Safety tip :- Always use safety goggles/protective eyewear when drilling holes in masonry.
To drill holes in masonry you obviously need some form of power/battery drill, which one you choose depends on the material you are drilling the hole in and how big a hole you wish to drill. Power/battery hammer drills are usually adequate enough for general domestic use, i.e. drilling fixings for screws and plugs, but if you have to drill a hole in excess of 8mm, I would use a power/battery SDS (Special Direct System) drill to do the job.
If you have never used an SDS drill before I guarantee you will be amazed at the difference in effort required to drill a hole compared to using a hammer drill and depending on how powerful the drill is you can drill much larger holes through virtually any type of masonry or concrete. Some SDS drills allow you to stop the rotary movement of the chuck so you can fit a chisel bit for chasing out plaster and brick etc.
The only problem with SDS drills is that they have a slower top speed than hammer drills and the chuck will only accept SDS bits. You can purchase a standard chuck that will slot into the SDS chuck for normal drill bits, which is great as long as you don’t need to drill at high speed.
Which drill would I choose? Both of them. The hammer drill for general use/high speed and an SDS drill for any hard material that is beyond the capabilities of the hammer drill.
