Foundation Wall

joey · Post by **joey** » Fri. Jul. 25, 2008 11:50 am

my question is i'm putting up a new chimney on the outside of my house and I have to go through the foundation wall for the flue block my foundation wall is about 13 inches thick made of rock what would be the easiest way to make the hole

Freddy · Post by **Freddy** » Fri. Jul. 25, 2008 12:07 pm

No easy way. I'd start with hammer drill, hammer, star point & chisle.

traderfjp · Post by **traderfjp** » Fri. Jul. 25, 2008 12:42 pm

I had to go through my foundation which was 8" cement. I rented a jack hammer - I figured out a way to get it to work on a horizontal plane.

Freddy · Post by **Freddy** » Fri. Jul. 25, 2008 1:51 pm

traderfjp wrote:I figured out a way to get it to work on a horizontal plane.

Suspend it from the ceiling with straps & pull the trigger!

Post by **Richard S.** » Fri. Jul. 25, 2008 1:52 pm

joey wrote:what would be the easiest way to make the hole

A teenager.

As suggested rent a small electric jackhammer. That will make short work of it quickly.

If you have or can "rent" a teeneager its much easier yet.

billw · Post by **billw** » Fri. Jul. 25, 2008 2:08 pm

A string of quarter sticks or m-80's.

If it's an old stone foundation you might want to consider removing enough of the stone to make a hole, put the thimble in place and filling the rest of the hole with small pieces of stone and mortar. Splitting stone that is on the ground is tough enough I imagine trying to split it while in place has to be a nightmare. I built a fieldstone wall once That was enough for me.

Post by **Richard S.** » Fri. Jul. 25, 2008 2:24 pm

How tough probably depends on how much concrete they used and how you use the jack hammer. The first one or two rocks will be the worse. What I would suggest trying once you get a few out is try jack hammering the rock itself instead of the concrete or whacking it with a hefty sledgehammer. The vibration alone is sometimes enough to make it pop off. I found this out on brick wall once... I was killing myself with a jackhammer trying to bust the joints. Simply whacking it with a decent sledge was enough to loosen them up. Power tools are not always the best option.