Drilling through an external wall

[OldKettle]

Hi,
I need to drill through an external wall to run a TV aerial. I was planning to drill through the mortar a couple of inches above the damp proof course.

The wall seems to be fairly standard, double brick, 1950s.

Apart from avoiding pipe, wires, and using a masonry bit. Is there anything else I need to consider?

Cam I just seal with plumber's putty?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

[Ian H]

You might knock the face of the brick off if you drill from inside to out.

 

[Nige F]

You might knock the face of the brick off if you drill from inside to out.

Hundreds of Sky fitters can't be wrong Bring the cable down and loop it under the hole then go up - like a J then the water runs off the bottom - seal with anything mastic-like

 

[Iamchamps]

Drilling inside out is standard practice for a lot of aerial fitters etc. My advice try not to come through on hammer mode as you will almost defiantly blow a bit of brick out and angle down slightly from inside to out to avoid wall run in if the hole didn’t seal properly.

 

[Tigercubrider]

I prefer to use a small diameter drill first, then open it out .
Obviously that means twice the bits but easier and cleaner

 

[Ian H]

I measure from the corner of the nearest window and drill outside to in.

I've had the BT guy and aerial guys both blow brick faces off

 

[John D v2.0]

every second counts when the installer has minutes to do each install, when you're doing it yourself you can take the time to do it properly.
I'd use some frame sealant of a suitable colour rather than plumber's putty, but as long as you enter the hole from below as suggested above, you should be fine. cables are terrible for tracking water where it shouldn't go.

 

[rsgaz]

every second counts when the installer has minutes to do each install,

Minutes?!

Last time I spoke to a Sky installer they get 120 minutes per install(only 4 per day), even if the customer already had a dish and twin cable (i.e. when people were upgrading to Sky plus and it needed a second cable). My local golf club has a height restriction bar on the car park, so outside the car park is always a few Sky vans and maybe a BT van!!

 

[^woody^]

And any cable or pipe passing through an external wall should have a slight slope from inside to outside to avoid moisture in the wall running towards the inner wall.

 

[alan333]

Hi,
Is there anything else I need to consider?

Ensure your drill is long enough. Bear in mind you're drilling two bricks plus a cavity wide, plus the inch or so that's in your chuck.

 

[blup]

A 450mm sds bit (that’s the overall length) should suffice through a double skin wall with insulation: building up with different size bits can aid the process and reduce breakout; drill wider than the aerial cable diameter to avoid problems feeding it through

Blup