Slitting is an important stage in a major overhaul. Allows for wiring in the walls according to the new layout. As a result, all power points in the room (sockets, switches, lighting devices) are displaced in a given direction. An experienced craftsman can make his own furrows in brick or concrete walls. He knows how to chisel walls for dust-free wiring. With proper skill, work is done quickly and accurately.
Basic norms and restrictions for gating
- Slitting is performed only vertically or horizontally. It is strictly forbidden to make diagonal or zigzag cuts.
- Deep channels must not be formed in load-bearing walls and ceilings. Optimum values are 25 mm.
- The length of one continuous groove should not exceed 3 m.
- When slitting pitched surfaces (walls of an attic room), the channel must be positioned so that it is parallel to the junction of two surfaces.
- The distance from the gas pipe to the furrow must be at least 40 cm. It is also forbidden to make vertical channels here.
- Be sure to draw a detailed diagram of the location of the strobes in the walls. This will allow you to refresh your memory of the wiring progress in the event of an emergency or the need to perform a new repair.
- The distance between the lines for wiring from windows and corners should be at least 1.5 m.
- A distance of 15 cm must be maintained from the overlapping slabs to the horizontal channels.
When laying the wiring, the cables must not cross each other. If such a wiring is done, then only as an exception and in minimal quantities.
Slitting methods
To make grooves for wiring without dust, everyone chooses the most convenient way for themselves in the presence of a specific type of tool.
Punch work
A tool with an SDS + chuck works best. Heavier equipment can damage the wall, punch through it. The best option is a three-mode tool with a chiseling function. As for hammer drills from the "home" class, after 2-3 hours of operation, their gearbox or cartridge assembly often fails.
Punching with a hammer drill produces more small and coarse debris than dust. Therefore, when carrying out work, you can use a construction or household vacuum cleaner. It is good if the master has an assistant who holds the nozzle of the device directly next to the punch. It is better to use a groove blade for slitting.
The Makita-2432 perforator already has a built-in vacuum cleaner. Equipment can be rented.
Work with a grinder
An angle grinder (aka Bulgarian) is more often used for cutting metal or paving slabs / other materials made of stone. In its pure form, the tool is not used to form furrows. With the help of a grinder, cuts are first made in concrete or brick. And then the necessary lines are knocked out with a puncher. This method allows you to maintain a uniform furrow depth.
In order to avoid a large amount of dust when working with a grinder, professionals resort to two methods of chipping:
- Wet cut formation. The entire surface to be treated must be constantly wetted.Do not splash onto a running disc. Moisten the wall before turning on the tool. Such chipping of the wall for wiring with a dust-free grinder is associated with constant waterlogging of the room, there is a high risk of flooding the neighbors from below.
- Using a vacuum cleaner. There are special devices on the market with which you can connect the suction equipment to the grinder and make dust-free furrows. The cost of such devices varies between 1,500 and 10,000 rubles.
The grinder can be used on all types of wall materials.
Work with a wall chaser
This version of the tool is especially good if large repairs are to be done. The principle of the chasing machine is two discs located with a small gap. A special cutter is installed between them. When the grooves are formed, the discs cut the edges of the tunnels. The cutter selects their core. Thanks to this, it is possible to achieve ideal evenness and depth of the grooves. The advantage of such a tool is that a vacuum cleaner can be connected to it to collect dust. The disadvantage is the orientation of the device to one type of building material. More often - on aerated concrete. It is possible to form furrows in brick or concrete. But this requires special types of wall chasers. They cost more. But their performance is lower.
Chisel / chisel and drill
This is the oldest way to make wiring grooves. Holes of the required depth are made along the lines of the marked marking with a step of about 2-2.5 cm using a drill. Then, with a chisel / chisel and a hammer, furrows are manually knocked out as if on a dotted line. With this method of work, the master spends a lot of time.
DIY wall chaser
To grind walls for wiring with your own hands, you can make a homemade wall chaser. To make it you will need:
- Powerful angle grinder from 1.2 kW. Such an indicator is extremely necessary, since the tool will rotate two diamond discs.
- Pipe with an inner section of 50 mm (metal).
- Sheet iron with a thickness of 2 mm or more.
- Wheels or bearings in the amount of 3-4 pieces with a diameter of 2-3 cm.
- Metal spacers for their arrangement between two discs (it is better to order them in advance from a turner).
- Metal fasteners (nuts, screws).
- Two or three cuts of small pipes.
Additionally, you need to prepare a file, a vice, a welding machine, a hammer, a vernier caliper, a ruler, and a pencil. The finishing touch is the coating of the discs with nitro enamel. Therefore, you need to prepare it too.
The principle of forming a homemade wall chaser is to attach two discs to an angle grinder for cutting in concrete. Between them, using spacers, maintain the required distance (along the width of the future groove).
If the grinder does not provide a thread for fixing two discs, you should not risk it. In the process of work, one of the working elements can fly off and injure the master.
Drill wall chaser
Making the right tool from a drill with your own hands is as easy as shelling pears. You just need to fix the desired cutter in the drill chuck. But the formation of grooves with such a device is not entirely of high quality. The grooves are of varying depth and width.
Air conditioning
Under the climate control device in the room, concrete walls of a panel house are often gouged. It is the chasing cutter that is inappropriate here. Better to use a grinder or hammer drill. It is necessary to follow the process so as not to stumble upon the reinforcement in the load-bearing walls (after all, it is in the front panels that grooves are made for wiring). If the reinforcement is damaged, it will weaken the supporting structure. In the future, the destruction of the building is possible. In order not to bump into fittings, it is imperative to use a metal detector before starting work. The channels for laying the cable for the air conditioner are 6 cm wide and 5 cm deep.
Homemade dust catcher for grinder
Craftsmen often resort to making their own protective casing for a grinder for a vacuum cleaner. Such a curtain will help remove dust. To work you need to take:
- aluminum pan;
- measuring instruments;
- grinder;
- paint.
A casing is cut from the bottom of the pan along the diameter of the grinder's impeller. Here you need to accurately calculate the depth of the disc. The height of the formed cut depends on it.
A planting axle is cut out from the remains of the pan. The section of the exhaust device is tried on on the grinder. Attach it securely.
The same method is used to assemble a hose nozzle for a simple household vacuum cleaner. The edges of the finished structure are carefully folded inward along a single line. This is for attaching the side walls. They can be made from any material (metal sheet, etc.).
It remains to give the finished device an aesthetic look: clean the joints and paint with paint.
Before you start chipping, you must mark the walls. This is necessary in order not to accidentally damage the old wiring, reinforcement of supporting structures and not to violate the basic requirements of SNiP for such work. Marking is done using a level / ruler and a construction pencil.
