The main advantage of the SDS-Plus system being suggested (regardless of the manufacturer) isn't really about avoiding rotational slippage, but generating serious impact. The wide base of the drill-bit is in direct contact with an independently-pulsing 'hammer' that generates much more pressure through to the object material than could ever be achieved with a traditional 'hammer drill' that simply relies on a ratchet action.
I discovered all this about ten years back, when I was trying to drill mounting holes in the garage of our french house. Even using new masonry bits with my older hammer drills would take an absolute age to penetrate deeper than the softer surface layer. Like half an hour per hole, lots of sweat, and another ruined drill bit. I even thought at one point that there must be something other than concrete in the walls.
But a visit to our local Bricolage shop, where I was asking for a more powerful, higher-speed, drill, revealed all. And in fact the SDS ones generally rotate significantly more slowly. Anyway, 150 euros lighter of wallet I wandered back to the house, got the drill out and had finished drilling my eight or ten holes in about ten minutes. Absolutely amazing difference.
Edit: that EU150 purchase was before the influx of cheap power tools that makes such things available now for half that price, or even less. But mine also had a fixed-hammer setting great for chiselling tiles off and smashing the concrete shell that the previous houseowner seemed to think necessary to install under the bath I was replacing. A good investment, no question.
That looks like a really good bargain. Hubby is searching for the nearest store to get one. It will keep him busy this weekend and I hope I would be able to sit on sofa & watch TV on Sunday
There can be! If you hit a reinforcing rod, the head of an SDS bit glows white-hot and the carbide part sometimes falls off. Thankfully, I haven't done this too often.
So a handy tip which will solve most of this problem, even without a particularly magic drill, is to regularly wet the drill bit when drilling, using a handy cup of water. Drills lose effectiveness massively through heat, and concrete drilling generates serious heat. Try it and thank me later
You'll need more than luck. New drill bits will not be sufficient. What you need, as mentioned back when this thread was first active, but not changed since then, is a proper decent SDS drill.
The one that you've got has a purely rotary action, with a sort of ratchet simply moving the mechanism back and forth, but not generating any more pressure on the concrete than you can physically exert yourself.
SDS drills, on the other hand, use a pneumatic hammer action which can generate much more force. Honestly, it will make drilling your concrete walls feel like a hot knife through butter compared with the Ikea one you have already tried.
There's a good choice at Hornbach or any other DIY shop. The cheaper ones in that link, branded 'Pattfield' are an own brand, but I have used one of their drills and some other tools for some years now and would definitely recommend them.
If it's just for occasional home use I wouldn't bother with any of the cordless models, by the way. Just not worth paying the extra for unless you're frequently moving between sites or working in isolated areas with no easy mains power supply, and the cheaper ones do tend to be somewhat underpowered, whereas even the cheapest of the mains ones will be plenty powerful enough.
Be thankful. I recently discovered that one of the outer walls of our chalet is just foam covered with crepy on the outside, at least 8cm deep. Seems to be concrete blocks covered in plaster on the inside so I'm not worried about it's structural integrity, but it seems all the wrong way round to me.
All else apart, you can't solidly anchor anything in it. I fitted a couple of shutter latches t'other week, just screwed them directly into this foam by hand. They seem to be holding, but I realised at that point why none had been fitted there originally.
i wonder how buildings with this kind of external foam cladding can breathe and whether it will cause condensation between the concrete and foam layers.
That’s not the wrong way but the new normal according to low energy consumption standards... my house is some 30 cm styrofoam covered with plaster on the outside.
No, it doesn't. It's a complex system, called ETICS (externally thermal insulated composite systems). They have different layers, and they prevent sudden thermal bridges where condensation could occur.