Making good blown brick face

[telectrix]

Bosch 2608596116 S4L SDS-Plus Drill Bits 8mm x 450mm 3165140045155 - https://www.powertoolsuk.co.uk/bosch-2608596116-s4l-sds-plus-drill-bits-8mm-450mm.html

 

[gazdkw82]

Bosch 2608596116 S4L SDS-Plus Drill Bits 8mm x 450mm 3165140045155 - https://www.powertoolsuk.co.uk/bosch-2608596116-s4l-sds-plus-drill-bits-8mm-450mm.html

Guessing that's a decent drill bit then

 

[telectrix]

yep,but being so thin, easily snapped if drilling cavity walls.

 

[pirate]

What's the difference between a pen*s and a bonus?
Your wife will happily blow the bonus!

Seriously though...spalling brickwork is a real pain, and it's sometimes just a question of knowing the type of brick commonly found in your locality. We had a local builder who always used a cheap brick, he was renowned for it, and once you knew you were working on one of his houses you watched out for it. Best to drill from the outside, obviously...but if fitting, say, an aerial cable, always have a cover plate handy to cover the hole.

Fortunately, as the bricks were so prone to spalling, you could always find some slices of the facing lying around, so could mash it up and paste onto the surface of the under-brick. I always collected some bits of spalled facing and kept them for just such cases.

Naturally I can't name the builder for fear of being sued, but just to illustrate the state of his business, when we did a search of the Personal Registers, as they used to be called, the printout with the inhibitions against that company would actually run across the office floor for 30 feet...maybe 100 entries, each one having to be traced and its corresponding discharge traced and marked off.
Happy days!

 

[littlespark]

Most of the houses round me have pebble dash harling on... and not very well put on.

Some unlucky sod gets the wrong house, drills through (even with no hammer and the smallest drill he’s got) and 2 foot of harling drops off the wall

 

[Intoelectrics]

Get some weatherproof clear glue and mix it with some of the dust, drill a brick out of sight it you need more dust to colour it, another option is get some grab adhesive/ filler and then on the last couple of mm push the brick dust into/onto it, when it dries, the dust will be solid and will blend in well.

9 times out of 10 you can just re-use the bits that have blown off. If (as you stated) you use a good quality weather proof adhesive, with a little care you can glue the bits back on and the brick can look good as new. I've done this on many occasions and on my own house years ago, the brick is still just fine.

I always try and drill out to in where possible. But if i need to drill in to out I will take it off hammer (as been previously suggested) and run fast speed with lighter pressure for the last bit. Sometimes this is not easy to do though when its difficult to judge the depth. But it works really well and rarely blows the brick face off.

I do tend to keep the tungsten on the drill bits really sharp using a grinder. Provided you don't get the bit too hot else the braising melts, this is a simple technique. People don't often realise that much like a wood or metal bit the tungsten bits require a little bit of tlc to maintain optimum performance.

 

[Marvo]

You could maybe use a galv conduit box round lid with a brass bush for the cable to come through in it and just screw it directly to the wall to cover up the exit wound.