Concrete Core Drilling and Cutting for Services, Macquarie Park NSW

The job

FDC Construction is building a multi level building in Macquarie Park. As the services trades get to each area, they need holes: cores through walls and slabs for pipes, ducts and cables, and bigger openings where a group of services goes through together.

Perfect Concrete Care has been FDC's coring and cutting contractor on the job since February 2026. We are on call: FDC books us when an area is ready, our operator comes in, drills or cuts what is marked, gets it signed off and leaves the area clean. Up to late September 2026 that has been more than 50 separate site visits, and the work is still going.

What the work involves

• Core drilling through concrete walls, block walls and floor slabs, from 25 mm up to 180 mm diameter and up to 650 mm deep
• Horizontal wall cores with the rig fixed to the wall, and vertical floor cores through the slab, all drilled wet with the slurry on a wet vac
• Stitch coring, overlapping one core with the next to form square and rectangular openings for groups of pipes and ducts
• Saw cutting with road saw, demo saw and ring saw on the ground floor where a straight cut was needed
• Concrete scanning before coring where the client wanted reinforcement and power cables located first
• Coring for the mechanical penetrations on the upper levels as the services trades reached each floor

What makes it hard

The work comes in small batches. One day it is a handful of wall cores on one level, the next it is a floor opening on another, and each visit has to be quick, clean and right first time, because the services trade is waiting to follow straight behind.

Every hole goes into a building that is being fitted out around us. Walls are finished or nearly finished, other trades are working nearby,. A core in the wrong place, or one that cracks the block around it, costs more than the core itself.

How it is done

FDC marks out each penetration. Our operator checks the set out, confirms the size and depth, and sets the rig: fixed to the wall for horizontal cores, on the slab for floor cores. Where the client wants it, the area is scanned first. Every core is drilled wet, with the water and slurry picked up on a wet vac as the operator goes.

Bigger openings are stitch cored, one core overlapping the next around the outline, so the opening comes out in one piece without a saw overcut into the finished wall. Each visit ends with the cores checked against the mark, the area cleaned and the site diary signed by FDC's supervisor.

Lessons learned on this job

Every job teaches the crew something. These are the ones from Macquarie Park so far, and we take them onto every coring package.

What worked

• Check the set out before you drill. Confirming the mark, size and depth with the site team first means the hole is right the first time
• Wet coring with a wet vac. Keeping the slurry off finished walls and floors means the next trade can start straight after we leave
• Stitch coring for openings. Overlapping cores make square openings without saw overcuts showing past the corners on a finished wall
• A signed diary every visit. Writing down every core, its size and depth, and getting it signed on the day keeps the records clean for everyone

What is difficult

• Short, stop start visits. A few cores at a time means travel, set up and pack up are a big part of every visit, so batching penetrations saves the client money
• Working around finished work. Every rig has to be fixed and every core drilled without marking walls or floors that are already done
• What is inside the slab. Reinforcement and cables are not always where the drawings say, so scanning first is worth it wherever the client allows
• Access on a busy floor. Scaffold, other trades and materials often sit right where the core is marked, so the area needs clearing before we arrive

Where the job is at

As at late September 2026 we have made more than 50 visits to the site since February, with coring and cutting on the ground floor and the upper levels, and FDC is still booking us in as each area of the fit out is ready. This page will be updated when our part of the job is finished.

If you have something similar

Builders and services contractors need penetrations drilled where they are marked, cleanly, when the area is ready. Have a look at our concrete core drilling Sydney, concrete cutting Sydney and concrete scanning Sydney pages, or get in touch.