Core drilling Vienna drilling instead of chiselling – clean, quiet, dimensionally accurate.

Why we drill rather than chisel

There are two ways of making any penetration: breaking it out with a hammer or cutting it with a drill. Both work, but they differ in everything that has to be done afterwards.

Core drilling in Vienna: costs 2026

Guide values net for Vienna, as of 2026. The price depends on three things: diameter, wall thickness and material. Reinforced concrete with dense reinforcement costs more than brick, because the bit advances more slowly and wear is higher.

Concrete cutting and openings

Surcharges that affect the price

The methods at a glance

In practice, which method is suitable is decided not by preference but by space: a wall saw needs room for the track and drive unit, a drill stand only needs its anchor points. In narrow shafts and recesses, stitch drilling is therefore often the only solution, even though the edge has to be trimmed afterwards.

Wet or dry: the practical decision

Wet drilling is the norm, because water cools the diamond segment and carries the drilling slurry out. The bit lasts longer and works faster, and practically no dust is produced. The price for this: water flows, and that water is grey and dirty.

The most common nasty surprise with wet drilling is not the water at the drilling point, but the water that runs through the finished hole into the room behind it. That is why, before breaking through, we check what is on the other side and cover it or collect the water there – in neighbouring flats by arrangement.

Concrete cutting: the methods in detail

While core drilling produces round openings, straight cuts require other equipment. Which one is used depends on the thickness of the component and the space available.

In Vienna's existing buildings, the wall saw is the norm for openings, and stitch drilling is the fallback solution in corners and shafts. The wire saw is used almost exclusively for foundations and civil engineering structures – it is powerful, but complex to prepare.

A practical note on cutting: every cut runs beyond the opening at the corners, otherwise a remnant is left standing in the corner. This overcut is unavoidable and visible on the reverse side. Where it is a problem – for example with exposed concrete – the corner is instead taken out with drill holes and trimmed. This takes time and should be discussed beforehand, not complained about afterwards.

Before drilling: detecting cables and pipes

The penultimate point is the only one where we do not work at all without documentation: in slabs with tendons, a wrongly placed hole can impair the load-bearing capacity of the entire bay. Without drawings and approval, there is no drilling there, not even on verbal instruction.

When a structural assessment is needed

Not every opening is a structural issue, but the line does not run where most people assume.

You cannot tell from the outside whether a wall is load-bearing. In Vienna's old buildings, internal walls are often load-bearing even though they look thin, and in post-war buildings some solid walls are merely infill. That is why we clarify this before the offer – for openings through a licensed structural engineer who is named in the offer.

How a diamond core bit works

The bit consists of a steel tube with segments brazed or welded onto its end face. These segments contain industrial diamonds in a metal matrix. The bit does not hammer, it grinds: the diamonds remove the material, while the matrix wears away at a controlled rate and keeps exposing new diamonds.

This leads to a peculiarity that often comes as a surprise in practice: a bit can become blunt even though there is still segment left. This happens when the matrix wears more slowly than the material is removed – the bit then merely polishes. The remedy is a dressing stone or a pass through abrasive material. For you this is only indirectly relevant, but it explains why an experienced operator is twice as fast in the same wall.

The second point in this table is the reason for most crooked holes in Viennese flats: in perforated bricks, the bit finds little guidance between the chambers and can wander, especially when starting the hole. That is why it is started at reduced speed until the cut is established all the way round.

What makes for clean workmanship

• Drill stand properly anchored. Bolted or with a vacuum base, always with checked alignment. A wobbling stand produces an oval hole and damages the bit.
• Starting at reduced speed until the cut is established all the way round. This prevents breakouts in the plaster and stops the bit from wandering.
• Even feed. Too much pressure slows the bit down and overheats it, too little polishes. Both cost time and shorten the bit's service life.
• Controlled water management. The extraction ring sits tight against the wall, the vacuum runs at the same time, the floor stays dry.
• Far side secured before the core breaks through. Otherwise it falls into the neighbouring room along with the water.
• Edges checked and, where necessary, fitted with edge protection – especially for penetrations to the outside.

These six points sound like a matter of course, and they make all the difference between a hole after which the pipe simply has to be pushed through and one after which a painter has to come.

Holes in series: residential complexes and businesses

When the same penetration is needed several times in one building – for example when retrofitting residential ventilation, air conditioning or meter cables – the calculation changes fundamentally.

For property management companies, this means in concrete terms: it pays to collect holes rather than commission them individually over several months. Anyone who bundles the requests from several flats often pays half per hole – and the residents have one appointment instead of five.

Openings: when a hole turns into a conversion

As soon as an opening becomes larger than a service penetration, the task changes. It is then no longer about drilling, but about load transfer, lintels and reinstatement.

In Vienna's old buildings there is a second point: the bearings of the timber joist floor (Holztramdecke) often lie above the planned opening. A lintel then has to be positioned so that it does not affect these bearings – sometimes higher than planned, sometimes with a different cross-section. That is why the structural assessment comes before the offer and not after it.

Doing the sums

The last line is the one that pays off most often: a small test hole costs a fraction of a repair and answers in half an hour what would otherwise be guesswork – wall construction, thickness, material, service lines.

Legal matters and responsibilities

Pure drilling and cutting work is clearly defined in terms of craft, but the responsibility for it is not always. We clarify three points before every job:

The second point in particular is regularly overlooked with air-conditioning units: the penetration to the outside and the outdoor unit on the facade affect common parts of the building. Without the consent of the owners' association, a problem arises there which the customer ultimately has to remove – regardless of who drilled the hole. We point this out before we start.

What you get at the end

• Dimensionally accurate opening with a smooth wall, in the agreed position and at the agreed fall.
• Cleaned work area, water taken up, drill core disposed of.
• Photos of the detection and of the finished hole on request – helpful if someone else works on the same wall later.
• Sealing of the penetration, if commissioned, stating the material used.
• Itemised invoice, so that with combined appointments it remains clear which hole was drilled where.

For specialist firms, we also keep a drilling log for each building: position, diameter, wall thickness, material, date. This saves half the clarification work on follow-up jobs in the same building.

How a core drilling job works

What happens to the opening afterwards is a matter of planning, not improvisation: a penetration to the outside needs a permanent seal against driving rain, and a penetration through a fire compartment boundary needs tested fire stopping. We carry out both or organise them through the relevant specialist firms.

What core holes are needed for

The last point is often overlooked: moisture measurements using the oven-drying method, concrete compressive strength tests or analyses of layer build-ups require drill cores that remain intact. This is a separate way of working – slow feed, careful catching, labelling with position and depth.

For plumbers, electricians and air-conditioning firms

• Fixed price list instead of an individual offer per hole, so you can give your customer a price straight away.
• Combined appointments: several flats or buildings on one day, which significantly lowers the price per hole.
• At short notice: where possible within a few working days, for combined appointments by arrangement.
• Clean handover: protection, extraction and cleaning are included, so you can carry on installing straight away.
• Detection included: we do not drill just because we are told to, we carry out detection first – that protects both sides.
• One contact person for all appointments, no changing crews.

For air-conditioning firms, the season is also decisive: between April and August, there is a shortage of drilling capacity, not of installation slots. Anyone who has a fixed partner during this period can sell more units than they could drill holes for themselves.

The most common mistakes

What we need from you to quote a price

Core drilling is one of the few cases in which we can calculate a price without a site visit – provided five pieces of information are available.

In practice, a photo of the spot with a tape measure next to it replaces half the description. From it we can see the material, the accessibility and usually also where service lines are to be expected.

Why we offer this

For us, drilling and cutting are not a separate line of business, but a by-product of what we do every day anyway: demolition, strip-out, openings, floor and concrete work. The equipment is there, the team knows how to use it, and the vehicles are out and about in Vienna.

For you, this has two consequences. First, we can come at short notice, because a hole can be fitted into existing routes. Second, if the hole turns into a bigger issue – an opening with a lintel, damaged plaster, an unexpected service line – you are not faced with a specialist confronted by a task they cannot cover, but with a construction company that carries out the rest as well. This is exactly the interface where many small jobs otherwise fall apart: the drilling firm is finished, the damage remains, and the customer goes looking for the next tradesperson. With us, the work continues within the same hour, with the same people, on the same invoice, and without you having to find a second firm.

When you do not need us

For a single small hole in a lightweight partition, a hole saw from a DIY store is enough. We come in when drilling into brick, concrete or reinforced concrete, when things have to stay clean, when several penetrations come together, or when the hole turns into an opening with a lintel and structural work.

How this differs from our other services

How much does core drilling cost? Why prices in Austria are so hard to compare

Anyone searching for prices online will find figures per hole, per centimetre of drilling depth, per diameter band or as a day rate. All of these models are common in Austria, but they cannot be compared side by side directly. A low price per centimetre looks cheap until travel, minimum charges, water extraction and disposal of the drilling slurry are added.

Two offers only become comparable when they describe the same hole: diameter, wall thickness, material, location and whether detection, protection of the surroundings and cleaning are included. Our prices in the table above are final prices per hole for these services, as net guide values between €140 and €450.

Ask three questions about every offer: is there a minimum charge, even if only one hole is needed? Is the detection of service lines included or an extra? Who provides electricity and water, and what does it cost if neither is available on site? With these answers, almost any offer can be converted into a price per finished hole.

Drilling in Gründerzeit masonry: thick walls, lime mortar and old chimney flues

The external and central spine walls of Viennese tenement buildings from around 1900 are often 60 centimetres thick or more on the lower floors. That is more than a standard bit can manage in one go. Drilling is then done with an extension, and the core comes out in sections. Because solid brick and lime mortar are soft, this goes quickly, but the core often crumbles and the hole has to be flushed out more frequently.

A special feature of these buildings is the chimney flues in the central spine walls. Many have been decommissioned, but some still carry flue gases from a gas boiler or a stove. A hole that hits an active flue is not a cosmetic flaw, but a safety problem. That is why, when drilling into central walls, we clarify in advance where flues run and, if in doubt, call in the chimney sweep. If the issue is the renovation or decommissioning of a flue, that is a separate matter; see chimney renovation.

Because of the wall thickness, the price here is above the values in the table, which apply up to 30 cm. A photo of the wall with a tape measure and a note of the storey on which the hole is to be drilled are usually enough for a binding price.

Holes through floor slabs: the flat below is part of the site

A vertical hole through a floor slab differs from a hole in a wall mainly in one respect: water and the drill core fall downwards. In a multi-occupancy building, there is usually someone else's flat underneath. We do not drill without access to that flat, because someone there has to hold the collecting container, protect the ceiling and secure the core before it breaks through.

That is why coordination with the property management and neighbours is part of the job, not something left until the drilling date. With timber joist floors, there is also loose fill between the floorboards and the ceiling, which trickles down when the slab is drilled through; here we often work dry with extraction or remove the fill locally beforehand. With reinforced concrete slabs, the rebar scanner checks whether main reinforcement is in the way.

Because a floor slab usually forms a fire compartment boundary, every penetration must be properly sealed afterwards. Where several service lines are routed through together, a rectangular cut-out made with a saw is often worthwhile instead of many individual holes. If power and data cables are to run through the new opening, we agree position and size in advance with the licensed electrical firm; more on this under electrical work.

Frequently asked questions about core drilling and concrete cutting in Vienna

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