On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 16:14:18 GMT, "Matt G"
wrote:

I'm thinking of knocking a hole in an external wall for venting the
exhaust of our portable air conditioner as I'm not keen on dangling the
vent out of a window. The unit came with what appears to be a simple
externally mounting flange with a seperate lid to cover it up when not
in use. I can see several problems with this though.

I did this job earlier this year.

- The flange is wide open with no grille or slats or anything on the
outside. I can imagine all sorts of undesirable weather and wildlife
finding its way indoors.

Once I had fitted the external flange (which had an integral plastic
door opened by the pressure of air coming from within) I bought a
small sheet of fine wire netting from the local garden centre. From
that I fashioned a small mesh grill which I araldited to the flange.

1/4in mesh, doesn't have any impact on the ability of the flange to
export air, but suitably small to prevent wildlife from coming in.

- The flange being externally mounted and not very deep means that the
hose would have to be stuck through a rough hole in the internal wall
(concrete block, I assume), across the cavity, and through a hole in the
external (brick) wall. Would there be any problems with bridging the
cavity in this manner?

To be honest I bought a 107mm plastic hole liner which was designed
for the job. Cost about a tenner if I remember correctly.

Also, what tools would I need? This seems to be an excellent opportunity
to get my wife to agree to the purchase of a decent SDS drill

I tried drilling the 107mm hole with a core drill and my trusty black
and decker 650w drill. Pretty soon volumes of smoke emerged from the
drill, a quick visit to the local DIY shed saw the purchase of a 900w
SDS drill, and it pushed thru the hole no problem at all.

In my opinion you won't be able to do this sort of job without a
suitable drill, and the average home drill won't cut the mustard.

PoP