Drilling through foundation.

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Kraven

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Jun 2, 2012
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Northern, VT
In a few weeks, am going to have to permanently run the wires through the house. Anyone here have experience w/ drilling? My calculations, am going to need to drill either a 2 or 3" hole for 5 sets of wires (4 Rg6 lines + actuator cable). Am worried about doing something stupid and causing damage to the foundation.

Cheers, K
 
What kind of foundation? If it's a block crawlspace, just punch a hole through one of the aluminum foundation vents, and caulk around it after pulling the wires through. Sure beats drilling through the block, and if you do it right, it won't even affect the vent much.
 
You could cut a hole through the siding like I did. Not to mention holes cut through the siding for natural gas, air conditioning central air unit, dryer vent, and exterior lights.
 
In a few weeks, am going to have to permanently run the wires through the house. Anyone here have experience w/ drilling? My calculations, am going to need to drill either a 2 or 3" hole for 5 sets of wires (4 Rg6 lines + actuator cable). Am worried about doing something stupid and causing damage to the foundation.

Cheers, K

I know for a fact you can get 3 rg6 cables in a 5/8 hole. You should be able to get by with a 1" hole, anything more would be over kill. You're not going to hurt your foundation, but watch out for other obstacles, piping, electrical wire, etc.
 
I know for a fact you can get 3 rg6 cables in a 5/8 hole. You should be able to get by with a 1" hole, anything more would be over kill. You're not going to hurt your foundation, but watch out for other obstacles, piping, electrical wire, etc.

Yeah, and DON'T use a pistol to shoot a hole through the wall to run your wires! We all know how that one ends! :eek:
 
Foundation????? Please, you do not mean that do you? A wall above grade OK - maybe. Or below grade into a crawl space - maybe. OLD cured concrete will be very hard to drill. Do not drill larger than you need, and plan to caulk with rodent / insect proof filler. However, an un-named relative drilled a hole at grade, through the wall into a storage area of the basement. Ran power 10-3 w/G UG. caulked and used steel wool. About six years went by and they had a small fire where rodents had chewed through the power cable into the basement and termites or carpenter ants also came in and into the floor joists. Repairs were about $22,000 on a $55,000 house. There are ways of doing it right. NMT. LBs sealants. Not a quick and easy insufficient information type of project.
Cables over head ?, underground ?, direct buried ? or in conduit ?- for starters. Holes below grade have to be in conduit to meet some codes, and above grade by 14 inches and in conduit before penetrating walls in others. Do not care about codes? Well, the insurance investigators do! Relative above had the claim completely rejected. Could have met code for less than $20 and been covered.
And I would consider having a contractor drill the hole and run the conduit through the wall, 2 inch or so, with sealable weathertite boxes inside and out. They would have the drills and other tools, know the codes, have the correct sealants etc. It would take me 3 days to do that kind of job. A good foundation working sealing contractor, maybe 2 to 3 hours. If you can come 14 inches above grade and through a wall - with rigid NMT, That is a whole lot easier.
 
2 or 3 holes might be better than one. But as noted, we need more details.

NMT?
 
I always went through mortar between blocks, but thats with a single rg6 cable. Some houses above the block foundation you will have a floor joist between the blocks and subfloor that wouldnt be too hard to go through. Remember to use drip loops as another precaution against unwanted moisture coming in
 
Best place is through the rim joist, which is the board standing on end where your floor joists sit on your foundation. Use conduit from the bottom of your trench into a weatherproof box, drilling through the back of the box through the rim joist. Seal it with caulking, steel wool or expanding foam to keep moisture bugs and rodents out.
 
Don't forget about flat wires that can be run through a window. thats what I use it works pretty good. run it through a window.

Dan Rose
 
I always went through mortar between blocks, but thats with a single rg6 cable. Some houses above the block foundation you will have a floor joist between the blocks and subfloor that wouldnt be too hard to go through. Remember to use drip loops as another precaution against unwanted moisture coming in

I have multiple cables coming in separate holes like this. I just use a carbide tip drill bit that is just big enough to get the cable (without connector) through. If ever removed, the mortor can be patched. Just check where the hole is going to be on the inside before drilling, and as others have pointed out, watch out for wires, pipes or other obstructions.
 
BITD we'd drill a 1 inch hole for the 'ribbon' cable. (It can be rolled up into a circle)
I vote for a hole drilled through the rim joist. It's the easiest and most convenient. A larger hole, for more cables, with a weather tight box on the exterior with conduit into the trench would be, cosmetically, the superior solution. It's also a good place to locate ground blocks.
 
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I went out above the foundation and sill plate from the crawl space, ran everything in 1-1/4" plastic pipe. Made two separate piping runs, one for coax (6) and cat5 (2), the other for GFCI power at the dish array. If you have to drill into masonry, diamond hole saws have gotten cheap at the big box stores. When I cojoined my two houses it was a bear to bore two 12" holes in a 100 yr old foundation made of rock/scrap iron for running water/sewer/propane, etc
 
I also support making the holes at least 14" above grade and through the siding or rim joist. The foundation should only be used for support, not for pass through. I have had to install conduit and other cables through brick above the foundation. I tried using a standard drill for about 45 minutes, then i got super seriously frustrated. The Milwaukee 1/2" hammer drill I bought that day is one of my favorite power tools tools. If you are doing a lot of masonry work, invest in a few decent masonry bits and a light to medium duty hammer drill. Your shoulders will thank you for that small investment. It is a lot cheaper than the PT after the shoulder injury.:eek: For securing stuff like conduit hangers or junction boxes to concrete or cinderblock foundations, there is only one word - TAPCON.
 
Usually a feed through pipe is used and legal. It is used to feed air-conditioner lines, phone lines, coax cable, power lines through walls.
Drill hole, mortar or silicone feed through pipe in hole, run your coax through, silicone pipe shut with coax in it. Will pass inspection here in the US.
 
Usually a feed through pipe is used and legal. It is used to feed air-conditioner lines, phone lines, coax cable, power lines through walls.
Drill hole, mortar or silicone feed through pipe in hole, run your coax through, silicone pipe shut with coax in it. Will pass inspection here in the US.
Depending on where it enters the building, the caulk may need to be Fire / Smoke Rated to pass code, but otherwise 100% agree.
 
Several good points.. thanks everyone.

To recap. The house is 60 feet long. 10 ft from one end is the 6 footer and 10 ft from the other end is the OTA antennas. The wires will need to be run underground, and I admit piercing the siding will prevent possible problems, am worried the GF wont approve wores running up the wall. Can't use flat cables as all the windows are wired to the security system.

The original Comcast cable runs through the foundation on the side under the AC thermalpump (maybe 1.5 feet above ground level) into the shop where it feeds the cable model and a 4 way powered splitter (shop has all the modem, 2 routers, voip adapter, spliters so I prefer having it in here).

Ill check again as am now leaning piercing the sidding (basement has floating ceilings and about 2 feet to work with).

Cheers, K
 
Use a small (1/8" - 3/16") long pilot bit to drill from the inside out. If you measured things close, all you will hit outside is air. Then with a holesaw sized for the PVC pipe LB you are using drill from the outside in. you will have a very clean hole easy to seal and a close fit to your PVC elbow connector. A short sleeve of PVC pipe and a couple of screws till keep it attached to the house. After the wires are in, you can seal the pipe with fiberglass or foam. Whether or not you choose to have all your buried cable in pipe depends on if you have gophers or are a menace with the string trimmer.
 
When you say foundation, is that concrete? at 1.5 feet above ground, it IS a wall. Check and/or probe carefully and gently to see if there is room around the other cables to slide wires through. Connectors may hang up, where coax etc may slide through. Pictures would help.... 18 years installing phone and alarm line lets a person think--- from inside the box >> out.
 
Thanks again all for your help and suiggestions. Finally got around this weekend and drilled a 5/8" inch hole. NOw I have 4 rg6 cables coming though (OTA, Ku Dish, Future C* dish and a spare).

Cheers, K

PS- Am no engineer, but I was surprised it only took me 15 minutes to survey the building from outside, inspect the floating ceiling in basement and finally drill. Now no more opening windows and passing a cable through it.... peace of mind = priceless
 
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