How do I drill into concrete without a hammer drill?

It is possible, it is slow, and there are three techniques that make the difference between an afternoon and a hole — plus an honest account of when to stop and hire.

Difficulty: intermediate
Time: 30 min
Read: 3 min
Safety: caution

Short answer

Use a sharp carbide-tipped bit, run at a low speed with heavy steady pressure, and work in short bursts with the bit withdrawn often to clear dust and cool. For anything past about 6mm or 40mm deep, hire an SDS for a day — it will cost less than the bits you destroy trying.

A rotary drill in concrete is grinding, not chipping. A carbide tip needs impact to fracture the aggregate; without it, the tip abrades slowly, generates a great deal of heat, and blunts. It can be done for a small shallow hole and it becomes futile fast. Knowing which side of that line you are on saves an afternoon.

Safety

Concrete floors and slabs commonly contain reinforcing mesh, and older ones can contain buried services. Concrete dust is respirable silica — a fitted FFP3 mask, not a cloth one. Working without percussion means long periods of high pressure on a drill, which gets very hot; let it cool rather than persevering.

What you'll need

Sharp carbide-tipped masonry bit
Masonry nail or a cold chisel (optional)
Water in a spray bottle (optional)
FFP3 mask and goggles
Vacuum (optional)

Step by step

Check whether it really is concrete.Fine grey dust and a hard, uniform feel is concrete. Reddish dust is brick, and a hole that suddenly speeds up has found mortar or a lightweight block. Many walls people call concrete are dense blockwork, which is much easier.
Start the hole with a masonry nail.Tap a masonry nail or a small cold chisel into the spot to break through the hard surface skin and give the bit a crater to sit in. Concrete is hardest at the surface, and getting past that skin is often the whole battle.
Use a sharp bit and accept it as a consumable.A rounded carbide tip will not cut concrete at all without percussion. Start with a new bit, and if progress stops, change bit rather than push harder.
Run slow and press hard.Gear 1, moderate trigger, and real body weight behind the drill kept square to the surface. High speed generates heat without cutting and destroys the tip.
Work in short bursts and withdraw often.Twenty seconds in, out to clear dust and let everything cool, back in. Dust packed in the flutes stops the tip contacting fresh material, which is why holes appear to stop progressing.
Use a drop of water to control heat and dust.A light spray in the hole cools the tip and stops the dust flying. Keep water away from any electrical work and off the drill itself, and never spray water into a hole you have not confirmed is clear of cables.
Stop if you hit reinforcement.A sudden metallic squeal and no progress is rebar or mesh. A masonry bit will not cut steel. Move along and start a new hole, or change to a rebar-cutting bit designed for it.
Know when to give up and hire.Beyond about 6mm diameter or 40mm deep, a rotary drill is not the tool. A day's SDS hire costs a fraction of an afternoon, and will drill in seconds what has taken you twenty minutes.

Tips

Diamond core drilling is the other way to make a hole in concrete without percussion, and it is how professionals do large holes. Small diamond cores for a drill exist and want water and low speed.
If you only need a light fixing, consider whether an adhesive or a fixing into an adjacent material solves it. Not every hole in concrete has to be drilled.
In a concrete ceiling or soffit, the dust falls straight into your eyes. Goggles, not glasses, and a dust catcher on the bit.

Common mistakes

Running the drill fast to make faster progress — Speed without impact means friction. It polishes the concrete, blues the carbide and destroys the bit while making no hole.
Leaning on a blunt bit — Once the carbide is rounded it cannot fracture the aggregate at all. More pressure only makes more heat, and it can snap the bit.
Using a wood or HSS bit — They are far softer than the aggregate and will be destroyed within seconds without cutting anything.

Questions people ask

Will a combi drill on hammer setting do concrete?

Small shallow holes in weak concrete, slowly. Dense modern concrete with hard aggregate defeats a combi, which is exactly what SDS exists for.

Can I use a masonry bit in an impact driver?

No. Impact drivers hammer rotationally, not axially, which does nothing for masonry, and the bits are the wrong shank anyway.

How do I tell concrete from dense block?

Block gives a slightly coarser, sometimes paler dust and drills noticeably faster, and blockwork has mortar joints in a regular pattern. Concrete is continuous with no joints.