What's your wall chaser of choice?

[eveares]

So I am soon going to needing to be doing some internal wall chasing very soon (around 55 full height chases for sockets and data points and 20 half height chases for light switches) and wanted to know what everyone is using for wall chasing?

My chasing will be internal in traditional red brick, to fit 25mm PVC channelling.

Not sure what I should get myself and whether to hire or buy something? What do you recommend?


Regards: Elliott.

 

[ericmark]

The question is dust, my son had one with the twin grinding wheels etc. Did an excellent job, but the dust got everywhere. And they stop shy of the top, so I would hire for first job, as the work of cleaning up can be more than saved doing a fast job.

 

[Taylortwocities]

I agree, wall chaser is fine if the house is completely empty and you have an apprentice holding avery powerful vacuum cleaner.

Much better to use an SDS hammer drill. And a channelling wall chisel. Like this

Amazon.co.uk

amzn.eu

 

[Jurassicspark]

How thick is the plaster?

Is the house empty? You need to consider the amount of dust dissipated during the chasing.

 

[Scally-Ho]

After SDS 'bolstering' the sides of the chase, this makes light work of removing the spoil.

Amazon.co.uk

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[morqthana]

Much better to use an SDS hammer drill. And a channelling wall chisel. Like this

Amazon.co.uk

amzn.eu

"for use in: medium density block work, soft bricks, lightweight blocks, natural stone "

traditional red brick

 

[pete01]

Metabo...

You're welcome

Pricey mind

 

[eveares]

How thick is the plaster?

Is the house empty? You need to consider the amount of dust dissipated during the chasing.

I'll be living in it at the same time.

Not sure how thick the plaster is, but it's a terrace house built in the 1930's with traditional red brick walls.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Not sure how thick the plaster is

Now’s the time to find out! Older houses had thick plaster if on to brick, so you’ll probably not need to chase out the brick.

In fact, in my experience, the plaster just falls off once you sneeze at walls of that age.

 

[Scally-Ho]

Now’s the time to find out! Older houses had thick plaster if on to brick, so you’ll probably not need to chase out the brick.

In fact, in my experience, the plaster just falls off once you sneeze at walls of that age.

When I owned an old but substantial Victorian Villa, the wall plaster finish was backed by a decent sand & cement render and that gave approx. a 1" coating over yellow stock bricks. When rewiring with PVC cabling, just by removing the plaster + render gave sufficient depth to lay new cables and cover with galvanised steel capping.

 

[davelx]

My experience was similar to that TTC describes

I live in a 1930's terrace. The plaster skim coat is about 3mm thick and the sand and cement base coat about 2cm, but mine is very soft and sandy, just crumbled away to powder as soon as I touched it. The bricks, however are extremely hard. I used a circular saw with with a diamond blade to define the sides of the chases, and hammer and cold chisel to remove the very soft base coat and then an SDS hammer drill at a low angle to chop out the brick where needed, mostly for the back boxes.

 

[ETAF]

this will create a lot of dust - I used an angle grinder to cut the chase sides - BOTH on Brick, Breeze block and plaster/brick
and then an SDS Chisel to clear the channel - works really well - apart from the DUST - BUT i have done it in a bungalow we live in and used tapolin to reduce the spread as much as possible and a Henry Vacuum cleaner JUST collecting the dust OFF the grinder and then left on in the general area

I also used these
Site SHE119 Face Shield Clear (6540D)
from screwfix - for us to wear
Worked really well, so long as you kept the dust away form under the mask - then it blows up inside
I have glasses and dewalt googles - that are supposed not to fog - but they do

 

[Sureitsoff?]

The apprentice?............

 

[amfisted]

Another vote for an SDS drill with a chisel attachment. I recently chased out a block internal wall for shower pipework ( wish I’d battened and boarded instead, but that’s another story). I started with the bright idea of cutting the edges of the chase with a mini grinder then hacking out by hand in between, but I hadn’t realised just how tough and resistant to cutting those 1960s blocks are, and how much dust my grinder would create. After generating enough dust to blot out the sun I gave up the grinder, switched to SDS with chisel and it was “knife through butter” in comparison.

 

[morqthana]

I hadn’t realised just how tough and resistant to cutting those 1960s blocks are

Are you talking about fairly dense concrete blocks like these:

or those coarse black ones (can't find a photo) with big lumps of rock-hard slag in them which throw cutters off, or break out taking chunks of block with them?