Concrete lintel.

[The Mighty Prawn]

I have the same problem, it's a concrete lintel and laughs at my attempts to drill into it so I'm going down the batten and no more nails fix then fix the blind to that!

Typical that most of my house is not very well built as it's a nailer's cottage and they threw them up, but occasionally there is a part so well built it's bomb proof

[Jonty]

11 hours ago, Pigeon Shredder. said:

I have been redecorating my sons house for the past month and it's now time to fit the curtain rails and blinds.

My first effort at drilling into the wall was met with more resistance than l've ever had before, 12/15mm in and the lintel ain't having any of it, Bosch hammer drill and nice new Stanley drills.

Whats my best bet please, don't mind hiring the tool for the job as l just need to get it done.

Many thanks in advance.

As the others have said, SDS all the way.  Bit of a long shot, but if you're anywhere near me - settle, yorkshire dales, you're more than welcome to borrow my cordless SDS rather than hire one

[vampire]

If as he says,he is only 15mm deep then its hardly going to be any steel bar as he is only just gone through the render/scim coat,so its hard concrete lintel and as has been said sds drill is the only way to do it.

Have a look at screw fix/toolstation buy the drill and sell afterwards.

[Jaymo]

Poss Steel, run an hss bit in there- if it doesn’t swarf up then it’s going to be a flint or suchlike pebble that you have unfortunately found.

[Pigeon Shredder.]

Thanks to all who have offered advice and the use of their own personal equipment, it looks like a sds drill will be used to solve the problem, will report back on the completion of the work.

PS.

[bruno22rf]

Aldi sometimes have them in for under £40 - paid £12 for mine at B&Q in their clearance section about 3 years ago - didn't realise just how different they are until I used it to break up some old Concrete slabs in the garden using the chisel bit, just like a mini jack hammer.

[Pigeon Shredder.]

Update.

With many thanks to PW member markhoward13 who lives in my old stomping ground and has loaned me his Bosch GBH 2-26 DRE Professional SDS drill and bits.

This morning l drilled the lintels and it was like pushing a hot knife into butter, these drills are in another world to what l've always used and l can't thank Mark enough for the loan.

l did ask him what he drank as a thank you but he insisted he does not partake, so it looks like a box of chocolates for his other half may suffice instead.

[LondonLuke]

29 minutes ago, Pigeon Shredder. said:

Update.

With many thanks to PW member markhoward13 who lives in my old stomping ground and has loaned me his Bosch GBH 2-26 DRE Professional SDS drill and bits.

This morning l drilled the lintels and it was like pushing a hot knife into butter, these drills are in another world to what l've always used and l can't thank Mark enough for the loan.

l did ask him what he drank as a thank you but he insisted he does not partake, so it looks like a box of chocolates for his other half may suffice instead.

 

Top darts that man

[Cosd]

On 3/30/2018 at 14:36, Pigeon Shredder. said:

Update.

With many thanks to PW member markhoward13 who lives in my old stomping ground and has loaned me his Bosch GBH 2-26 DRE Professional SDS drill and bits.

This morning l drilled the lintels and it was like pushing a hot knife into butter, these drills are in another world to what l've always used and l can't thank Mark enough for the loan.

l did ask him what he drank as a thank you but he insisted he does not partake, so it looks like a box of chocolates for his other half may suffice instead.

Unless you experience trying to drill into super hard concrete and finding your trusted normal hammer drill won't even scratch the surface,  it's near impossible to imagine how anything can go through it with ease like an SDS can.

Great that you got your job done!!

 

Cos