Diamond drilling with holesaw drill bits (how to) in very hard porcelain tiles or granite, travertine, marble bathrooms help advice

[Richard hazell]

Drilling Holes in Porcelain and or Glass Tiles

Example of when THINGS GO WRONG:

Case study:

Client uses a general builder for a loft conversion. By the time we arrived on site there was a lot of trauma and finger pointing.

The builder quotes to do all the work himself. What we see is a "basic" job gutting out then plaster
boarding the loft. He completes First fix electrics, plumbing, plastering and
door furniture, paints etc.

The builder has done a reasonable job. But many angles were off, work is "ok" but not perfect.

Biggest mistake the builder made was not to subcontract the tiling to a pro. The client has purchased
an expensive top end selection of porcelain tiles and glass inserts. But although
the builder is a jack of all trades he has never dealt with these materials before
so wings it. He soon runs into all sorts of problems fitting it.




Even so his work is not looking too bad huh!


His Second fix is coming along nicely.

But lets look closer.... To get to this point in tiling the builder had broken about
2 x boxes of glass tiles and porcelain tiles when he tried to "drill" the service
pipes.



Above you can see he used an angle grinder used to "hack" the tiles. from the back. The problem is that the hack over-bored the holes so the capping plates
do not cover the mess. He even planned the tiles to "fall" into the four corners
to make the waste pipe easy to grind. Thats time wasting and not really necessary
with the availability of large 40mm diamond drills. If only
he knew they were out there..



His second error is that when trying to drill small holes for example for the
shower rail he tried to cheat and use the grout line. But all this managed to
do was split the glass tile. Arrgggg... And to cap
it all off his masonry drills were burning out on the porcelain tiles.

At this point the builder gave up and walked off the job.... Client very distressed
at losing so many expensive tiles and faced with taking out this damaged tile.

The client gets onto the internet and finds 365Drills. When we arrived at the site the first thing we do is managed to convince the client we can save the
tile. Saving it reduces the time on the job removing it, new adhesive, new grout
and costs to the client are minimised.



We ground out the glass with an 8mm core



The Result (above). YES you can still see the split glass. Yes its ugly. But as
luck would have it the broken piece can be covered with the capping plate as part
of the shower rail. The glass had not split too deeply.



Moving on: This next hole looks much better! This is one we started from fresh. PORSADRILL diamond core drills (size 8mm used) can grind out the glass
tile and you can see that its a perfect barrel.

This result is really strong and will take a rawl plug and the fitting without splitting the glass.

NEXT:


We then went on to finish drilling all the holes for the job to include

• Wash basin screws (16mm) plugs
• Shower screen rails
• Mirrors

The drill plate is so adaptable and flexible that when we came up against this preinstalled (and glued) shower door rail, rather than remove the rail to
drill the hole, we cut a piece of the guide plate so that the 8mm guide was ultra
close to the edge of the strip. It was just less hassle to cut a bit off than
it was to undo the whole contraption.

SUM UP:
Tiles are becoming more sophisticated. A general builder might be able to wing it when dealing with
a lot of the construction stuff. Most of it is common sense.

But clients should be aware that they pay (in time and money) for any areas the builder
is not competent in.

If the builder had been aware of Porsadrill I am confident he would have saved the cost of those broken tiles when he installed
service pipes. He would have saved the embarrassment of splitting a fitted glass
tile. He would have saved his own time plus he would not have walked from the
job for something so trivial.

__________________
Richard Hazell
t: 01992-410636 24/7 (mobile: [phone])
e: [e-mail]
w: http://www.365drills.com
w2: http://www.365drills.net
forum articles: Drilling
Tough Tiles - PORSADRILL