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Drilling drain lines through rock

Jackall | Posted in Construction Techniques on July 22, 2007 08:51am

I have a home built on a sand stone ridge. I would like to bore holes through this sand stone to allow the down spouts to drain away from the house. Going the other way is not a viable option. Any one know of a poor mans tool (rental or otherwise) to bore straight horizontal holes suitable for placing 4″ drain line about 15 feet though soft stone. I only have about 10 feet of clearance behind where the holes would have to start.

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  1. IronHelix | Jul 22, 2007 02:05pm | #1

    You have given the length and diameter of the bore, but what about the depth of elevation for the bore?

    How soft is your "soft" sandstone"?

    ........Iron Helix

     

    PS.....Just curious...Off the top of my head I have no immediate answer, but this will give your post a BUMP!

  2. DanH | Jul 22, 2007 03:57pm | #2

    Yeah, "sandstone" covers a multitude of sins. Some of the stuff you could bore through with a water jet, some would require well-drilling type equipment.

    You might call around to outfits in the area that do utility installation -- they'd probably have the rig. I doubt that they'd rent it, but smaller ones might let an employee do the job on a weekend, off the sheet.

    So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
  3. Shacko | Jul 22, 2007 06:11pm | #3

    There is no cheap way to do this, with the distance you are talking about your best bet is to rent a jack-hammer and dig a trench, this will cost$$, sorry.

    1. Jackall | Jul 26, 2007 11:40pm | #9

      Thanks for the jack hammer suggestion, but it is a question of esthetics. A jack hammer is tempting, but my wife would kill me if I tear up her ridge and the view out the window.

      1. Shacko | Jul 27, 2007 06:06pm | #14

        Raading most of the other posts I still think that a jack-hammer is the cheapest way to go; your call. Luck.

  4. ClaysWorld | Jul 23, 2007 05:13am | #4

    A rock drill is what your looking for. they are available to rent and will do what  you want.

    With 10 ' back space you need to use a couple of shorter lengths to get the distance(15')

    I'll get back at you with a couple of pictures of  a jack leg job I did not to long ago.

    So you need to lay out your budget first and then you can match it with which way to go.

    Rock drill, extensions, compressor,bits, hoses,  muscle did I say  muscle lot's of muscle.

    Horizontal needs to have a sled made to carry the drill .



    Edited 7/22/2007 10:15 pm by ClaysWorld

    1. Jackall | Jul 26, 2007 11:27pm | #7

      Thanks for your reply. A rock hammer sounds interesting. Is this some kind of roto hammer set up with extensions? I have a large Bosch roto hammer, a Milwaukee Hole Hog, big air compressor, plenty of water, and a young son for muscle. I just need a source for bits and extensions. Do you have a manufacture, product name or e-mail address for this product.

      1. ClaysWorld | Jul 27, 2007 04:17am | #10

        I'm in the middle of dinner but I'll come back later and post some good stuff for you.

        And answer what is self mucking.

  5. Jamie_Buxton | Jul 23, 2007 05:33am | #5

    Look around for a company doing "trenchless" utility installation.   They've got machines which drill horizontal holes.   For examples of the machines, here's a page from DitchWitch:  http://www.ditchwitch.com/dwcom/Category/CategoryView/11

  6. Karl | Jul 23, 2007 10:01am | #6

    I have one of these and love it for horizontal boring in soil.
    http://www.borit.com/

    It works great. I just got the reamer for it to allow boring for large diameter pipe. I used 3" but you might be able to get 4" to work.

    Your sandstone will have to be really soft for this thing to work.

    Karl

    I think I paid less than 100 dollars for it at ewing irrigation and another 50 for the 4" reamer. Whatever it cost it paid for itself many times over, the first driveway I bored under.

    The nice thing is it is powered by a 1/2 drill motor.

    1. Jackall | Jul 26, 2007 11:36pm | #8

      Thanks for your suggestion and the link to the Borit web site. I am afraid that while the sandstone is rotten and brittle it is still hard enough that it would  require carbide drill teeth. The Borit looks cool and there have been several jobs I could have used it on. At $250 it is not impossibly expensive. Certainly it is less than the $2-3,000 cost of the "Under Wonder" boring rig I found on the internet.

  7. ClaysWorld | Jul 27, 2007 04:00pm | #11

    The rock drill uses air/High CFM. and it impacts and turns. But it also has a air channel in the  steel that blows out the afterburden/muck so the hole is cleared as you drill.

    The reason I said on the first reply to lay out the budget is because all this stuff has pretty high cost if your buying any of it. I had a drill supply house in SLC,Ut that had a good mix of way bigger then what I needed to use. But it does say it's around. And they had a good selection of whats called Rope steel in 1+1/4".

    I ended up having to purchase 8' extention and the bits but all the rest I rented.

    I used a 60lb APT drill with 1" H steel and a 2' starter steel and then on to a 6' and then to the 8' and 6' connected.

    I was doing this to run a sprinkler supply line under a back yard patio at 2' deep and the run was in hard shale and mix of some granite.

    Some thing like this http://www.rockdrills.net/rock_drill_rentals/index.htm

    Or this site has a good assortment of stuff http://www.driller.com/driller/drilling/bits.html

    And this is the place that makes what you need for the steel and bits and such.

    http://www.brunnerlay.com/ If you go here and hunt around look for the H steel and rope steel and bits. It will give you and Idea of what you can use.

    I got into the info of this project and looked at all kinds of options. Plus it was quite a learning experience, and it will make you appreciate what the hard rock miners do. Ugg it's some tough stuff.

     

     

  8. BryanSayer | Jul 27, 2007 04:57pm | #12

    There are companies that bore through curbs and under side walks for drainage pipes. Maybe that would work?

  9. ClaysWorld | Jul 27, 2007 05:13pm | #13

    A couple of thoughts on your project.

    Cause the drilling is very difficult ,start off to calculate the smallest diameter you can accept to do the job. Bigger isn't always better but it's almost always more expensive.

    I have a big sds max Bosch and I wanted to use it but it just didn't look like it could do this job. And I looked at alot of possibilities.

    Say if you can weld or have it available you could look to use http://www.milwaukeeconnect.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_27_40028_-1_682691_192419_192327# some thing along this line. Go to the brochure and look.

    What you want is a sdsmax to? name the length of the extension you fabricate to the bit. Less joints less loss of energy to the bit. If you use a piece of rope drill steel it can help serve as a self cleaning/mucking  function. Not perfect but possible. Also check the rotation direction of the Hammer drill and the rope to make sure its extracting and not packing. I can't remember cause the H thread is reverse.

    And when your done maybe you can sell some of the secrets you learn to help pay for all of this.(funning)

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