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How to drill into inside brick corner?

vanadamme

I've drilled a few square steel tubes into the brickwork for a porch railing, and I'd like to attach the pictured tube into the corner. The problem is that my hammer drill is too large to make the holes at a 90-degree angle. There's nothing for the tube to sit on at the bottom, either.

What's the best way to attach this?

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EricL

Hello @vanadamme

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your question about drilling into your brick wall.

One option that comes to mind is to move the post to the left which will technically give the drill enough space to fit and drill into the brick wall (if that's possible). I don't imagine a flexible shaft will be effective as it will not have any drilling force. Another option is to use thick heavy duty angle brackets to secure the post. However, you'll need to determine if the angle brackets mounting points are far enough away that the drill will be able to drill into the space.

The only other thing that comes to mind is to use a larger post 50 x 50 perhaps? Hopefully this will be far enough away from the corner to allow you to mount it.

Let me call on our experienced members @Nailbag, @Dave-1 and @Noyade for their recommendations.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

Dave-1

Good Evening @vanadamme

I was thinking of a right angled bracket attached to the post or a flat plate also offset attached to the post. I am afraid I do not know of a hammer drill that has a small enough head or length to work in that tight a spot.

Noyade

Hi @vanadamme

I'm thinking pre-drill the steel at a slight angle. If and I repeat if, the brick is soft, then try a masonry (not SDS) drill bit on the Bunnings Ozito PXADS-018 angled head drill. There is no electric motor nacelle to deal with.

Just an evening thought. Cheers.

Noyade

Otherwise I would be welding pre-drilled steel 'lugs' parallel to the meatiest areas of brick.

Nailbag

Hi @vanadamme

As you intend to attach a hand railing to the post, it needs to be structurally very strong and stable.

You’re best solution would be to follow @Noyade design and get a local engineering company to weld several side plates with fastening holes to secure the post to the bricks. Ensure the plates align with the centre of the bricks not the mortar which would provide little fastening strength.

Nailbag

R4addZ

Hi @vanadamme

I need to put my old timers hat on to answer this. Way back before we had hammer drills there were things called Rawl chisels. these were used make holes in brickwork in order to fit rawl plugs as they were then known. You could get these into the smallest of spaces and simply hit with a hammer then turn and hit again till the hole was deep enough for the plug.

I don't know if such a thing is still available but it would be the easiest and simplest answer to your fixing problem. for this size of pipe. however I would question whether it would be sturdy enough to fix a handrail to!

MitchellMc

Hi @vanadamme,

There were some pretty creative ideas suggested in this thread, particularly around offset brackets and welded mounting plates.

I’d be interested to hear which direction you ended up taking and whether you managed to get the post mounted solidly into the corner in the end.

And if the project’s still in progress or you ran into any issues with rigidity or fixing into the brickwork, happy to help further.

Mitchell