I Did Sleep at a Holiday Inn Express Once

As the proud owner of a rotary hammer that has not been delivered yet, I have an observation.

There is a hole at the foot of a wall, outside. It’s a three-foot-high wall. During heavy rain, water used to accumulate behind it. Long ago, I instructed a contractor to put the hole in, with a PVC pipe, to let the water out.

They rented a demo hammer with a chisel bit, and they busted a big nasty hole. It took them a long time. They quit before it was done. I had to go behind them with a hammer and chisel and open it up. I crammed a pipe in there and sealed it in place with foam. It looks pretty bad.

After I ordered the rotary hammer, a reader of this blog said I had to get a coring bit. This is pretty much the same thing as a hole saw, except it makes holes in concrete. You can make holes over 3″ wide with the hammer I ordered. Pretty, smooth holes. And if you hit rebar? No problem. The bits are made to cut it. It has occurred to me that this is what the contractor should have used.

Question: how many years do you have to work in construction before you realize a coring bit and a rotary hammer are what you need to make holes in concrete walls? Am I imagining things, or is this yet another example of Miami-contractor incompetence?