We make holes for the socket in concrete and tiles ourselves. How to drill a concrete wall for an outlet How to cut a hole for an outlet

During the renovation process, the need often arises to make a hole in the tile for an outlet or, for example, a pipe. Moreover, such a need may arise both during the installation process and after installation. Let's consider how to act in both situations and what tools to use.

During tiling work, you can’t do without drilling tiles.

Most often, making a hole in the tile is required at the installation stage. While the tile is not fixed to the surface, the easiest way to do this is with a grinder. This tool will come in handy more than once when tiling floors and walls. It is suitable for figure cutting along the edge of the tile.

How to make a hole in a tile using a grinder:

1. Mark the outlines.
2. Take a diamond blade for dry cutting.
3. Start cutting from a comfortable edge. Move the tool smoothly away from you. Hold the tile with your hand, remember to protect your fingers.
4. If the work area is not very comfortable, stop in the middle and bring the grinder to the other end. However, there is a risk that the cutting lines may diverge.

You need to work on the front side of the tile to avoid chipping.

A diamond blade is used to cut tiles

Using a jigsaw

This tool allows you to cut any shape both from the edge and in the center of the tile. However, in the latter case you will need a drill to make the initial hole.

How to cut ceramic tiles with a jigsaw:

1. Draw the outlines on the front side.
2. If the processing area is adjacent to the edge, proceed to cutting.
3. To make a hole in the center, use a drill to pre-drill a small hole. Thread the cutting thread through it and place the jigsaw on the border of the cutout.
4. Slowly guide the tool according to the markings. Step back from the line a little inward so as not to cut out too much.

The necessary holes are made in the tiles in advance - before laying

Handmade

If you need to make a small cut on the edge, but there is no jigsaw available, there is alternative way. You will need a glass cutter and tongs or pliers. What is the essence of the process:

1. Mark the contours of the future hole on the tile.
2. To soften the material, soak it briefly in warm water.
3. Take the glass cutter and, without lifting the roller from the surface, draw a line according to the marked markings. To create a groove, apply sufficient pressure, but do not damage the tile, especially if we are talking about glossy tiles.
4. Tap along the cut line to make the furrow deeper.
5. Using tongs, break off small pieces until all excess is removed and a smooth outline remains.
6. If there are small nicks, sand the edges sandpaper fine grain.

Drilling a hole

If the tiles are already laid, you will need a drill. When working with ceramic tiles, special cone-shaped drills or regular spiral drills are used.

Exit for utilities

How to make a hole using a simple drill:

1. Since the surface of ceramic tiles is quite slippery and it is very difficult to hold the tool in one position, cover the area to be worked with masking tape. It will protect the tiles from scratches and prevent chipping and sliding of the nozzle.
2. Mark with a dot the location for drilling the hole.
3. Start slowly.
4. To prevent the drill from overheating, periodically moisten it with water. Spray the tile itself, but only after you have gone deep enough to prevent the tool from slipping.

If you need to make a large hole, use a thicker drill after drilling a small hole. Increase the diameter gradually, this minimizes the risk of chipping.

Another way: make several holes along the inner contour of the future hole with a thin drill. Then carefully knock out the center and sand the teeth with sandpaper.

Special attachments for drill

There are specialized tools designed for working with tiles that allow you to cut a hole large diameter. One of these is a ballerina. It is a drill with an additional cutting element.

Special attachment for drill

How to use a ballerina to cut a round hole in a tile:

1. Make a small depression exactly in the middle using any method.
2. Place the ballerina on the drill and secure it in the hole with the central drill.
3. Slowly start going deeper. The side elements will begin to scratch the tile, drawing a circle, like a compass.
4. When half the work is done, turn the tile over and do the same with reverse side until the center falls out.

Another type of attachment is a diamond-coated crown. Its diameter is selected for a specific size.

How to make a hole in a tile using a crown:

1. Stick on ceramic tiles masking tape.
2. Mark the outline of the hole.
3. Attach the drill and start going deeper at slow speeds.
4. Wet the nozzle with water to prevent overheating.

When purchasing drill bits for a drill, pay attention to their price and quality. A good job can only be done with a quality tool.

Content:

The wiring is mounted into the wall using two types of holes. Linear, or grooves, for routing wires in the required directions, and local recesses - for installing small, but necessary everywhere sockets, switches and junction boxes - internal connection (switching) devices. And these two types intersect, or rather, complement each other.

As a result of the work, the network, even the smallest one, even a small segment, is built or completed gradually. Of course, it must be thought out, calculated and marked in advance. After this, everything necessary is purchased, and only then the tools are picked up and the wall becomes a canvas for creativity.

Types of holes for connection devices

The shape of the holes in the walls for connection devices can be round, rectangular or square. Round ones are made most often due to their manufacturability - a round shape can be achieved with one drilling operation.

Square or rectangular ones are sometimes made as a whole hole or as an addition to a round one.

For example, when they want to make a flush installation of the device so that the top front panel of the socket does not peek out. On tiles, holes for sockets or socket blocks can be made from the outside as rectangular recesses. And inside the individual sockets cut round.

Or there is simply no hammer drill or diamond bit for drilling wide round hole. But I have a reliable Bulgarian friend.

Strictly speaking, a round or square hole is not even that important, it is important that the width is 72 mm for a glass (socket box). And the excess volume can then be filled with putty or alabaster.

There is also a difference in the material of the walls in which a hole must be made. Actually, due to the difficulty of overcoming the wall material. In this sense, walls are:

• wooden;
• plaster;
• silicate blocks;
• cinder block;
• brick or tiled;
• concrete.

Concrete happens different degrees hardness, very hard concrete- from 400 - difficult to drill.

According to the above, tools and methods for drilling a hole are selected.

Hole drilling tool

Something will have to be cut or chopped with a chisel and hammer. You may need a chisel for cleaning, but that's if soft material, or a hard chisel.

You will need a drill for drilling (if lightweight material) or hammer drill. If you are drilling not wood, but everything else, then you need to take the drill for concrete. Not on wood or metal. Because building materials necessarily contain sand or other hard material. And these are abrasives, that is rocks, used specifically for processing metal products. Therefore, ordinary drills grind down very quickly.

To cut concrete, a special hard alloy of tungsten carbide and cobalt, called pobedit, is used at the ends of the tool.

In addition to drills, crowns are used - metal cutting cylinders.

The most expensive of them are diamond-coated. Let us just note that such people are afraid of being used in combination with by impact(perforator).

In severe cases (very hard concrete, usually above wide window and door external openings), the concrete can be overcome with a drill.

A grinder can be used to make grooves for cables, and it can also make holes for a socket in concrete or brick, but only square ones.

Protective equipment

Since the work is hard, dusty, with dangerous tools, all safety rules must be followed.

Electrical safety

1. Work in a dry environment; if moisture is present, use protective shoes and gloves.
2. In the process of preparing for work, you need to make sure that there are no electrical connections under voltage.
3. While working, be careful not to get on the wires in the wall, since the previous owners could have done the wiring according to some of their own standards.
4. When operating a cutting power tool, care must be taken to ensure that the power cord does not get caught in moving parts.

Protective means

Hands must be protected with construction gloves - from impacts, tool operation, and vibration. Wear a cap or a dust cap on your head.

Dust from construction materials is harmful to breathe. Therefore, it is necessary to use a respirator.

Concrete is especially harmful. Its small particles are crushed during drilling and have sharp, uneven edges, and the pieces come in very different sizes. Therefore, it is necessary to protect your breathing, and, in addition, to protect yourself from mechanical influences flying concrete particles.

The eyes are the most vulnerable place, and to protect them you must use safety glasses. If you get it in your eye, do not rub it with your hands under any circumstances; the sharp edges of a splinter of concrete can puncture or cut your eye. It is best to rinse with water without touching your eyes with your hands - bend slightly sideways under a gentle stream of cool water and try to blink your eyes in it. Then be sure to consult a doctor.

When renovating rooms in houses and apartments, it is often necessary to cut holes and recesses in a concrete wall. For this purpose, diamond drilling is used, which requires considerable costs. If you purchase a low-quality product, your money will be wasted and there will be no result. If you choose the appropriate tool and do the operations correctly, the socket hole is created easily and effectively. For this purpose, carbide and diamond bits with a Pobedit drill located in the center are used.

Carbide socket bit

The most common crowns are those with carbide tips. Their price is several times lower than diamond ones; you should buy the tool when you need to make a few holes. The product structure includes the following components:

• chuck for fastening the working part and drill;
• a crown in the form of a piece of pipe with carbide nozzles on the edge;
• drill.

Crown elements for rosette

Carbide has high strength and wear resistance, but when working, you should always remember that there is reinforcement in the wall that can damage the tool.

The tungsten carbide bit is coated with a very hard alloy; it can be used to drill a hole in a tile for a socket. When working with it, you must remember that if used incorrectly, the working coating layer quickly wears out and the tool becomes inoperable. The crown will fail if there is metal in the wall that cannot be detected in time.

Drilling a hole in tiles

Crowns made of carbide and sprayed with tungsten carbide are not enough for a long time. That's why professionals use diamond tools. They are the most effective means, but their cost is high. Technical diamond is sprayed onto the working segments of the crown, which can cope with any hard walls. It even cuts metal, but you shouldn’t overuse it, since any tool wears out.

Crowns made of hard alloy (a) and diamond-coated (b)

Choice

• First of all, it is determined required diameter holes in the wall. It is selected according to the size of the mounting boxes, which varies between 60-80 mm. They should be purchased in advance. In addition, boxes for different fittings vary. Therefore, appropriate switches or sockets are pre-selected for them. The diameter of the crown and box must be the same. When drilling, the hole for the socket is made a couple of millimeters wider, after which the box is inserted into the hole quite tightly. It is difficult to secure it in a hole that is too large.

The depth of the recess for the socket must be made accurately, and then the box must be attached to the bottom with a self-tapping screw. Then it will last a long time without any covering with solution. If the gap is larger, the mounting box should be placed on gypsum plaster, and not on alabaster, which sets too quickly. You can mix them in equal quantities. The box should be slightly recessed so that the socket does not protrude outward. When installing the block, the size of the holes is made larger to allow for adjustments during installation.

• It is important to choose the type of product. For large volumes of work, it is advisable to use diamond tools. If you only need to make a few holes, the carbide option is sufficient. But you should know that it may be enough for 3-4 holes, after which you will have to purchase a new crown.
• It is advisable to take products from well-known manufacturers: Alpen, Macita, Bosch, although you may come across a fake here. Availability of quality documents is necessary.
• When purchasing, pay attention to the absence of damage and scuffing. Spraying should be applied evenly and not crumble.
• Some concrete walls may be so hard that diamond core bits are definitely required.
• For brick and concrete, crowns can be different. They differ in materials and the angle of the cutters. For brick walls he's bigger. When purchasing, you should ask what material the crown is intended for. If it is intended for concrete, then it will definitely take brick.
• When choosing, it is important to take into account that the hammer drill and drill have their own bits. In the first case, an SDS-plus type shank is used, and in the second, a hexagon.

For successful work You need a quality power tool. Preference is given to drills and hammer drills with a power of at least 1.5 kW. You should work without impacts, according to the drilling mode. Professionals prefer to use a tool designed specifically for drilling.

Professional tool for drilling holes in concrete walls

A crown for socket boxes can be used to drill holes to greater depths. They are often used when pipes are laid through walls.

Hole in concrete for socket

1. Selection of tools: hammer drill, crown drill, hammer drill (diameter 8 mm), chisel, hammer.
2. Marking places for drilling. The height for switches is 80-90 cm, and for sockets – 30 cm.
3. The work is carried out with a lot of dust. Therefore, things and furniture should be removed, and what remains should be carefully covered with film, including interior doors.
4. To work, you need to purchase a respirator, safety glasses and gloves.
5. Holes are cut in the wall according to the drilling mode.
6. To avoid jamming, do not press hard on the tool or twist it.
7. With a low-power tool and a bad crown, holes should be drilled around the entire perimeter of the mounting box (diameter about 8 mm), after which the process goes faster.
8. After drilling, the remaining pieces of concrete are knocked out using a hammer and chisel.

The process of drilling a hole for a socket

The process of drilling each hole should take no more than 15 minutes. The work time is affected by the quality and size of the crown, the power of the power tool and the experience of the technician. If the operating time exceeds the permissible limit, the reasons must be found and eliminated.

Working with a crown requires more attention than usual, since the area where the tool connects to the wall is large. Large concrete elements have to be cut out; the load on the tool is high, and it can break during operation. For safety, you should wear thick clothing and take all precautions. You should especially protect your eyes from flying pieces of concrete. To prevent the crown from breaking, it should be periodically cooled in a container of water.

Prices and manufacturers

To make one or two holes in the wall, it is enough to purchase the cheapest Chinese-made crown. If you apply the right technology, its service life can be increased. For example, you can make additional drillings in the wall around the perimeter and select the main volume of concrete with a chisel. In this case, the crown is useful only for final finishing and leveling. Then you can do a fairly large amount of work, spending no more than 300 rubles.

You can also purchase European or American products at 2 times the price. Such devices are effective when sockets are installed by yourself. Crowns made by the Korean company Arix, the Chinese Super HARD and the domestic ones Distar and Adele are of acceptable quality.

It is more convenient for professionals to work with diamond bits, since everything is included in the cost of work that needs to be done quickly and efficiently. The price, which ranges from 1000 to 8000 rubles, is affected by the diameter and length.

Most happy owners of apartments in new buildings, the walls of which are made of concrete, strive to install switches and sockets in places convenient for them. Therefore, it is extremely important to know how to make a hole for a socket in concrete yourself.

Basic methods

A rosette can become a decoration for a room.

Hole in a wall made of concrete material, can be done using such an excellent tool as a grinder.

Most apartment owners who want to carry out some of this work with their own hands should also have some special electric tools, such as, for example, an angle grinder or a hammer drill.

It should be noted right away that there is no difference between a hammer drill and a hammer drill, which is why it is impossible to say that absolutely any hammer drill can be used to make a hole in a concrete wall without much effort, because the tools are different and the efforts applied also vary.

A hole of the required diameter can be made using a concrete drill bit.

You can learn in detail about rotary hammers and, accordingly, the difference between these tools by reading several articles about the latter. But we can say with complete confidence that a pair of absolutely identical appearance devices from the same manufacturer can function completely differently.

The only difference is impact force devices. Because the hammer drill, during its operation, turns the so-called drill and creates impact forces on the latter.

It is the strength of such a blow that determines how easily the device will drill. The same can be said about Bulgarians. They exist in different varieties. There are quite large units, small devices, basically, such construction tools have a whole lot of different nuances.

So, we have at our disposal such a tool as a grinder. In this situation, everything is extremely simple. It is only necessary to use it to cut grooves in the concrete wall around the area where you will subsequently need to make a hole for the required socket.

And it’s not at all scary if you need a round hole to install a mounting box, but as a result of using an angle grinder it turns out to be square. Excess space in the concrete wall can be covered with gypsum mortar when installing the mounting box into the socket made by yourself.

Features of the work process

Hole in a concrete wall with an angle grinder

For straight holes use a grinder.

Although even if the grinder is preferable construction tool, then you still won’t be able to do without a tool such as a hammer drill, because, of course, it’s possible to cut along the contour using a grinder, but now central section you will still have to knock it out, resorting to the help of a well-known device - a hammer drill.

A hole in a wall made of concrete material using a hammer drill

In the case when a device such as a hammer drill was chosen as a tool to make a hole for a socket in the wall, the situation is somewhat different. Moreover, in many different aspects.

For the reason that when such work is performed with a device such as a grinder, the room in which, with the help of the latter, the impact on a wall made of brick or concrete took place, is instantly filled a huge amount concrete or brick dust.

This gets to the point where it becomes literally impossible to breathe in the room, even if you are wearing a special protective mask on your face.

A large number dust is bad in every way. Therefore, in order to minimize the appearance of dust, you should use a device such as a hammer drill. Yes and auxiliary equipment in this case it will not be needed.

Important points

In addition to the above tools, you may need:

Before starting work, marking of electrical points is necessary.

• roulette;
• marker or pencil;
• hammer;
• chisel.

So, how to make holes in a wall built from concrete material for mounting boxes intended for sockets or switches.

At the very beginning of the process, it is necessary to draw on the surface of the wall in the right place the outline of the hole that will be made in the future. And this is usually already completely assembled block from mounting boxes.

You should immediately make sure that the drawn figure is strictly level and located at the required distance from the floor surface.

Next, you should load a fairly wide drill into the hammer drill, you must proceed directly to drilling holes in the surface of the concrete wall along the pre-determined contour of the figure, as close to each other as possible.

In this case, it is necessary to ensure that the depth of the hole for the future socket or switch is similar to the depth of the installation box, and preferably a little more.

After several holes have been drilled around the entire perimeter, it is necessary to make a number of holes inside the figure itself. Then you should, alternating a drill and a chisel, knock out the central section of the figure. First you need to break the partitions located between the holes that were drilled along the entire perimeter of the outline.

Safety glasses will protect your eyes from concrete shards.

1. You should definitely protect your own eyes, because concrete contains a fairly large amount of crushed stone and fragments of the latter constantly fly off into your face. Often these fragments get into the eyes, which is very, very unpleasant. In order to protect your eyes, you need to resort to glasses specially designed for such purposes, which are not particularly expensive, but will help to reliably protect your eyes;
2. It is necessary to use crushed stone in a concrete wall as its weak side. Because if you approach this task competently and know the place and time when you just need to dig, drill a little and simply break out a piece of concrete material thanks to a piece of crushed stone material that comes across.

In truth, there is a fairly simple way to make concrete or concrete walls into the surface. brick material presence of a hole for an outlet or switch. These are special so-called crowns for a hammer drill.

An unusual solution to a seemingly long-resolved issue.

Who said that the hole for the socket must be round?

This imposed idea most likely arose from the shape of the round undercut. But when installing the plastic strip of the socket, the hole becomes invisible. And what difference does it make whether it is round, square or hexagonal - the main thing is that the edge of the hole does not protrude beyond the perimeter of the lid. The shape of the inner part of the rosette is rectangular and easily fits into a rectangular hole prepared in the tile.

square hole for socket

What are the advantages of a rectangular socket hole? First of all, the speed of cutting tiles, ease of marking and the absence of unnecessary tools. If you mark and trim tiles in such a way that it overlaps the socket box in some places - this will create additional fixation of the latter. Some Euro plugs fit tightly into the socket and tear out the socket when pulled out.

If you make a hole for a socket or switch, as is usually customary, round, then for this you need to have a cutter or . You can't make a hole with just one cutter. The cutter is attached to the drill. If you use a mixer or a hammer drill for drilling, then you must also have special chucks to attach the cutter to these tools. And most importantly, all this fuss with cutters and “ballerinas” is true for soft wall tiles. In the case of laying porcelain stoneware (this happens more and more often due to the cheapness of the latter), it is unrealistic to make a round hole with these tools. Here you already need special cutters for the turbine or drill.

A rectangular hole in any tile can be easily made using a grinder and a tile cutting wheel. And you can make it much faster than a round hole:

• No need to purchase additional tool– after all, a turbine with a cutting wheel is one of the main tools needed for laying tiles.
• The second advantage of a rectangular hole is the ease of marking and cutting out the part of the tile. The difficulty in marking a round hole lies in determining the center of the circle to be cut. This is necessary for fixing some cutters and ballerinas, or when several tiles meet on a rosette.

What size should be the hole for the socket in the tile? What are the sizes?

– When installing the square to be cut out, it is necessary to push off (focus) on the holes for attaching the metal frame with the socket body. They must be free for screwing in self-tapping screws or other fasteners. The tiles should not interfere during electrical installation work. If you create a margin of 2-3 mm, then the socket body fits in freely, and the plastic cover covers the cut edges in the tile with a margin.

A short video on marking and cutting a hole in porcelain stoneware for a socket.

To date, I have found only one specialist on the Russian-language Internet who agrees with my method of making a hole in the tile for sockets. Basically, this method only causes controversy and accusations of lack of professionalism (such as “collective farmer”).

Although many Western videos show how even square holes are cut out for pipes:

Square hole for pipes

This article is not for the “pros”, but for those who want to do it quickly and simply, the “collective farm” way. For comparison, what most masters do in this matter is the video below. They can no longer be remade - this is a break in the pattern. Very few people are willing to sacrifice principles for the sake of perfection.