As part of the great deck plan, I have to move the exhaust vent for my dryer. It currently goes up over the sill plate and through the band-board and bricks just at the top of the foundation wall. However, since the ledger board for the deck will completely cover that area, I need to move the dryer vent lower down, through the foundation wall.
The wall is supposedly, three core block with a molded stone face on the outside. First, I pulled out the current dryer vent, chiseled out the pieces of brick, cleaned out the old mortar, and found two whole matching bricks to seal the hole up. I didn't have mortar on hand so just plugged the hole up for now. since I've never done any brick work before, I've managed to procrastinate finishing that part of the job for now. Then I went into the basement and chucked up a half inch masonry bit into my hammer drill. I marked out the 4.25 inch circle in the middle of one of the blocks and started drilling a hole at the 12:00 position. After the three plus inches of drill bit didn't hit a void, I broke out the shiny new ten inch bit I purchased. After a half our of on and off drilling, to let the bit cool down here and there, I had plunged that sucker right up to the chuck and had still not punched through. I put the shorter bit back in and drilled holes at the 9:00 and 3:00 positions and still no void in the block. I resigned myself to break out the chisels and hammer. Since I didn't have chisels or a small sledge, it was out to Lowes for us. Some large quantity of money later I was the proud owner of a rather hefty bag of mortar, a couple of trowels, a striking tool for the tricky mortar joints, two rather large and heavy chisels, and a three pound, short-handeled mallet. After disconnecting the dryer gas line so I could move it out of the way, I started in on the wall with sledge and chisel. A couple of hours later, and about an inch into the wall I decided this was not going to work. I have now borrowed a rather impressive looking demolition drill from my future brother-in-law. The damn box nearly pulled my arm out of the socket when I went to pick it up. Hell, the chisels and 12 inch long, one inch diameter bit he had in the case weigh almost as much as my little hammer drill. Later this week I may go out to Lowes and see if I can rent a core bit and just plow through the wall in one fell swoop. If not, it will be a lot of drilling and chiseling through what appears to be 12 inches of solid block. SHEESH! -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (412) 268-9081 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Check out the new improvements in Yahoo! Groups email. http://us.click.yahoo.com/6pRQfA/fOaOAA/yQLSAA/86xolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml Visit The New Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following Address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the new archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blindhandyman/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
