I’ve also been approached by a customer who wants to uncover the end of their finished underground basement(site is sloping from front to back where the back of the house/basement is daylight) in order to put a window in one room and a french door in another that leads out to a patio that is shielded by a properly engineered stepped down retaining wall.
The foundation is 8″ block and I’m not sure if it’s filled with concrete or not(chances are probably not, it may have a bond beam poured in the top course) and it is the gable end of the house. What methods do y’all use to permanently support the block above the rough openings after they are cut out? I thought I would support all the weight above them temporarily, cut out the openings and cut a notch into a mortar joint on each side of the opening and slide a lintel into the notch and secure it with bolts and epoxy, etc. This is just a preliminary idea. Anybody use any other methods or have other ideas?
Replies
If you use a 4" thick lintel, you can chisel/break out the block half way through the length of the lintel.
Slide it into the opening - put a little morter along the top of it - shim it up and point in the morter joint below.
At that point you can repeat the same on the other side, or likely as not, cut or break out the full opening, then put in the other half of the lintel.
Terry