Fr Doors thru brick ven wall (support?)
Greetings. Thanks for reading this post. I am a contractor (additions on farmhouses), running into something new to me. I want to add French Doors going from a living room to the outside. The house is a late 1970’s framed place with a brick veneer (full brick). I am planning on cutting through the interior wall, moving mechanicals, etc, and then cutting through the bricks. Now … what precautions should I take with the bricks? Should I kerf a long path and insert angle-iron? I obviously don’t want the bricks to come down and am planning on doing this as carefully as possible. The doors will be going through a gable-end wall two-and-a-half stories. I know I may have left out some important details, but maybe this is enough to start. I am planning on a header, etc., mostly worried about falling bricks. Is this a concern in your experience? Thanks again!
Replies
Does the wall have an opening now? You need to insert a lintel and then remove bricks as needed to allow for the new opening. A saw cut kerf will not allow the weight of the above brick to be supported.
The wall is not open now as I have not begun the project. I described kerfing the bricks or mortar joint and adding a piece of angle-iron to act as a lintel. Adding any other kind of lintel might be obvious from outside. Did you mean a masonry litel? I don't understand. Thanks.
I believe you have to open the area above the RO by removing 3-4 courses of brick. Insert lintel with at least 6" bearing on either side of RO. Flash above lintel. tied into back up framing. Th ewall should be self supporting for the short length of time needed to make this repair, one day at most. That is remove brick, insert lintel, flash and reinstall brick. At that point load is transfered to steel and balance of demo can be completed. Make sure lintel is galv. We typically use 3/8" x 3" x 5".
Dont forget corner flashings. In addition a drip edge of Kynar or SS is recommended.
I think you can help me, but I'm not exactly sure what you mean. When you say remove three or four courses of brick ... I don't know why. I was trying to avoid removing / replacing bricks because of matching the pointing, etc. I was thinking about just kerfing into the brick or mortar joint and slipping the angle in there. Is that stupid? Do you think I need to open it up above the RO so I can do proper flashing? I was thinking of kerfing in a flashing also. Am I being naiive? Thanks for reading ... and looking forward to your reply. WDHF.
Sorry ... also can you describe what you mean by a corner flashing? If the top flashing extends beyond the top brick mould is that enough? Please explain. Thanks very much!
Any brick veneer wall will leak. Its the nature of brick. The idea is to flash above the lintel so that the water does not enter at the newly installed door.
End dams are flashings turned on themselves to send water out above the door. You need to stop the water from travelling down the framing members on either side of the door.
We've done many retrofits here in Chicago where no flashing was installed and you would be amazed at the damage found due to lack of flashing. Perhaps a visit to a masonry forum would provide better answers. The devil is in the details.
Do you have any local masonary guys who could set you up. This is a big job with a lot of pitfalls. Unless you cover the details well the callbacks could be murder. Look to sub out the brickwork.
Lintel install by a qualified mason is the answer. Let them have the headaches.
Call backs on leaks will haunt you every time you read the weather forecast.
They will be able to reinstall brick work to match original and will know the proper methods and materials to make this a one time job. Nothing worse than having a client call about the water running into their home again and again and again.
I speak from experience.
five,
i've answered this one a few times before, so i hope you'll forgive the cut and paste effect here. the sketch drawn at the end shows a window cut in for a brick wall, but your application of a door is the same except you are removing bricks to the floor.
With a 6' wide opening you can get away with installing a single needle beam to support the brick. The needle beam can be a steel "I", but usually we use PT 6x6 material for both the needle and the support posts. The needle is installed in a hole cut clear through the brick wall. The hole is centered over the new opening at the lowest elevation possible that is needed to get the needle in and also clear your permanent support lintels. We try to select needles 8' in length or less, with minimal knots for best strength. The needles are supported by 6x6's which transfer the load to a solid bearing point capable of carrying the load. The beams are installed, the old brick is removed, the new lintels are installed, then the bricks are relayed. After everything sets up overnight, the needles are removed and the needle holes are repaired.
We set our support posts (cut about a 1/2" short) on a broader bearing surface such as a combination of 2x12 blocks and plywood squares and then use wooden wedges to snug the beam against the masonry. We drive the wedges until they won't go any further and then we nail them and the post with duplex. Everything gets cross braced so that it doesn't get knocked over during demo. Depending on the size of the opening and the load, we space our needles from 4' to 6' apart.
You should take a look at the drawing first. All bricks in the picture with red dots must be removed. The red line represents the new opening. You do not saw the opening into the window on these lines. Rather you saw horizontal joints out between the red dot bricks near the top of the new opening. That gets you started removing the red dot bricks. This is called "toothing". You want an opening bigger than your window so that you can set your brick lintel ( 3" of bearing ) , then set the window. The leftover bricks ( which you saved and cleaned by now I hope ) will be cut in to fit against the ext window trim. If you had sawed this vertical finished joint, You would see a rotten cut brick edge not to mention the possible core holes in the center of the bricks.
View Image
carpenter in transition
Thanks for your post. So the needle beam support actually goes through the wall at the center of the new RO, leaving room to fit lintel, etc. It looks like a frame perpendicular to where the door frame will be? Sounds like a good idea. Thanks for the graphic about removal and re-installation.
yes, in the case of a single 6' opening, you would need just one needle beam. be sure to put bracing on it to hold it in place. on some openings 4' or less, we don't bother with the needles as the bricks tend to remain in place depending on the mortar condition.
this is the method we use to support entire sections of homes with 2 stories of double wythe brick. each needle supports the bricks above it in a "V" pattern because of the overlap in each brick course. the bricks unsupported within that "V" are the ones that sometimes loosen and fall out depending on how much banging happens during demo. sawing the mortar joints apart with a 12" diamond blade helps cut down on the hammering. if you remove things somewhat carefully, the mortar and the natural pinching effect usually holds things together.
carpenter in transition
Thanks again for your help. That makes sense to me.