If you're going to drill holes in your house, you want to know what drill bit to use, here's where you can find out what you need to spend your money on.
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This is one of four posts:
One on which type of drill bit and drill to use (this one)
One on checking what's hidden in your wall before you drill through it
Hopefully you'll have established what your wall is made of because that is going to guide your choice of drill bit, if you haven't, check out my post about "what's your wall made of".
And please make sure you know what's hidden in the wall you're drilling so accidents are avoided! Check out my "what's hidden in your wall?" post.
Safety first!!
While we mention avoiding accidents - Wear your safety kit!! Especially goggles when you're drilling.
I use these SWP goggles below because they fit over my glasses. They're due for replacement due to being scratched and when I change them I'll likely get the UVEX ones as I've had them before. Nothing wrong with the SWP though.
On to the matter of drill bit choice then.
Everything I'm mentioning here is based on an assumption that you have a power drill, probably a battery one. You can drill holes with an old fashioned hand drill but it's rare these days.
As mentioned in the "What's your wall made of" post, the materials you'll be coming across are:
Brick, block, plaster and concrete for which you'll need a masonry bit.
Plasterboard which you can drill with most bits
Wood which will need a wood bit but you'll get away with a metal bit
Metal for which you'll need a metal bit
I'll also talk about multi material bits further down because I think they're very useful
Masonry drill bit
This is the end of a well used masonry drill bit.
You can see it has a piece inserted in the end of it. This is generally Tungsten Carbide which is super tough and able to withstand drilling into very abrasive and hard material. It will generally function best if your drill has a "Hammer" mode.
Use it for your exploratory holes in areas when you're not sure if there's a hidden pipe or cable. Blunt = less potential damage.
Use it for Brick, block, plaster, concrete.
Don't use it for wood, metal, plastic.
In fairness it'll drill thin wood but it will get very hot very quickly and it won't do it very well.
Wood drill bit
Here you can see a spiral wood bit which is very similar to a metal drill bit but sharpened with more of a point to the centre, then a flat bit, then a traditional auger type bit (which was my dad's). All of them are still commonly available and you may well get at least two of them in an average drill bit kit.
Use them for wood.
The twist drill type are ok for plastic
You'll get away with them in plasterboard but it will take the edge off them.
Brick, block and plaster will blunt them immediately
They won't touch metal (unless they're actually a metal bit that's been resharpened to look like a wood bit)
Metal drill bit
This is the end of a coated metal drill bit. As you can see, it has no insert and the edge looks sharp. It is.
Don't worry about the coating, it doesn't matter unless you are drilling lots of holes in metal.
If you are drilling lots of holes in metal then get your drill bits at an engineering suppliers, not a DIY store. I work in engineering in my day job and there's a world of difference in the average quality.
Use them for metal and plastics
They'll happily drill wood but if it's very thick they may overheat so take it slow and keep clearing the chippings out of the hole.
They'll work on plasterboard but lose their sharpness
They are no good on brick or block, it will just blunt them. Yes I know, countless people will tell me they've drilled block with a metal drill bit but it will be useless for metal afterwards.
Shank or shaft type (how it fits in your power drill)
Looking at the end that goes in the power drill (the shank type and corresponding chuck)
Here you can see the three general shaft types (bottom end of the image)
The first is a hexagonal "quick change" shank which goes in an adaptor in your drill chuck. I'm a great fan of these, I'll explain why in the accessories bit below. Second is a standard straight shank which goes direct in the drill chuck. Both of these work in a normal power drill.
The third image is an SDS shank. These will only work in an SDS chuck and equally the two other types won't work in an SDS chuck. More in the drill choice section below.
Other types of drill bit
SDS drill bits
Generally these are masonry bits. The whole concept of the SDS system is designed around percussion drilling (a better version of hammer drilling). They are very good for hard brick and concrete. So if you have a lot of holes in brick or concrete to drill, yes, invest in the system but realise its limitations. There is limited availability of drill bits for other materials in the SDS range so I wouldn't consider the SDS system as a first time DIY buy.
Yes you can buy adaptors to turn your SDS power drill into a conventional chuck but a normal standard setup will be of much more use to you.
There are also other things like chisels that you can get for an SDS drill. See further down.
Hole saws
Hole saws are like a hacksaw blade formed into a circle or tube. They cut larger diameter holes than conventional drill bits. They are best for sheet materials.
Originally intended for thin metal and plastic which they're very good for.
They will drill wood panels if they're sharp. They're great for putting holes in kitchen units for waste pipes etc.
They're no good for plaster, brick or block.
They'll manage limited use in plasterboard so if you're putting a bunch of downlighters in your kitchen ceiling then hole saws are the business but plasterboard will blunt them in time.
The hole cutters supplied in drill bit kits are usually adequate. If you want something a bit better, go to a store that supplies the electrical or plumbing trade.
Core drills
Similar in function to a hole saw but MUCH more full on, core drills are hole saws for brickwork. I hesitate to include them as a DIY tool but if you ever venture to kitchen and bathroom remodelling you may find yourself in need.
This one is a 127mm diamond core bit for extractor ducting.
It's an aggressive thing to use. You need a power drill with enough power to run it and if you push too hard or it snatches, it can at best make your wrists yelp and at worst throw you off a step ladder that you haven't secured well enough. A friend told me, honest........
If you find you need one, head for your local hire store and get all the right kit.
Available in sizes from about 28mm upward. I have them for standard UK waste pipe in addition to this one here.
How should you buy your drill bits?
This kit is a fairly standard DIY set, it has some masonry bits, some metal bits, some wood bits and flat bits. It also comes with a small selection of hole cutters and a set of screwdriver bits with a quick change adaptor
It'll cover most of your basic household DIY like putting up shelves and curtain rails and screwing that MFI wardrobe back together.
Would I buy a kit like the above? If I was just starting, maybe but here's an other thought.
I wouldn't buy it because I find I end up with a lot of the bits unused while still wanting other bits that aren't in there.
As an alternative, again if your DIY is going to be shelves and curtain rails I'd get a set of multi material drill bits.
Multi material bits are basically masonry bits but sharper. They have the same tungsten carbide tip but it's sharpened so it will cut metal.
In my experience they are great for DIY tasks, particularly curtain rails because drilling through into a lintel and not knowing whether it is metal or concrete leaves me with as drill bit selection quandary if I'm using single purpose bits. With these I can just drill away without worrying.
I can't say this clearly enough: DO NOT USE THEM ON HAMMER DRILL!!!!! If you do, the tips will get blunted instantly and they will become just ordinary masonry bits.
I have the exact set shown and it's pretty much all I use in the house unless I'm doing something more specialist.
Choice of power drill
As a kid working with my dad in the school holidays, holes were drilled with a hand drill. Things have moved on a little since then...
Yes you can still buy one and do it that way if you wish. Entirely your choice.
Most of the drill bit types talked about above will fit it up to a diameter of 1/4" or 6mm.
Cordless (Battery power)
I would suggest that one of the first tools a DIYer would / should buy, and definitely the first power tool is a battery drill driver.
My personal favourite is this Ryobi, it does drilling forward and reverse, you can drive screws with it, it has a hammer function. The kit shown here is a starter kit that comes with two batteries. This is important because most battery tools are sold bare, that is without batteries or charger.
I like the Ryobi One+ system, I have a number of tools in the range. There are cheaper available (Aldi and Lidl do a budget range) but there isn't as much choice in additional tools. You can also go more expensive. You can go MUCH more expensive. If you google Festool tools you'll find some stuff that is very good with a price to match!
I did a video review of my personal one
Corded (mains voltage)
You can still buy mains power drills. I have the predecessor of this Bosch one and I still use it regularly for heavier tasks. If battery drills hadn't existed, I'd still use it constantly. It's a bit full on for putting screws in but I used mine for a full decking build 20 years ago. These days it gets used mostly for larger holes in brickwork and the like. Waste pipe holes, extractor vent holes, I use mine to run the core drill shown further up the page.
SDS
I have two SDS drills. Predictably enough I have a small Ryobi one which is great for anything up to about 12mm holes in brick and
concrete. That's all it gets used for. It's fine for that but anything bigger it starts to struggle. I only got it because it was on a special deal but if I'm putting up stuff in my garage, I run the SDS for drilling the holes in the brickwork and the drill driver for putting the screw in.
Here's the one I have, if you buy it, remember what IU said further up about batteries because it doesn't come with them.
It also doesn't come with the Bosch SDS bit set that you can see in my pic
Corded (mains) SDS
This is my mains power (corded) SDS. As you can see, it's had some use
In addition to percussion drilling, SDS drills have a mode where you can turn off the rotary function and set it just to "hammer".
In this mode they can be used as powered chisels, concrete breakers etc and that's exactly what this got used for. I needed to take out 6 concrete fence post bases and I used it to break them up. I've also used it for chasing (chiselling slots and holes in walls for cables)
In this image you can see an SDS breaker point and chisel (bolster) as well as a masonry bit.
I can't find the Erbauer one I have on Amazon but this Einhell eon sits at the same (low) budget level. As always you can spend much more money but in something that isn't going to be used for anything particularly fine, I don't see the benefit
So, there you have it, my thoughts on drill bits and drills with some ideas on how to select thgem.
Any questions or thoughts? Please comment
Be safe
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