Drilling big holes (a quick guide) into any tile

Project: Install a loo pan pipe at 4 inches into a tile.

Tiles used: Mix of glass, porcelain and soft ceramics at 10mm deep.

 

Cutter used. 100mm diamond drill. Drills used. Fern bench drill and Dewalt hand drill 14v

Using a hand drill

Scratch out a circle in plasterboard with drill head. (Yes- plasterboard - really!)

Cut top paper with a knife

Use drill at an angle to grind into the soft plasterboard. Go slowly.

Drill bit will "bite" into the plaster and form its own hole. Much easier than using a jigsaw....

Look above to see its formed its own perfect ridge.

Poke out circle of plaster board. Your template is done in less than a minute!

Put template onto tile. Secure in place. Stand on it. Bricks. Get a mate to hold it. Tape it. Etc

SLOWLY drill onto tile. Pull back on the drill to get the best grip. If in doubt practice.....

Look its working.

Remove plasterboard to reveal a neat but dusty hole is forming. Discard the guide.

Its now starting. The drill should sit in this groove.

Add a splosh of water. Outside hosepipes are fine.

Here we go !

Keep washing as you go. Notice we are cutting a perfect hole over many tile types.

We have cut the tiles. At this point chip away the internal tiles. Then use a normal drill to go beyond

By way of stupidity and showing-off we drilled into the chip board. Dont do this because it blunts your drill bit.

Nice sandwich of tile and chipboard. Point here is that the hole is perfect. Impressed?

If you are rushed on time you can drill chipboard but you will lose the drill and £40. Dont care? - Go for it !

Hole is lovely and ready for the loo pan holder. Nice work.

Perfect fit at 100mm. Just needs a bit of grout or silicone for a job done.

Back of the board is looking just fine too. Very little mess. Precisson drilling.

YOUR customers will be looking at this workmanship for many years to come. Its a signature of the quality of your work. And so easy to do as well. A bit of plasterboard. A bit of skill. Some time spent going slowly. And nice work as a result.

Using a bench drill

If you have £40 spare then invest in a pillar drill. This gives you more control over slipping

We set it up on our very old outdoors bench drill. Then put some water on it.

Start to drill. Look above. Can you see the glass tile on the right? Its whizzing into that.

Tile cutting from another angle

Keep the water on. If you are outside then you can use plenty. Drill slowly though. About 520rpm.

Dont push to hard. Let the drill do its work. If you go into wood it takes ages. So be patient

Look at that! - Come on... You MUST be impressed? - Its just gone through FOUR tile types. Look at the quality.

The tile core now pops out.... Yes I know.. We did it again and drilled the chip board. Please dont!

To pull the plug out get an old drill pit and pushhhh.

A perfect hole is born. Have a look in more detail

Look at this closeup... Thats a glass insert. And its not been disturbed. Perfect and very clean lines

Heres the plug. You can see the glass (Middle) , the porcelain (left) and the ceramic (right) What a mix !

The end result is what its all about. Another perfect hole to fit a loo pan. And that is still using the same drill bit for both holes.

Large hole drilling is great for soil pipes, extractor fans, shower roses and controls etc etc.

Its not done it much good to whack it into wood but it has worked.

Bottom line is that we did high quality work and using items just laying around.

Our competitors charge £170 for a 117mm crown. Ours are £40.