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The moment my kitchen reno hit a stud I couldn't drill through
I was putting up new cabinet hardware in my house off Whyte Ave last weekend, just screwing in some cup pulls. The third hole hit something solid, like the drill bit was hitting concrete inside the wall. My Dewalt 20v just started smoking and barely spun. Turns out whoever built this place in the 70s put a steel support plate right where my cabinet was going. I had to stop everything, go buy a carbide bit from Home Depot on 99 Street, and it still took me 20 minutes to get through that thing. Then I realized the holes were off center anyway because I measured wrong from the edge. So now I've got three dead holes I need to fill with wood putty and repaint before I try again. Has anyone else run into random metal plates inside their kitchen walls in these old Edmonton houses?
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derek_schmidt61mo ago
Funny you mention that, @paul251, because my buddy Tom had nearly the exact same thing happen in his place just off 124 Street. He was drilling for a towel rack in his bathroom and hit a steel plate that was covering an old galvanized pipe from the 50s. His drill died right there, sparks flying out of the vents and everything. He had to borrow a neighbor's hammer drill and it still took him forty-five minutes to get through. The worst part was after he got the holes done, he realized he'd measured wrong by about an inch and a half anyway. He patched those holes with drywall compound that took three days to properly dry because his bathroom was so humid.
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laura1891mo ago
My buddy Mark ran into the same thing last year in his house off 106 Ave. He was just trying to mount a spice rack and hit a steel plate that must have been covering an old electrical box from the 60s. Smoked his Black and Decker drill and spent the rest of the afternoon patching drywall with what he called "the world's crummiest spackle job." He ended up hanging the rack three inches to the left and now every time he opens a jar of paprika he mutters about Edmonton builders.
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