Hello, I’m not a builder and thought I’d give it a go myself to drill a hole through the wall for the new tumble dryer to vent outside. I didn’t go too well and the drill just wasn’t getting through very well from the outside. I resorted to using a chisel for some of it but now I have a vent hole that’s a good 2 - 3cm too wide for a vent cover to fit into it. it’s worth noting that this is in a garden outbuilding facing away from the house so it doesn’t have to look ‘pretty’ - I just want it to be watertight. the largest vent cover I’ve seen wouldn’t cover over the hole. I know I could silicone round little gaps but how would I physically drill into brick to attach the cover if there’s no brick in certain places (the top right corner is the worst where I tried chiselling and the brick cracked!) Any ideas what I could do about it?
Get some 100mm plastic pipe, not drain pipe that's 110mm, slide into flex vent and fix with expanding foam, standard louvre vents slide into the plastic pipe.
I can’t find a vent cover large enough. The largest I can find is around 18cm but if need around 20cm.
Looks like about 1/2 a brick wide. You sure one of these would not go on? https://www.screwfix.com/p/map-vent-fixed-louvre-vent-with-flyscreen-brown-229-x-229mm/491hy
it would but don’t I need one with the bit at the back for the actual vent pipe to slot in to? (Sorry don’t know the name of this)
Plenty on ebay large sized hit and miss vents that you can open and close as required. Some are quite stylish so all may not be bad!
That's not a hit and miss vent. The tube in the back is for connecting the tumble drier hose, you need to check the diameter size as they vary. That style would be weather tight from rain.
Get some foam and fix the pipe in place using that. Then trim it at the front when it's cured, and fix the vent into the brickwork. Edit: When you use the foam, chock the pipe in place so it won't move, with fragnments of brick or whatever as in the pic, then apply the foam.
No, the vent clamps onto the pipe https://www.screwfix.com/p/manrose-100mm-round-pipe-0-35m/15872 https://www.screwfix.com/p/manrose-flap-vent-white-x/18561
Just a thought - could I shove some ready made cement in the holes to plug the gaps and screw into that? As it’s a void though would I just push the cement into the void when I try and drill into it?
Well why don't you get some sort of resin and use that. You can fix screws in it once it's cured. You could fill out the most of the hole with foam first.
cant see why you cannot use cement in the hole thats too large to make it small enough.Or otherwise knock a couple of the outside bricks out and replace and make the opening more the size you want,that way it would do what you want and you can make the new bricks the right size before cementing them in
Could you not drill and fix a piece of timber into the underside of the brickwork (across the hole at the top of the pipe) then foam, then screw the proper vent cover into the wood at the top, bottom looks ok. Set it back slightly you might be able to still tidy /fill it with mortar to make it look better after the cover is on.