I need to drill a small 1" passthru in a roughly 7' X 10' load bearing wall,
will this hurt anything?

According to Aaron :
I need to drill a small 1" passthru in a roughly 7' X 10' load bearing wall,
will this hurt anything?

No. If the voids in the cinder block are filled with concrete
and/or rebar, it could be rather difficult. But that's rather
unlikely. You want to drill through a hollow. You probably
don't want to shatter the block (mostly from an esthetic
perspective), so don't get too violent with a hammer drill.

I've watched electricians punch holes in foundation cinder block
using hand sledges. This is for installing 2" PVC conduit for
service entrances, and the irregularities in the hole will
be hidden by the fittings and hole sealant. Surprisingly
neat holes tho.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

Thanks, I was worried about disturbing the integrity of the wall itself but
I didn't know at what point (from a structural) point of view you could do
this. I am assuming if you punched too many holes or too large of a hole
that at some point cracks would appear and you would disturb the integrity
of the wall?


"Chris Lewis" wrote in message
...
According to Aaron :
I need to drill a small 1" passthru in a roughly 7' X 10' load bearing
wall,
will this hurt anything?

No. If the voids in the cinder block are filled with concrete
and/or rebar, it could be rather difficult. But that's rather
unlikely. You want to drill through a hollow. You probably
don't want to shatter the block (mostly from an esthetic
perspective), so don't get too violent with a hammer drill.

I've watched electricians punch holes in foundation cinder block
using hand sledges. This is for installing 2" PVC conduit for
service entrances, and the irregularities in the hole will
be hidden by the fittings and hole sealant. Surprisingly
neat holes tho.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

Aaron wrote:
Thanks, I was worried about disturbing the integrity of the wall
itself but I didn't know at what point (from a structural) point of
view you could do this. I am assuming if you punched too many holes
or too large of a hole that at some point cracks would appear and you
would disturb the integrity of the wall?

No, the crack would stop at the next course of blocks. You could probably
remove every other block and the wall would be okay. Come to think on it,
I've seen walls done that way: a checker-board with blocks and spaces.
Evidently it works.

HeyBub wrote:
Aaron wrote:
Thanks, I was worried about disturbing the integrity of the wall
itself but I didn't know at what point (from a structural) point of
view you could do this. I am assuming if you punched too many holes
or too large of a hole that at some point cracks would appear and you
would disturb the integrity of the wall?

You could probably
remove every other block and the wall would be okay.

Clearly removing blocks from a wall will reduce its strength. The question is
whether the reduction it too severe. If the wall is much stronger than it
needs to be, removing some of the blocks will maintain enough strength. However,
if the wall is _just_ strong enough, removing even one block may have a
deleterious effect.

A small hole will have a small effect on the strength - the material in the
block will transfer the stresses around the hole. Too big a hole and the block
is seriously weakened.

Somewhere in the standards for these blocks you'll find a reference for how many
holes can be tolerated with negligible loss of integrity. I don't have a copy
of such a standard on hand - try the web.

Mike