Boomhauer

They used core drills, Hilti core drill to be exact , as they left it behind. Cored through the basement walls.

Those walls look to be about 4 feet thick? As a commenter notes: where's the rebar in the wall? All I see is one possible rebar end at the center of the cored hole.

Like the below comment and agree with it as I got a Hilti combi-hammer ; Hilti stuff is top notch.

"The next job should be sponsored by Hilti. Their equipment is top notch."


Hatton Garden heist in pictures released by Scotland Yard | Daily Mail Online

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So are the coppers going to make a fuss about seeing who buys Core Drills? Wouldn't surprise me what with how intrusive and nosy UK government is.

co durham boy

Didn't see any rebar in that wall , it looked like mass concrete . Schoolboy error for the contractor who installed that . If the wall had rebar it would have took at least three times longer to core that out .

Robajob

Better than some of the concrete over here though. I reckon some of the older basement walls could be excavated with a rusty spoon.....

Boomhauer

I assume it is not a load bearing wall as evident by the lack of rebar.

It is odd to see a non-load bearing wall not made of cinder blocks, but of poured concrete. Maybee they thought a poured wall offered more security for the vault than a cinder block one, but if so why forgo the rebar??

I am neither a structural engineer nor a contractor so : Is it normal for a poured wall of that height not to crack when it does not have re-bar to add tensile strength? My hunch is the sheer thickness of the wall and it being only the height of 1 floor made tensile strength a non issue?

Bahtatboy

I'm not a structural or civil engineer either, but if the wall was not expected to be subject to any (or only minimal) tensile forces then reinforcement would not be required. Although concrete's weak in tension, its not without tensile strength. Any civil or structural engineers around?

scrubbedexpat141

Wall thick and big. Drill strong and bigger. Big hole.

Scamp BSc Drilling MSc Concrete Walls MCIHC (Member of the Chartered Institute of Holes in Concrete)

Dumbo

The ones I have seen over here have had more rebar than concrete, granted they are new not old.

Sandboy

especially that mexican stuff !

Robajob

That French stuff is pretty rubbish by all accounts too :-P

OleJanx

scrubbedexpat141

You guys can do beton than this surely. I mean, you lot are experts - at least the aggregate in here cements you all as the pinnacle of knowledge in such an area?

Just reinforce the point, I'm sure a few of you work with the composite, so must be able to mix some ideas together. That being said, don't get prestressed over it, maybe just think about it when you're at the rebar.

OleJanx

I don't know what to say. I'm crushed...

co durham boy

All my compressive strength's gone after reading this .......

scrubbedexpat141

I thought you were getting a little tensile. You need to relax CDB, pour yourself a drink into the (cement) mixer and put your feet up.

OleJanx

Never mind. Everything will be better after 28 days...