Drilling holes in an internal concrete wall for wall plugs and shelves

[FluffEars]

I'm trying to hang a shelf and this will be my first shelf. I wrote earlier posts here a few days ago. I watched YouTube videos. I bought supplies.

The drill I bought is from Amazon. It's a battery drill charged by USB. It has masonry bits and a hammer mode. That's what I am using it on.

I started earlier today. Taking measurements and marking my wall.

I then began work. However I am not making much progress. I am still working on the first hole. I have the drill bit marked for the size of the wall plug. My wall plug is 3cm long and I swear it's only going in half way. This is after about an hour of drilling. Taking a break to charge the drill again and after another 20 minutes of drilling.

This is taking forever.

Surely it shouldn't take this long.

What am I doing wrong?

Should I give up for the rest of the evening?

The idea of drilling another hole doesn't appeal to me any more. This is just awful. It's taking so long. I have an envelope taped to the wall under my hole to collect dust and I am collecting dust from the drilling.

Anyone here into DIY?

Is there any life hack that will drill a hole quickly.

I just can't any more.

Hammer drill setting, then a masonry bit, with a plug in drill thats heavy duty, i made errors with hanging baskets using lower power settings

If you have concrete walls I'd get an SDS drill. Ours is so much easier to drill into concrete than our regular corded hammer action drill.

It's OP again.

So my Bosch drill came earlier in the week.

I went in for round number two today to drill some holes for the shelf I want to hang up.

I estimate my wall plug to be about 4 or 4.5 cm long.

I started the drill work at about 4.30. I was on and off drilling for about two hours.

I would say I only ever got half way with the hole. Maybe about 2cm drilled.

I am using masonry bits. It's a corded drill. As in electronic and I can definitely feel the force. I can see the work happening. I would say the hole was quicker this time around then last week. However I never got deep enough and I just gave up.

I am so disappointed.

It's definitely not in reverse.

I think I will get a poster for the wall where I was drilling now.

I think I will get some more storage cubes from IKEA and just stack them instead of putting them up as shelves. And donate some things to clear some space.

I am so disappointed. I really wanted to put up wall shelves.

I was so happy with my tools and I was reasonably confident with my level and placement too. I just can't bear to go at it again.

My arms are beginning to get a little weak too from the drill.

Are you using it on percussion setting or only drill setting? You need to be using it on percussion to make the holes (usually a setting with a hammer and a drill bit drawing).

It shouldn't have required 2 hours. Is there a switch on the drill to put it in hammer mode?

OP, when you start drilling, do you start with the drill bit that fits the hole needed, or start with a smaller drill bit and work up?
The first time I drilled into concrete I started with the large drill bit ... the one the right size for the large screw...and it was really hard going!
By starting with a small drill bit and working up it was much easier.

Yes I definitely had it on the hammer mode.

The smallest drill bit I had was 5 mm. I decided to use a 5.5 mm drill bit. It took a while but I still wasn't at the required depth for the wall plug marking and then I moved to a 7mm drill bit. I am definitely using the masonry drill bits.

Should I have started on a smaller drill bit.

I have 4 mm drill bit from the Amazon drill that I decided to keep. Would that work in my new drill? Should I start with 4, and work up to 5, 6, 7 mm.

Would that be quicker.

The idea of going at this again doesn't appeal to me.

Are you pushing with your body weight against the drill when you are drilling rather than just holding it?

There's no hard and fast rules, but I would definitely have started with a smaller drill bit than 5mm and worked up.
Yes, start with the 4mm, a 3mm would be perfect but a 4mm might be okay to work up from.
That way you're extending a small hole gradually by a mm or so each time, rather than trying to make a half centimetre hole in the wall all at once.

Am I supposed to push the drill into the wall with my weight? I was holding the drill in the hole. I wasn't aware I had to push on the drill.

Should I go in for round number three of this DIY task tomorrow and push on the drill.

I'm utterly sick of it now though. But I do need shelves in my room.

You do with concrete. We have solid concrete walls. We've given up hanging pictures, etc as it is so much work!

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't aware I had to push on the drill.

I'm not looking forward to attempting this again tomorrow. I am so sick of it. If it would only take me a few minutes a hole I think that would be good but it's taking forever.

OP, once you've done it successfully it will feel like a real achievement, and be much easier next time as you will know what to do.
But I can't stress enough, start small, re drill bits and gradually work up to the correct size.

You need an impact driver.

I have an impact hammer drill

This is the drill I got

How long should it take to drill one hole?

As an estimate. I am armed with all this new information now. To put weight into the drill and start small and work up - so 4mm, 5, mm, 6mm, 7mm..

It's not a big hole. It's 4.5 cm as an estimate..

How long would one hole take, at a guess.

I like to turn the speed up about half way. Should I turn it up all the way?

Speedwise, I would start at half speed and build up as you increase the size of the hole.
Half speed at the beginning is so you can stop the drill from bouncing around on the wall at impact.
How long to drill one 5.5mm hole, building up slowly?
Around 5 minutes?
Maybe a bit longer for the first hole.

Ok, What you don't know, you don't know, I would say that you could see everything to date as part of the learning exercise, but reading the thread from the start, I think the best thing would be to pretend that you are starting from the beginning!

From your picture you haven'teven get through the plaster yet, let alone into the concrete behind. There's only one reason - you're not pressing on the drill! It doesn't drill itself, unfortunately! The corded power drill you have now, with a masonary bit will drill a hole in that wall in 20 seconds, trust me. No need to keep changing the drill size, select the drill that matches the wall plug (the packet will tell you the size) and GO FOR IT. PRESS ON THE THING. It will work, you'll feel great, you'll be the DIY Queen of the Street!

You definitely have to push with a lot of force.

@FluffEars don't push with all your weight. You need to allow the hammer to do its work. You need to push a bit, but the hammer action should do the bulk of the work.

You are looking at a few seconds per hole. 20 seconds tops. You should be able to go straight in with the 5mm bit, although a smaller pilot hole will make life easier.

Make sure you use the correct size drill for the rawlplug you have which is in turn dictated by the size of the screw you want to put in the wall.

And you might need some better drill bits. I struggled to drill into my walls for years - until I got some new bits and then it was sooooooo much easier.

I find these yellow ones are brilliant.

OK to drill in a hole in concrete you need:
A decent masonry bit
Drill on hammer mode
Drill on highest speed setting
Push with a bit of force into the wall.
That should be it.

If you are really finding it difficult, start with a smaller masonry bit for the initial hole, then move up to the bigger bit.

Bloody ell. With kindness, get a professional in to do it and have them show you how to do it properly and safely. You can do it yourself next time.