Recommendations on appropriate drill for drilling into concrete floor

silvergs

I have a Ryobi 18.8V cordless drill and am having a very hard time drilling into concrete using a Tapconn drill bit. I literally have to put all my weight behind the drill and that is bothering my shoulders big time.

Any recommendations on what is the best way to drill holes into concrete? I am attaching bottom plates to the concrete for the purposes of framing my basement.

jerryh3

Is this a hammer drill?

silvergs

I believe it is - it has a rotary dial on it graduated from 0 to 24. At the 24 setting it feels like it's vibrating more, so I'm guessing it's a hammer drill.

jogr

That's just a clutch of some sort on the drill for use when driving screws and is not a real hammer drill. You'll need a real hammer drill.

jerryh3

You could probably pick up a cheap hammer drill at Harbor Freight for around $40. It should be good enough to get you through the basement build.

silvergs

Thanks guys, I guess I have to get a hammer drill then!

jerryh3

Yep. A regular drill just wont cut it with cured concrete.

Daniel Holzman

You may want to rent a hammer drill from a rental store, pretty cheap, and you can get a heavy duty one.

NailedIt

I personally use powder-driven fasteners for interior bottom plates that aren't part of a structural hold-down transfer path. You can pick up a hammer-blow nail gun for around $20 and shoot hardened nails with washers into your plates with less effort than drilling holes, cleaning them out, and fastening with screws. Some construction adhesive and nails will hold your walls fine. A hammer drill is okay, but a "rotary hammer" is best if you're going to rent something to drill a bunch of holes in cured concrete. H.D. tool rental carries them in a range of sizes and you can rent it for as little as 4-hours.