Slate is a popular roofing material, especially in private households. The panels are inexpensive, strong, durable, impervious to humidity, ultraviolet light and temperature changes, they are easy to lay with your own hands. Slate has to be drilled quite often. Such a need arises at the stage of installation of the roof and fixed formwork; when you need to run communication lines through the covering or fix any external device on it. It is not difficult to drill a flat slate sheet, but you need to approach this issue competently so as not to damage it and do the job efficiently.
How and how to drill slate
Slate consists made of cement and asbestos fibers that bind it... To make the boards resistant to moisture and prevent the release of fibers harmful to health, they are processed special impregnation... Some models cover on both sides acrylic paint... All this significantly increases the strength of products and their ability to withstand environmental influences.
There are certain nuances that complicate drilling. By itself fragile material, careless movement and strong impact will lead to cracks and splits. Over time, the impregnation is washed out and evaporated. When the panels are used as a partition in a summer bathroom, they are soaked in water. In the cold, it turns into ice and weakens the asbestos-cement sheet. This makes it even more difficult to make holes in it.
Previously, corrugated plates were fastened nails with rubber pads... It was simple, fast, but ineffective. They often burst from the impact; it was very difficult to calculate the pressing force of the gasket to the wave surface. During dismantling, pulling out the nail was almost always accompanied by the destruction of the slab.
Modern technologies make it possible to drill a slate sheet quickly and without any negative consequences for the master and the material being processed. For this, special drilling devices are used, the strength of which is much higher than this indicator of asbestos cement.
