Brick wall out, Lintel in.. how do I?

[dualsun]

Hi,

I want to remove a brick wall and put in a 10 foot lintel (to combine the space between my hallway and loungeroom). The wall has a doorway in it.

As it is a brick wall in the middle of the house, do I ask an engineer or a builder to tell me what can be done?

regards
Gregory

[silentC]

Get a builder in and if he needs an engineer's specification for anything, he'll organise it.

[FlyingDuck]

I had a builder remove part of my single brick wall at the front of my house and install 2 x 720 mm french doors. The total opening I guess therefore must be about 1550 mm or so wide, and standard door height (1040 mm or whatever it is). The way he done it was use a petrol powered btick saw to cut the brick to make the two edges of the doors, then just knocked out the bricks with a hammer & chisel When he was done, the bricks above the opening supported themselves, and he just inserted the lintel, door frames & finally the door. You can come and see it for yourself if you want (Robertson), and I also have some photos of the job process.

[pawnhead]

about 1550 mm or so wide,
, the bricks above the opening supported themselves,

That would be about 1800mm wide allowing for bearing for the lintel. Taking a bit of a gamble even if there's no roof load.
I'd have a prop (or two and a needle) in the guts for that width.

[MrFixIt]

Hi

then just knocked out the bricks with a hammer & chisel When he was done, the bricks above the opening supported themselves

Well weren't YOU lucky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are so many variables to consider when performing such a job.

I don't think it is wise to advise a forum "apprentice" of such antics!

It worked for you great, it just MIGHT NOT work for the next guy. If you DON'T know how or what's involved then PLEASE don't offer potentially bad advice.

I did a SIMPLE job of lowering my wall oven a couple of weekends ago. The opening is ONLY 600mm wide. There were 8 course of brick above the opening. I needed to remove ONE course from the top of the opening. When the brick course was removed it exposed the (1970's style) strapping used to "support" the bricks above. While all the bricks were there it was stable, but the process of removing the one course caused a small crack to appear in what was now the bottom course of bricks. (crappy cement and POOR quality tradesmen unfortunately )

I was aware that the bricks would require a new support and installed a length of angle iron that did the job better than the original strapping.

Dualsun, as SilentC said. get a builder in.

[FlyingDuck]

Hi

Well weren't YOU lucky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think it is wise to advise a forum "apprentice" of such antics!

It worked for you great, it just MIGHT NOT work for the next guy. If you DON'T know how or what's involved then PLEASE don't offer potentially bad advice.

Hey fixit man, it wasn't "luck"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had two builders with a combined 60 years experience performing a planned job with the necessary engineering approval, BSA insurance etc. Re-read what I said and you will see that I was not "offering advice", merely stating what was done at my place to give dualsun some idea of what can be achieved by a professional builder, but next time I won't bother if there are people like you around jumping to stupid conclusions. I certainly wasn't asking an "apprentice" to go knocking out brick walls

[silentC]

Why did they bother putting the lintel in then?

[FlyingDuck]

Mate, good question and I don't really know the correct answer to that - you would have to ask either the engineer or builder - If you like I can give you their contact details.

[silentC]

Nah it's OK. My place is timber frame and truss roof, so opening up walls is easy