Took me 45 minutes to cut one stucco hole for my bathroom vent

I needed to run a new exhaust fan vent through my exterior stucco wall out in the North Valley. Thought it would be a quick drill and done job. Nope. My regular masonry bit barely scratched the surface and the hammer drill just bounced off. I ended up renting a rotary hammer from Home Depot and that thing still took forever. The stucco here has like 3 inches of wire mesh underneath plus some old school concrete. After chipping away for almost an hour the hole was finally through. Anyone else have luck cutting stucco without renting expensive tools?

3 comments

3 Comments

michael_jenkins392d ago

You say "that wire mesh is no joke" but I've cut through stucco with a cheap carbide tipped blade on a regular angle grinder in under ten minutes. Cost me like fifteen bucks for the blade and my grinder was already sitting in the garage. The rotary hammer is overkill for stucco unless you're going through six inches of solid concrete. The mesh is annoying but it's just thin wire, not rebar. People grab the wrong tool and then act like it's the materials fault.

the_spencer19h ago

Bro three different drill bits though? That's wild. I get the struggle with the mesh but bits aren't really meant for that anyway. You gotta use a diamond cup wheel or a grinder with a masonry blade like the other guy said. Drilling through stucco with a rotary hammer is just asking for pain. I bet your neighbor's old one had a dull bit too, that's probably why it sucked so bad.

diana_west273d ago

Took me twice as long when I did my own bathroom vent last summer. That wire mesh is no joke, I went through three different drill bits before I gave up and borrowed my neighbor's old rotary hammer. I swear the concrete layer underneath was like trying to chew through a rock with a butter knife.