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Can anyone help me with this? I’ve scoured all the home improvement books in the local bookstores without success. I want to install a new window in a wall, which is bricked on the exterior. My biggest question is the cutting/finishing of the brickwork. Would I use a replacement window to fit exactly in a cut opening? Or would it be better to overcut the brick and find some way to install molding of some sort on the interior of cut opening once I installed a new construction window. What, if anything would I do with the bottom of the top course of brick that is now exposed? Any advice would be great, including a book or other reference on this subject.
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It would be easier on you IMO if you contacted a brick layer or go to the local brick yard and ask someone.....
*Jim is probably correct about the mason, but that is also probably not the answer you were looking for.Start inside the house with your layout, framing, proper window header and rough opening size. There is plenty of "how to" information on this aspect of the job, including proper ceiling and/or joist bracing in remodeling books.After the rough opening is complete inside you can knock out the brick. I usually chose a brick near the center of the rough opening and detroy it in the process of getting it out. Next from outside measure and chalk the rough opening plus exterior trim (brick molding) on the face of the brick.This is not a cut line!From this base line you can now determine which brick need to be toothed out for the sides. At the bottom you will want to go two courses lower than the bottom of the window, so that you can lay up the new brck sill to the exterior window sill. If there is brick over the top of the window, as there would be on the first floor of a two story home, you will need to install a lintel. This part can be tricky depending on the width of the window, the number of brick ties, and the quality of the mortar. The lintel should be two full bricks on each side of the window wider than the rough opening, and agian depending on the width may need to be lag bolted to the framing. Much of that is determined by local codes, so check with code enforcement (inspector) for your particular area.Now, after the brick is removed, you can install the window. The final step then becomes laying the brick back into the toothed out opening. If you have been carefull with the demo you might have enough good brick cleaned up to lay back in, without needing to match and purchase more brick.This is not a simple project if you want the window to look like it was installed when the house was built. Anything else involving exterior trim to hide the saw cut edges of brick will look out of place on your homes exterior.Hopefully, this is the advice for which you're looking. Dave
*This may be a good sidebar to the article FH is considering for installing replacement windows in brick veneered houses.I have a somewhat similar situation - but it involves possibly enlarging some existing window openings.(This in addition to simply replacing existing windows.)
*Dave,Thanks for the advice.... I appreciate you taking the time to answer. Wish me luck!
*In brick veneer I do it all the time, I shore up the inside ceilings, tear off the sheetrock to the middle of each stud about 16" or so over on each side and remove the header and wall section. I then paper and flash the wall and tip it back up into place and re-sheetrock. Being carpenters it takes my men about a day to do three windows this way. If you cut the brick back, the morter joints never look the same.