Drilling a hole through kitchen wall for cooker hood extract

[copea]

Morning ladies and gents,

Just looking for some advice before drilling a hole through my kitchen wall for the cooker hood extract please.

My question isn't about how to do it or the tools needed, just about whether the place I'm looking to drill is appropriate, structurally.

Photos:

Intended route

Intended route

Outside

I've just placed the ducting on top of the cupboards for the photos.

Can anyone see any potential faults with this plan?
My only concern is that it's very close to the ceiling and the party wall.
Is this likely to be an issue?

Thanks for any help / advice.

 

[pinenot]

Presumably the location will be approx here View media item 69858 and I can't see a problem with that except if the hole is broken out. Try a core hole cutter and a conversion spigot from round to square, it needn't be an expensive cutter for a one off...pinenot

 

[copea]

Thanks pinenot.
It'll be in that position horizontally, but about 4 bricks higher vertically.

I was planning to stitch drill a rectangular hole through the wall as the ducting is about the same size as one brick, so it should work out nicely.

 

[voicey]

Just to add to Pinenot's point about a cheap core drill for a one off job - I bought a cheap core drill off eBay for £25 to drill out for a 5" duct. For the off off hole it worked fine.

 

[garyo]

That looks like shallow trunking you have there - are you aiming to terminate it with a plastic brick shaped duct? e.g. http://www.screwfix.com/p/terracotta-air-brick-9-x-3/13873

 

[copea]

Yes, that's the intention.

 

[garyo]

In that case you really want to work out whether the top of your cupboards happen to align with the bottom of a brick course so that you can (fingers crossed) take a brick out by removing the mortar, rather than making a circular hole with a core drill.

I'd start by chipping off some plaster on the inside, but it's going to be a bit of a chuck of the dice...

 

[pinenot]

An offset would do the job...pinenot

 

[copea]

In that case you really want to work out whether the top of your cupboards happen to align with the bottom of a brick course so that you can (fingers crossed) take a brick out by removing the mortar, rather than making a circular hole with a core drill.

I'd start by chipping off some plaster on the inside, but it's going to be a bit of a chuck of the dice...

Good call, however...
I've done that as best as I can without removing any plaster, and typically, luck is not on my side. The duct opening sits right in the middle of the mortar.
I think I'm going to have to take it slow and cut / chip smaller pieces away from up to four bricks as I've not got enough space to play with above the cabinets to make it a 'one brick job'.
I've got one of those oscillating multitools so that might come in handy.

 

[garyo]

Mmm that's unlucky. I presume you don't want to lower the kitchen units a couple of cm to make life easier?

Just a thought, but looking at your photos, if you plan to fit a cornice to the top of the units then it looks like there'll be virtually no gap between the top of the cornice and the ceiling. This may be your plan, but means you can't use it as secret squirrel storage.

Gary