I want to cut a channel in a breezeblock wall to run some hidden cables. I did the same a few years a ago using an angle grinder and it made a horrendous mess, with brick dust filling the house (my wife nearly didn't talk to me for a week!)
I need to make quite a deep/wide channel - anyone got any suggestion for the easiest/cleanest way to do it?
Many Thanks.
Steve.
If it's breeze block, a hammer and nice sharp chisel would be very easy.
There is no easier way other than what you already did, However pin polythene sheeting around area like a bubble sealed off, cut the chase and knock out excess and leave the polythene in place till the dust settles. As an addition wet the wall as you cut.
-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite
I bought the Aldi wall chaser. It looks like a pair of offset angle grinder discs but mounted in a circular saw mechanism, and it spins more slowly. OK the Aldi tool may only last for another few jobs but it made a really neat channels from which it was easy to chip away the centre bit-by-bit until I had the pipe channel I needed.
My tip, for what it is worse, probably not much, is to save your lungs. Attach a good vacuum cleaner to the affixed exhaust (if it has one), wear goggles of course, and breath through a long snorkel tube whose end is someplace with clean air.
My first attempt, whilst making a nice job, left me wheezing for quite a few hours. It's a vicious dusty business.
If dust is important, hammer and chisel.
SDS drill in hammer only mode with a chisel bit or a special wall chasing bit[1]. Much less work than chasing by hand but no more mess and dust than doing it by hand.
[1] Which works best will depend on your plaster. With newer plaster the gouging bit will work wonders. With crumbly old stuff however you may find a gouging bit will pull off loads of skim coat. In which case a 40mm wide chisel will work almost as well and not damage the skim coat as much.
Really? I've not seen the Aldi one, but the ones I've used are same speed as angle grinders.
You need a damn good cyclone cleaner to keep up with the dust volume these things chuck out. A bagged cleaner will be useless. The cheaper chasers don't have well designed dust paths and extraction take-offs anyway, which can easily block and may not actually capture a high percentage of the dust in the first place.
Concur; but would add ... draw on the wall where the you want the channel to go - both edges. with the SDS drill set to hammer /rotary stop mode;- use a wide (broad) chisel 40mm to delineate the lines you've drawn use the channelling chisel - it's like a shovel on a cranked arm - to chisel out the channel . I tend to start at the bottom and work my way upwards; others may vary. Tape a plastic bin-liner to the floor to catch the bits (80% effective); have an assistant hold a vacuum cleaner hose near to your chisel...; wear eye-protection; - You should finish with a sharp sided 'U' channel sunk into the wall. [If you require to channel behind skirting boards -there's a long-armed cranked chisel too. The very first time I tried to channel, I used the angle-grinder approach - the job was done: ... but the dust ... noise ... ! Never again ... go the SDS cum chisel route!
What works for me is to drill two rows of closely spaced holes along the edges of the channel with a 10mm SDS bit, and then a chisel bit removes everything without any collateral damage.
Unless it's a very hard wall I use a club hammer and bolster. Takes a
*bit* longer but I don't have to spend an hour sweeping and hoovering
Hasn't anyone heard of these when cutting 'breezeblock'? you set it at an angle and cut into the breezeblock and then chisle it out easily.
Thermalite blocks, yes, it's the standard method.
Your thinking of the cinder block as far as I'm aware from me apprenticeship days breezeblock was the softer of the two as you pointed out(Thermalite blocks).
-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite
"Breezeblock" are lightweight concrete blocks that are, nonetheless difficult to saw. Their appearance is much more granular (and dark grey) than the dense concrete blocks. Thermailite blocks (light grey)are more like compressed powder or pumice. They have poor abrasion resistance and strength but good insulating properties and are light. They will support structural steel if a dense concrete pad is used between the two. Thermalite blocks can be quite easily cut by the saw you mention. I don't think you would find it so easy with "breezeblocks" (about the same as housebricks I would imagine).
I think you'll find that breeze block is ordinary sand/cement/gravel concrete with vertical holes (that a breeze can blow through), cinderblock is softer and solid (made from cement and cinders).
You can carve a channel in most materials with a chisel bit in a Kango hammer. Use a wide bit or a hand-held bolster chisel to define the edges first, then carve away the middle bit.
Colin Bignell
Breeze block is as soft as, well, very soft stuff.
Nah.
Breeze block nowadays is almost any lightweight block AFAIK.
Can I borrow your angle grinder? Sounds like bliss. ;p
Perhaps you're thinking of something else? Original breeze blocks were horrible things to get a fixing in or chase into.
I still reckon people are confusing breeze blocks (hard, hollow) with cinder blocks (soft, solid).
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