill bit (HD sells them) and drill down till you go through the floor. Make sure you do this where you know there isn't a stud so you can line the hole up with where the low voltage box needs to go. Go down to the crawl space and see if you can find the drill bit. You may not be able to see it, and this is the reason I hate wiring outside walls on old houses. Even if you drill up from underneath on a low angle, chances are that you will come through the flooring. IF you drill where two pieces of flooring meet, it won't be noticeable. If you can't do that, it's still easy to fill the hole(s).
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Edited 1/5/2006 10:38 pm by highfigh
Either you drilled down through the bottom plate and into a hollow in the concrete block, or the drill doubled up on you and you've drilled a hole through the sheathing.
In either case it's no biggie. If you could figure out how to pump foam into the hole in the plate/sheathing (without filling the entire stud cavity with it) then that would be good, but frankly most homes have much larger leaks in the vapor barrier, et al, and don't suffer (much) for it.
happy?
This kind of thing happens all the time when a house is wired. Drill a hole. Didn't 'come out'? no prob, drill another. Not the best of scenarios, but reality.
Don't worry about it, move on.
Yeah, certainly could be worse. I was on a job in PR where a drill jockey put two holes through the tin roof.
If ignorance is bliss why aren't more people
happy?