Drilling hole through existing foundation

[LSB]

Good wet Saturday afternoon.

 

As part of our barn conversion we have to keep some of the existing foundations and underpin.

 

But, I would like to put a drain through the existing foundations, gen 3 concrete, in total about 750mm deep * approx. 600mm wide.

 

This is for the drains for 2 bathrooms.

 

How feasible is this. 

We've looked at diamond cutting drills, but not sure if that is the right thing.

 

I've googled some local companies that seem to do this, but before I ask a company I want to know if this is even feasible or if we just go with the maserator approach.

 

This is the top end of the drain so it doesn't need to be very deep.

 

Thanks

 

 

[Oz07]

Channel it with a saw and breaker it out or deeper than 6" from top?

[LSB]

3 minutes ago, Oz07 said:

Channel it with a saw and breaker it out or deeper than 6" from top?

thanks, I'm not sure how deep it needs to be, this may work for bathroom one at the top of the drain run, but the next one will need to be lower to allow for the drop.

It's 24m in total along the back of the barn.  Bath 1 at one end Bath 2 in the middle so about 12m in.

 

[Russell griffiths]

Do not go down the macerator route. 
end of. 

[Onoff]

Good luck. Even with the right kit diamond core drilling can be hard work. Trying to go through my garage foundations and this bad boy packed up:

 

 

 

Still got a way to go 🙁

 

[Nickfromwales]

36 minutes ago, Onoff said:

Good luck. Even with the right kit diamond core drilling can be hard work. Trying to go through my garage foundations and this bad boy packed up:

 

 

 

Still got a way to go 🙁

 

You weren't swearing hard enough, obvs.... 🙄

[Mr Punter]

The guys that did the Hatton Garden heist managed.

 

I would do some slots with a petrol disc cutter with a hose attached for dust and break out between them with a kango.  Keep going until you achieve the right depth.

[saveasteading]

Agreed, avoid macerator. They are last resort, noisy  and add lifetime maintenance.

 

Drilling downwards is easy, but horizontally is not.  Plus a 100mm perfect hole is not what you need. 150mm with precision is getting specialist and also needs a big access pit.

 

As @Oz07, cut out a generous gap and later infill again.

Agricultural concrete may be on the softer side if you are lucky.

 

Or can the pipes emerge above floor level?

[LSB]

7 hours ago, saveasteading said:

Agreed, avoid macerator. They are last resort, noisy  and add lifetime maintenance.

 

Drilling downwards is easy, but horizontally is not.  Plus a 100mm perfect hole is not what you need. 150mm with precision is getting specialist and also needs a big access pit.

 

As @Oz07, cut out a generous gap and later infill again.

Agricultural concrete may be on the softer side if you are lucky.

 

Or can the pipes emerge above floor level?

We were wondering about about floor level, but weren't sure how that would work with shower drain.

 

This is the layout for the 2 bathrooms.



It is agricultural concrete, which we have broken lots of, but that didn't matter when it cracked.  We need these foundations to stay sound

 

[saveasteading]

We have a walk-in shower drain with pipes as high as possible. This exits at a few " above ground level and thereafter is contorted to meet the main 4" pipes.  At present I have removed the rodding point so that it waters the tomatoes.

The whb is watering a courgette to great effect. 

The drainage isn't pretty there but I could have tried harder by burying pipes asap rather than leading them above ground.

[Onoff]

As of today I'm roughly this far through mine with a 107mm core cutter. This is proper kit from a demo contractor mate. 

 

En route I've had to have the drill apart and tighten the clutch where it was slipping. 

 

 

Drilling the first 16" was not easy but I got there. Then on the next section it's very  easy to go very slightly off true. The angled interfaces then make it stick a bit. 

 

Tbh I think the clutch was actually OK and it's slipping a protective thing. Now, using it, it's one slip up from A&E:

 

 

In case anyone was wondering: