It is necessary to know whether your walls have insulation installed when it comes to drilling your walls. With insulation added to the wall, it makes the whole process more difficult. In this article, we will show you the best way to drill through insulation.
We need to drill our walls for various purposes such as fishing a cable from another room, putting up a stand on the wall, and so on.
If you recklessly drill through a wall with insulation, it can cause damage to it. Having damaged insulation is almost synonymous with having no insulation at all. To make sure you can drill properly without damaging the insulation, you must follow certain rules and cautions.
What is an Insulation?
To know how to drill through insulation, we must first know what is insulation and why we need it. Insulation means using an insulator to prevent heat conduction. According to conductivity, materials can be divided into three groups- conductor, semiconductor, and insulator.
An insulator is the kind of material that conducts almost no heat and electricity. So the real meaning of insulation is to create an environment that allows a very little amount of heat conduction to maintain a static state. In this article, the insulation we are referring to is the one that is installed on the walls of a house.
Insulating the walls was started around 1960. To insulate the wall, a fiberglass batt is put in the middle of the wall. This fiberglass prevents the conductivity of heat in a room and creates a conditioned space.
The reason behind creating a conditioned space is to live in a more comfortable environment. During the summer, the heat from outside can raise the temperature in your room. On the other hand, your room can conduct the extra heat outside when using a heater to raise your room’s temperature in the winter.
To prevent this unnecessary conduction, it is very useful to have insulation in your walls. Many houses from the early days do not have insulation installed. You can use the blow-in method to install insulation in the wall of those houses.
How to Drill Through Insulation
When drilling through insulation, the first thing you need to be careful about is where you are drilling through. It does not really matter whether you are drilling up or down in an insulated wall from an opening in the wall or into the wall cavity from above or below. But what you need to keep in mind is that you want to be with the drill bit in the corner of the wall cavity.
If you are drilling up from an opening in the sheetrock, use short jabs to push the drill bit through the insulation at an angle up and toward either back corner. If you come across a paper, foil, or plastic on your way, simply cut through it. As the bit hits the back corner, walk the bit into and up the corner by giving the drill short bursts. It will not matter whether you give it a forward or reverse burst. If you are able to keep the drill in the corner, you can avoid any problems with the insulation. While drilling down into a basement or a crawl space from an outlet opening that is near the floor, Use your drill guide to keep the bit in front of the insulation and aim the bit into one of the front corners.
If you are drilling into the wall cavity from above or below, try to make a hole near one of the corners. Depending on how the insulation was installed, the best corner may vary. If the insulation has a foil or paper backing, then it may have been installed by stapling the paper or foil to the inside of the studs. This creates a nice open space on either stud near the sheetrock. In case the insulation was stapled to the outside of the studs, there will usually be a nice open space in the center of the wall cavity. If there is no foil or paper backing, then the position of the hole does not matter. Once you choose the right position of the hole, you can easily carry on with your drilling process.
Conclusion
The key part of drilling through insulation is to choose the proper positioning. If you drill in the wrong position, it might cause damage to the insulation and hamper your conditioned home environment.
So, be careful while drilling through insulation. And if you do not have enough confidence in yourself, you can always ask for advice or take help from those with any experience with it.