As the title suggests, is there any risk of accidentally hitting a water pipe if you're drilling and plugging for small shelves on walls and ceilings in a regular apartment in a multi-family building built in the 60s?
I've heard different things about this; an acquaintance claims that it's almost impossible as the drill would slip off the pipes due to their shape. Others argue the opposite, saying it's a very real risk and you should drill cautiously and preferably as little as possible.
What is the truth, really? It would be interesting to get some answers so I can let go of the drilling anxiety...
I've heard different things about this; an acquaintance claims that it's almost impossible as the drill would slip off the pipes due to their shape. Others argue the opposite, saying it's a very real risk and you should drill cautiously and preferably as little as possible.
What is the truth, really? It would be interesting to get some answers so I can let go of the drilling anxiety...
If you happen to hit a water pipe in the wall (or floor), it is very likely that you will drill through the pipe and get a proper shower as a result. I haven't done it myself, but I have several neighbors who have encountered this when drilling into both walls and floors without finding the pipes in advance.
In an apartment, pipes and conduits run vertically throughout the building, depending a bit on how the kitchen and bathroom are positioned relative to one another, as well as the heating pipes. Apartments are often mirrored against each other. It may be that in the kitchen, all the pipes run in the wall directly behind the sink straight through the building, and everything in the bathroom/toilet in a niche in a bathroom wall in the same way. What you should look for is how the heating pipes run; if they come up from the floors, there are no pipes in those walls and they lead to a conduit.
What is it you are going to install and where in the apartment? You're not planning to hang a car there with a "herejösses" expander, are you?
What is it you are going to install and where in the apartment? You're not planning to hang a car there with a "herejösses" expander, are you?
Okay, I understand, it's about a curtain rod in the ceiling and some shelf brackets, i.e., red plug size, so it's about 5-6 cm in depth. Is there any standard for how deep heating pipes are located? I'm mainly thinking about the curtain rod being in the same place as the radiator in the upstairs neighbor's apartment.
There's probably no danger of hitting a pipe in the ceiling. Pipes usually go straight up in the walls between the floors and are closer to his floor than your ceiling, even if they go in his floor. Shelf brackets on a wall somewhere are also no problem. The only thing you should consider is if there's a light switch or power outlet under where you're going to drill, as they can go straight up to the ceiling, so keep about 20 cm away from the line up.
Concrete floors in houses from the 1960s are often approximately 16-20 cm thick, depending on the span and the engineer's philosophy. Heating pipes embedded in the floor are often at about 5 cm depth from the top surface, so the risk of drilling up to the neighbor's heating pipes is quite small, significantly less than if you're drilling from the top down...
Buy a metal/electric/stud detector. I did that AFTER I drilled a hole in a water pipe. Since then, I've never had a problem. (However, future renovators might face problems because they likely won't work on PEX...)
I have rather thick concrete walls, does a stud finder work with that anyway?B b8q said:
A lot of scare hiccups seem to be happening here, set up your curtain rod in the ceiling and shelves, just make sure as I wrote in #5 about the EL pipes, they are usually between 3 and 5 cm into the wall.
Thank you! Now it's time to drill!R rävlyan said:
But to summarize, with normal drilling and common sense, it shouldn't be a major risk, simply put.
Unfortunately, Murphy's law comes into play. When I drilled a hole in the water pipe, I knew where the vertical stacks were and assumed (foolishly) that the pipes from there to the shower mixer ran at right angles somehow. Not so, they ran diagonally! When the emergency plumber came to solder the hole I had made, he comforted me: "Hey, that's where I would have drilled too."S Snabelhund said:
you ask about risk, which for me is probability*consequence (R=P*C)
the probability is not that great, as mentioned above - water pipes often run vertically with relatively straight outlets (@b8q can probably be the exception that confirms the rule) so especially in ceilings, it should be low probability - in that case, you're more likely to hit an electrical conduit
The consequence, however - it can be quite significant, especially if you haven't done your due diligence and found out where the shut-off valves for your pipe are, so I suggest this even if you're drilling in relatively "safe" places.
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the probability is not that great, as mentioned above - water pipes often run vertically with relatively straight outlets (@b8q can probably be the exception that confirms the rule) so especially in ceilings, it should be low probability - in that case, you're more likely to hit an electrical conduit
The consequence, however - it can be quite significant, especially if you haven't done your due diligence and found out where the shut-off valves for your pipe are, so I suggest this even if you're drilling in relatively "safe" places.
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