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At 365Drills we provide either the equipment you need or a SERVICE to come and drill your bath or project. We will arrive in the van or if space is tight (Often in Central London) we use the Smart car.
If you want us to come out contact us via the main website:
LETS GET STARTED
First job is to inspect the bath with the client. Work out what material its made of (this will affect HOW we make the hole) and then we mark out with the client where they want their appliances.
In this instance the clients want three holes drilled. One for hot. One for cold. And the last as the bath fill. We inspect the equipment and measure the tolerance on the fittings and the cover plates.
Working with the clients there can be MANY changes made to the final holes. For example here you can see that the client wanted to try various options to move the equipment forward of the tiles but without running over the edge of the bath. We worked with them to view as many options as possible until they were happy with the final layout.
This is the bit where it can all go wrong! So many lines and holes it can be easy to make a mistake.. So the drill lines are redrawn and the final layout approved. Better to be safe than sorry.
The first cut is always the deepest! OK so now at the point of no return and its time to remove as much enamel as possible because this gets in the way of the tank cutter and blunts it. We place the yellow anti slip guide over the hole and then diamond drill a safety ring into the enamel. This will prevent chipping and splitting of the paintwork beyond the hole and will let us get access to the metal.
All three holes have been safety drilled to get that out ring in place. Now with the bare metal exposed its time to remove the internal enamel so that the tank cutter gets the best shot at grinding through that tough metal.
Here you see a close up of the action. We have the pilot drill in place and plenty of bare metal for the teeth of the drill to bite into.
Its best to take your time. Set the drill to SPEED ONE (or lowest) and the sharp teeth of the tank cutter will slowly start to shred the metal of the bath...
The tank cutter is working its way effectively through the bath and cutting the holes into the metal. At 365-Drills we only use the SHARPEST tank cutters will ultra hardened steel teeth. Even so they only have a short working life. Once they start to go blunt you can end up in all sorts of trouble. The hole gets hot. The teeth turn blue and then the metal of the bath will fight back. Then you start to lose enamel and pop it cracks and fly's off.. Not what you want !
So great news the tank cutter has slowly but surely ground the hard metal of the bath into small filings and the holes are complete. The hard bit is over and now its time to get cleaning.
Cleaning may be easy but IT IS CRITICAL to the job. Those metal shards are razor sharp and just one left behind could scratch the enamel of the bath and ruin it. So you got to be thorough. We us a mix of portable vacuum cleaners, wet wipes and soft brushes. Really take your time on the clean up and don't let anything get left behind. Those gaps under the tiles are a nightmare for small shards to collect so clean clean clean. And once its clean. Clean again !
Looking under the bath you can see that the hole will have certain snags and bits connected to it. Critical at this point to run a file around the hole. You can see to the area on the right where we HAVE filed. And you can see to the left where we have NOT filed. Take your time. PS: DO NOT PUT YOUR FINGERS into the hole as a guide to see if the hole is smooth at the edges. I did it once. Just once! Better to use a glove and you should be able to tell if its rough with the glove. I also use good lights. We take floodlights to the site LED spotlamps and then rig them up UNDER the bath. Spend some quality time filing that hole so the paint can get a good grip.
Give the holes a generous coating of the appropriate paint. Paint type depends on bath type. We make sure to use the right type of paint on the right baths.
Get back under the bath and make sure you are generous with the painting underneath as well. Don't just paint from the top and if possible get your head round to as many places as you can to double check no metal is exposed.
Do not fit items for at least 24hrs and when you do use silicone to add an extra layer of protection
JOB DONE
After the job - And just to show life is not always fair..
In this particular case we all went back outside to find the warden had been busy and the vans given a little welcome gift by the council...
Thanks for that! Just what we need to come outside to see having spent two hours cramped up in a bathroom trying to earn a living. Peace and love... Peace and love...
