Drilling Issue for Shower Head Holder Installation

herrzeba

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I'm in need of some assistance regarding drilling between tiles to install a shower head holder. After the initial layer, my drill isn't able to go through. I've tried both a tile drill and a wood drill, but it seems like there are two metals on either side, slightly apart. I'm not sure what's behind the silicone I drilled, possibly concrete as it's an outside wall. I have another shower holder installed a meter above, but I can't recall if I drilled that hole. Any advice on proceeding with more force without hitting unexpected pipes would be appreciated. I've attached two photos for reference. Thank you!

herrzeba

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Here's a daytime photo of partially drilled hole and another one that's above it which is normal. It's not easy to see in the photo, but it looks like it's some two metal bits on each side, and then some centre further on. No idea what's that, but if it's pipe or something, perhaps I should drill a bit to the right, at the next tile connection.

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10-10-20

Hi, just so that we can understand this better, is that in an apartment or a house? How old is the house/apt?

Reason I ask is that some apartments have solid concrete walls, some with metal rebar in parts.

herrzeba

@10-10-20 Great question. It's a house at the end of 3 house terrace. Build 2005, Celtic Tiger. Interior frame walls, exterior (which is the bathroom in question, being located on the outside corner), based on my drilling at the property, I assume masonry cavity wall. What baffles me is that the obstruction is just 5mm or so behind the tile, like it's not even through plasterboard layer. The hole above it clearly has plasterboard just behind the tile. My DIY drilling courage has been seriously put to a test and I'm supposed to drill few more holes for some plastic holder on both sides where big white tiles are.

herrzeba

After a week I had another go. It went "well". There was nothing behind the small black tiles, just plasterboard. The tiles themselves were very tough, initially causing my Bosch ceramic drill bit to break and part of it lodged in the hole, which I did not realise at the time and assumed there's some metal pipe/structure behind it. On the second go I tried my arrow point tct bit, 5mm and the tip broke immediately. By that point I was quite sure it's just a tough tile and I drilled using 7mm arrow point bit (Timco). One side of the drill arrow tip got damaged, but with a bit of force I managed to drill through. Not sure what that tile is made of, but normal ceramic and arrow tile bits are not strong enough for it. Not sure what other types of drills I could use in the future? Any advise would be appreciated, if not - there's always google search, but that's less reliable.

John.G

I had a similar problem installing a shower in my daughters house, I had no fancy drill bits but I have a 4 ins hilti nail and when the drill wouldn't penetrate any further I just judicially tapped the nail and got another few mm then with the drill, repeated the process a few times and finally broke through without any tile damage.