Small holes for fixtures and fittings - TilersForums.co.uk | Tile Forums

**365drills** · 06-05-2007

This is a tile we drilled using a small 8mm diamond drill.

We slightly overbored it to slip in a 6 or 7mm rawl plug. In this photo you can see a traditional drill bit in the orange drill pack. These are spade drills and they work from the centre out.

The spade rips the tile to form an ever wider circle until it pushes through the glaze. We however use a diamond cone. The cone only remove the outer edge of the 8mm hole making it a less agressive process. Diamond drills for use with fixtures and fitting are a gentle solution.

This is the hollow core going into the tile. Its about the size of a bic biro.

The advantage of this is less chipping of the tile in such a small area.

You can see below the hole is perfect and the rawl plug just slides in.

OK so perhaps on first impressions the rawl plug is looking a bit lost in the tile but the idea is not to put pressure on the tile with the fitting. You can crack it. What we want is the substrate behind to take the weight of the fitting which could be a bathroom cabinet for example.

Here you can see the screw pushes in. Already the jaws of the plug are opening to fit the space.

The rawl plug would by now be slotted into the substrate at the back of the tile. Either ply, wood, breeze block or brick. Its the back of the tile that should bear the weight.

Also look closely at all the holes in this picture to see totally perfect holes. Even at the back.

We supply packs of four drills just to take care of small holes for just £29.99

For more information about the small hole pack or all our drill solutions click Here

Richard

**Dan** · 07-05-2007

Richard,

Doesn't the plug expand and give the tile a bit of grief when the plug is using the tile to grip? I've had tiles split when I've not pushed the plug past the biscuit.

Not to offend your very informative write-up though *blushes* - just trying to spark conversation in one of your threads

**365drills** · 07-05-2007

I probably havent explained it properly because I missed out a couple of steps above.

Yes you are right - you want zero pressure or weight on the tile hole edge.

I forgot to explain that we drill holes in two parts. The first is this 8mm core for the tile

Then we switch to either a 6mm masonary or twist drill to bore the substrate at the back of the tile.

We always use these 6mm red plugs too. We never use the yellow - even on lighter items.

By having an 8mm tile hole leading itno a 6mm bore gives almost 2mm for the plug to expand onto the tile.

You can push the plug right back through the tile but dont go too deep into the bore or the screw will bend at the front under the weight of the fixture pressing on the tile.

You want to be seeing this sort of gap between the tile and rawl plug.

When you push the screw into the plug all the "give" will be taken up and a nice snug fit is achievable.

Also it goes without saying that on any tile but especially thin or ceramics not to over tighten screws. And also try not to use fat or stumpy screws. Short fat screws can break tiles even in the 8mm/6mm combo. We actually throw away the screws and plugs supplied with many fixures and use our own instead. Its suprising how many fixures come supplied with very poor screws and plugs.

I may have mentioned before I am not a tiler (so who am I to be giving tips... ! ) But we go out to lots of jobs - especially in London - JUST TO DRILL HOLES!

We provide a hole drilling service mainly for top end installations with porcelain tiles in situations where tilers have installed expensive tiles but refuse to drill them in situ.

To give you a figure on it last year we attended 24 jobs in the London area just to drill holes into tiles already fitted to the wall. And we charge £200 a day to do it.

What the clients gets for £200 is peace of mind especially when they just spent about £10,000 on a luxury bathroom. They dont want to see their newly installed granite or porcelain split or crack open due to overloaded screwholes.

These customers also pay for a contractor who turns up just to do the silicone work. Silicone is a specialist job !

This topic might sound overkill just to put a few tiny holes into bathrooms but the old days of cheating by using the grout lines to fit fixtures is over. Many tilers would look for the grout line as the best place to put fittings. But tiles are getting a lot lot bigger. And also the look a lot more "minimal".

The downside to minimal is the eye is drawn to imperfection. So its very important to make sure every fitting is fitted to its very best.

I am a bit of a saddo because when I am out in public I actively look for bad examples of small hole drilling. It suprising how many blown, cracked or damaged tiles there are out there all due to poor fixure installation.

Most of my observations are gents loos in bars, pubs, clubs and resteraunts. I have shared them with peers and my wife telling them about such discoveries.

You can almost hear them groaning and telling me to shut up!

R

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