# Forum Home Renovation Tools & Products  How to drill sandstone

## bigGayAl

Hi, 
I need to make some holes in sandstone. I have a small demolition breaker that can remove sandstone, with patience, but some sections of rock are too hard for it. The plan is to drill a line of holes with a hammer drill and use the breaker to break off chunks of rock. 
My Ryobi hammer drill is on its last legs so I will buy a new one. I am looking at a makita HR2470 or a Bosch GBH2 - 26 DBR. Anyone have any advice on which is better? 
Next, I will need a drill bit. I have no idea how to choose a good bit for sandstone. 
The hammer drill can be adjusted from 0 - 1100 rpm and from 0 - 4500 bpm. Obviously, I need to experiment but what is likely to be the best settings for sandstone? 
I would appreciate any advice you guys can give me. 
Al

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## johnc

Sandstone is a "soft" rock so any tungsten tipped drill bit will be fine. If you are trying to split the stone along a line there may be easier ways than drilling holes, if it is a loose piece you can simply run a chisel line along the point you wish to cut, put a dowell under the rock directly below the line and give the the chisel a few good blows along the line and it should just come away. even neater and cleaner is a diamond tipped blade on a grinder or in a saw. You can also drill holes, place in metal wedges and tap firm until it splits, however you do need three piece wedges which are not easy to come by. Any basic hammer drill will do it, the rotary are better in that they are faster.

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## bigGayAl

I need to make a rough hole about 30cm by 60cm and 30cm deep into the bedrock. This is harder than breaking chunks off the edge of a rock. 
It doesn't have to be neat and clean but will a diamond blade on a grinder be faster than drilling and breaking? 
Some sandstone crumbles pretty easily but this particular area is hard and has no weak faults to stick the chisel into. 
At a later stage, I will have to remove 15 to 20cm off the top of the bedrock over a large area. I will definitely be hiring a full size jackhammer for that. 
Al

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## johnc

I'd probably drill the corners and some of the perimiter to give you a break line, then remove as much as you can with a grinder. You have plenty of room for a grinder and you can trim the corners with a cold chisel if you need to .

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## jiggy

if you could borrow  or hire a core driller would be the best way a series of holes around the perimeter finish of with your demo hammer, if not then drill a circle of holes at the centre of your area using the biggest bit you can , ideally about 16mm + this circle should be about 10 cm diameter , once you have  cleared  a hole in the middle start chipping away the edges with the demo hammer its a lot easier once there is a breakaway edge.

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## bigGayAl

Drilling holes and using the breaker didn't work, even with a new chisel. The breaker just doesn't have enough power for this rock. I tried a 105mm diamond blade on my angle grinder and it cut through the rock easily. Cutting a crosshatch pattern with the grinder and then using the breaker proved successful but it was a hell of a lot of work. 
From now on, I will hire a full size jackhammer when I have to remove anything more than a bucketful of rock. 
My neighbour reckons that the rock is ironstone. Can anyone tell from the picture below? 
Thanks for the advice, 
Al

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## johnc

The dark colour could well be ironstone, if that breaker in the picture can't do it it aint  straight sandstone. With the harder stone you need a finer strike than that particular tool has, the heavy weight of a larger hammer will certainly do it's destructive best to knock out any resistance. If its very tough you just destroy tips, if it needs carbide then you need finer strikes, however iron stone shouldn't be to much trouble for a decent jack hammer. I'm sure that all sounds like mud, it looks as though you've done ok. :2thumbsup:

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