How to cut a hole in drywall for the lamp

Using a knife

Among other things, you can use this tool, but before cutting drywall with a knife, you should take into account that this method is more dangerous and time consuming. In such a case, the first thing to do is to choose a suitable product that is designed for the task.

The next step is to accurately draw a circle on the drywall sheet, and after performing this procedure, proceed to carefully cut it out.

Note! Due to its small size, the use of a knife allows you to conveniently make holes in hard-to-reach places.

How to work the edges of drywall

The edge will not be perfectly flat in any case, so you will have to treat it in one of the following ways.

• A rasp or coarse grater for roughing.
• Coarse sandpaper and emery cloth for grinding an open cut.
• Also with the help of rough tools for processing you can slightly reduce the size of the sheet, if, nevertheless, there was an error in marking. It is necessary to begin with the separation of the paper, which is easier to do by a scythe line drawn with a pencil, or by a fixed risshin.

Holes in the drywall

If you need to cut round holes for a suspended ceiling system so that the pipe is almost flush with the ceiling covering, you will have to use:

If it is necessary to cut a round hole, it is necessary to accurately make a mark on both sides of the sheet, and also cut through the paper. The fishing line will be more accurate if the cut is made along the contour of a solid stencil, so the knife will not slip. After that it’s the turn of the drill with a thick drill bit. The holes must be drilled in several places in the part that will be removed, as close as possible to the mowing line of the cut.

The drill must be chosen so that the cutting element of the jigsaw can easily enter the hole. At low speed, aligning the laser pointer beam with the cut line, cut the hole. The smaller it is, the more difficult it is to perform cutting without a jigsaw. You can try to squeeze out a circle, but to do this, you need to cut through the paper and parts of the drywall with a circular cutting object with a thin blade of very strong steel.

Keeping in mind that most pipes can not be inserted into the hole made, and on the contrary, you will have to put drywall on them, you need to cut out the outermost part of the sheet, and then insert it behind the riser and connect the resulting sleeve to the main sheet. To hide the joints will help alabaster or gypsum putty.

Circular and rectangular holes for outlets and switches in drywall sheets are cut before they are mounted on the wall. This avoids damage to the electrical wiring, which will be next to each other. And catching them with a drill or electric jigsaw, you can not avoid human casualties, because the drill and the cutting tool are powered by electricity, and turn off the power supply to the switchboard can not.

Hacksaw blade

An even simpler solution would be to use the blade from a metal saw blade. Approximately the same actions will be repeated here as when working with an electric jigsaw. In terms of its accessibility, this variant may be considered the most acceptable in most cases. It is important to note that caution should be exercised when working with the blade, because it is possible to be injured while sawing. To avoid this you can take simple precautions like wrapping several layers of masking tape around one side of the saw blade or putting heat shrink tubing over it. In case of necessity such improvised handle can be removed.

General suggestions

To make sure that the finished hole is straight and beautiful, and that the process is not too time-consuming, you need to prepare the necessary tools and know how to use them.

If you are planning to drill holes in an old drywall wall and know nothing about cable and plumbing layouts, use a metal detector so you don’t cut any wiring or anything else important.

Cutting round holes

To create round holes, you can use special hand saws for drywall in case the diameter of the hole is large (for example, about 15 cm) or it can be special nozzles on the drill (see the “Saw”).photo).

Tools and materials needed:

• A tape measure or ruler;
• Pencil;
• Circular (for large holes);
• Angle;
• Drywall files or a drill with a bit.

Using the bit for the power drill

You can make a hole in a few seconds with this tool. You only need to choose the right diameter saw (the others need to be removed from the mount) and accurately determine the location of the center of the future hole.

Note: In construction stores you can buy drill bits from 2.5 to 15 cm.

Before you cut a hole in the drywall, determine its expected location. Precise measurement is as important here as the accuracy of the drilling. If it is a new drywall board, it will be easier for you to make the hole without damaging the communications (as mentioned above).

Use a square and a ruler or tape measure to measure the desired distance from the bottom edge of the slab to the center of the future hole. Mark that spot. This will be the height at which the center of the future hole will be placed.

Place the ruler at the level of the point you drew in the previous step. Now measure the desired distance from the side edge of the board.

Mark the center of the hole with a cross so as not to make a mistake. Make sure you measure again before drilling.

If you plan to make a hole larger than 15 cm in diameter with a hand saw for drywall, you should draw a circle of the desired diameter with a compass.

If you are planning to use a drill, choose a model with a variable speed drill and a special bit (see the section “Directional drilling”). photo).

Set the drill to medium speed. Begin drilling with the drill bit in the area marked with a dagger. Hold the drill strictly perpendicular to the surface of the board and try not to move it sideways. Use the overhead handle for this.

As the bit sinks into the board and the saw approaches the board, increase the speed of the bit. The saw will make a hole in the drywall board very quickly.

Note: The high speed of the saw creates a lot of dust, so wear goggles and a respirator when cutting. Cover the floor with old newspapers, for example.

How To Cut Recessed Light Holes

Keep in mind that the circle you cut will either fall down or stay on the drill head.

Remove all plaster dust and cardboard crumbs neatly with a broom or vacuum cleaner.

Rectangular holes

If you plan to make a rectangular hole in an old wall, use a narrow drywall saw. Don’t forget about possible wires behind the wall. On new boards it is most convenient to use an electric jigsaw.

Tools needed:

A successful end result depends on correct measurements and accurate sawing. Using a square and a ruler (tape measure), mark the locations of the right and left sides of the rectangle the distance from the beginning and end of the future hole to one edge of the board.

Draw the length of each side of the future hole at the desired distance from the other edge of the plate.

Note: Measure and check at least twice to make sure the measurements and drawing are correct.

Connect the ends of the drawn lines, creating a rectangle or square.

Now take a drill with a large drill bit and drill 4 holes in the center of each outlined mowing line, in the inner area of the rectangle. This will allow you to insert the jigsaw or the jigsaw blade (see “Jigsaw”). photo).

Note: Make the holes in the drywall as close as possible to the lines of the rectangle. This will make it easier to cut along the outlined scythe line.

Remove crumbs after drilling holes with a broom or vacuum cleaner.

Turn the drywall face up. Secure it so that it does not move with the cutting tool. Insert a jigsaw or narrow hacksaw into one of the holes.

Start sawing by holding the tool firmly perpendicular to the plane of the board. Move strictly along the mowing line.

It is virtually impossible to make a neat rectangular hole by moving continuously around the perimeter of the rectangle. So, you have made four holes with the drill bit. When you reach the corner of the rectangle, stop sawing and move the blade to the next hole.

Note: There will be a lot of dust in the process. use protective gear.

Take your time, cut slowly but carefully. You should have a hole like the one in the photo.

Crown for installation of mounting boxes

The most common need to drill round holes in drywall is to install outlets. Invisible part of the socket, a plastic round mounting box, which is attached to the wall, called a subocket. A distinction is made between subroutines for concrete, wood and plasterboard.

Podrosetnik for drywall is a plastic cup with adjustable plates of plastic or metal. Thanks to these “legs”, the socket is fixed to the back side of the drywall sheet. The depth of the mounting box can be 40, 50, 60 or 73 mm. As for the diameter of a standard jack, it is usually 68-70 mm.

If you need to drill holes only for mounting sockets, you will need only one core. In this case, do not purchase a set of collapsible bits. It is enough to buy one special core drill, diameter 68 or 70 mm (depending on the size of your sockets).

Today, the diameter of drywall core drill bit 68 mm is the most popular size.

To drill with a core bit (circular saw) on drywall.

The fastest and most convenient way. Drywall core bits for drywall are sold in almost all construction stores and construction markets. Set price depending on the number of blades, diameter and manufacturer. from 2 to 30. The most popular sets with 7 blades of diameter of 26, 32, 38, 45, 50, 63 mm with one holder, cutting depth up to 18 mm. The price of such a set is 2-5:

For larger diameter holes (e.g. for installation of lighting fixtures) you can buy a set with 60, 67, 74, 81, 95 mm diameter blades with a cutting depth of 32 mm. Such set costs 5-8.

To drill a hole of the required diameter (or close to it) you must first remove all the blades, turning each slightly clockwise and pulling them towards yourself, select the blade of the desired diameter and insert it into place. Drilling takes from 3 to 10 seconds, it takes longer to pick up the canvas. Marking and drilling are made from the front side of the plasterboard. You can drill holes both in the sheets of drywall screwed to the frame, and in the unplastered sheets in the designed position.

Very convenient, but it happens that in the sets there are no blades of the required diameter. For example, to install a socket, the hole should be as accurate as possible, so that the socket does not dangle. In this case, you can use a combined method: first drill the hole with a drill bit, and then adjust the hole to the right size with a knife. How it can be done is shown in the video:

If you are only interested in drilling, it is not necessary to watch the entire video.

However you can not have a drill bit at hand, no problem, there are other ways to make a hole in gypsum plasterboard:

Using sheet metal

Almost every homeowner has this cutting tool. The cut should be made with a removable hacksaw blade. The process itself is much the same as when using an electric jigsaw.

In the sheet must be pre-drilled several holes on the marked circle, in one of which then need to install a cutting element and make the cut. If there is a need to make numerous cuts, you can buy a special handle, which allows you to insert the blade and make the cutting process more convenient and easy.

Please note! Exercise extreme caution when using the blade to avoid injury. Certain precautions can be taken to avoid this, such as wrapping several layers of duct tape around one side or putting heat shrink tubing over it.

Holes for lighting fixtures

In the design of ceilings with plasterboard constructions, the best solution as lighting fixtures is to install recessed lighting fixtures. The same applies to stretch ceilings.

When installing a suspended ceiling fitters themselves mount embedded and cut holes for the inner planting diameter of the spotlight, which you prepare in advance.

In a suspended structure made of wood, OSB, GFB, GKL, PVC and other soft materials, the hole for the lights can be drilled yourself with an ordinary drill bit for wood. It is better to buy a set drill bit with diameters from 60 to 100 mm for such purposes. Then you will have a tool for preparing holes for the most common MR16 and GX53 luminaires. As for the installation of fittings built-in lamp mr16 requires a hole of 60 mm, and for the spotlight GX53 planting diameter is 80 mm. In any case, before you drill a hole in the ceiling structure to install the lighting fixture measure and make sure that the correct size drill diameter.

In practice I had to deal with a situation where I had to replace old MP16 light fixtures in a gypsum ceiling with new ZH53 ones in the same seating locations. And it means to increase the diameter from 60 to 80. The mass of options here, especially since drywall is easily workable material. Manual method of scraping a knife, jigsaw, reaming the holes for ten lights with a drill. long and dusty.

From a set of a crown d 60-100 mm, used two blades at 60 as centering and 80 mm for cutting through a new hole. But as they identical height (40 mm) the blade on 80 had to be trimmed at 10 mm on the working edge with teeth and then an angle grinder to make cuts of imitation teeth. This makes makeshift construction chews up drywall. All work on expanding the holes for ten spotlights took 15 minutes.

Preparing to install the wire routing.

If there are a lot of luminaires and they are separated from each other at a small distance (40-50 cm), then it is enough to lay a wire to the first of them. This is done before you start assembling the ceiling. Then after installing the ceiling, the wire is pulled from point to point.

Which wire to choose? In terms of connection to the plinths multicore (more precisely, multi-wire) flexible. In terms of reliability and quality of installation is the same as in all wiring. Usually it is rigid (or soft) copper, such as VVG-3×1.5, SHVVP or PVS.

If you use a step-down transformer, there is one important subtlety. With the low voltage supply for halogen bulbs (usually 12 volts), the voltage drop on the wires is significant. For those interested in the details of the article voltage drop and the choice of cross-sectional area at low voltages. And here I will say that the wire should be cross section of at least 1.5 kV.mm, or preferably 2.5. And the length of the wires to each bulb should be the same, so that the voltage drop is also the same.

In any case, it should be routed so that later it will not be painfully painful to look for the ends at the stage of connection. About connection of spotlights will be mentioned below.