Helping as friend pull out a window and install a door from his den to the patio. 2×4 wood framed brick veneer house on concrete slab. Slab is flat & level, ground slopes, so the interior floor is about 36 inches above the patio. The window RO is 42″ so a 36″ door fits very easily, and the header & lintel are at the right height, so in theory it’s a piece of cake. A fruitcake maybe.
Here’s the problem. There is brick below the window, almost down to the patio slab. We only have to remove 3 courses of brick to get down to the floor level, but then there’s a gap between the brick and the foundation wall, so there’s nothing to support the threshold. Clear so far? What to do about the gap. When we remove the third row of brick, that actually puts us about 2 inches below the slab, so I was thinking about pouring a concrete sub-threshold to the finished floor level. But how would I support the wet concrete until it sets?
Justr had a thought. Could I ramset a piece of angle to the foundation, with the outboard edge resting on the brick? I don’t want to use any wood to support the concrete.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell’em “Certainly, I can!” Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
Replies
Ed-
how about using a piece of stone as a subsill beneath the door. 2" should be just about the right thickness, and would look good, too. Just set it into a bed of mortar to the floor height, and you're good to go.
BTW, it should extend beyond the door's sill a bit.
How far down is it from the finish floor level to the ledge the bricks sit on if you take out all the bricks? If it's not too far, maybe you could take out all the bricks, brace a wood form across that opening and fill with concrete, as you suggested. Will this area be hidden behind stairs?
Al Mollitor, Sharon MA
Shep...the stone might work, and would look good, but only half would be supported by the brick, with the other half hanging over the air space.
Al, it's about 36 inches from the finished floor to the patio slab. They plan to enclose the patio next year, but for now there will just be some deck-type steps.Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
You could fill in the brick ledge area with mortar, probably just a sack of quikcrete, or you could cut a piece of PT to fill the space, which would allow you to attach an apron to the face of the wall for trim.
I Think it is brick veeneer? Stick peices of 2" foam blue board down between the brick and the foundation wall and build a form and pur a lintil, that is supported on both sides of course, Im not sure about concrete, maybe you want to check with someone about the mix. but you could pour itin down to the slab like a mono pour. but i question the mix because I am not sure you want to pour portland cement against a expanding and contrating brick and mortar wall. there might be a reason for that space. Also as far as thresholds go, I have used composite lumber like trex. there is a local recycling company here that makes it . they sell a 2 and 1/8 thick 2 x material that you can fashion to fit under sills, its Black which looks dressy if you actually even see any of it. It won't rot and its easy to work with . I don't know if that would work in your situation.
Where there's A wheel there's a way, got any wheels?
One way to deal with the air gap on the brick is with foam backer rod. This lets you define the space around the cut in a uniform way (and "keeps" the space for the purpose intended).
My first thought was a stone sill, or a precast concrete sill, the same way. This would be the 2" in height you are looking at, about 5" deep (back of the wall to the face of the face brick) and the width of the opening plus on brick (they look better, just like a window sill, overhanging a bit. Hammer tack fom 30# behind where the "sill" threshold buts against the wall (a bit of isolation felt might not be amiss, as it narrows the sill another 3/4", centering it better over the face brick). Using the backer rod means being able to control where the mortar goes for a nice clean install.
Have to ask: Are you turning the brick back into the jamb, like it probably does where the window was? If you are, you are already repointing along the sides, so a short solider course for a sill would not be that much more effort (just moving the old sill down to the door threshold in other words).
Just dont forget to have some pitch on what ever goes in there.
Are you turning the brick back into the jamb, Well, considering that the existing window is 6 ft high, and we only have about 3 courses of brick to mess with, it would look cheesy, or hack-y, not to turn the new brick back. But that was a fair question, cuz his neighbor, who knows everything, suggested a wide piece of wood trim to cover the cut ends of the brick.Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
what are foam rods, do you have a web link?Where there's A wheel there's a way, got any wheels?
what are foam rods,
They are a semiflexible cylinder of either cloed or open-cell foam. Rather than span a gap with a sealant, you fit the rod into the gap. The rod will compress to fit the space in the gap. Now, the sealant only has to "span" across the rod, not fill the gap.
The installers have a quote about if you can jump over it, they can fill it. Never wanted to test that, but they make a wide range of thicknesses of the rod. do you have a web link?
Here's the quick google search I did:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22foam+backer+rod%22
Nomaco is a brand name. Bunch of info on just that page.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Also called foam backer rod...not really a rod...flexible as a wet noodle...looks like a miniature version of those foam snake things you see being waved behind the goal post in basketball games. More important than not filling the gap, the sealant only sticks to two sides and not three (three sides being the two sides and tyhe bottom). Three sided adhesion will cause early failure of the sealant.
Why, you ask? Ok. Imagine a gap between two pieces of plywood where they abut on a stud. If you fill the gap completely, the caulk will stick to both pieces of plywood and the stud, so when the structure expand and contracts, the caulk is stretched int three directions. Now imagine the same gap, but the caulk is a thin layer that only sticks to the plywood. Now when the structure movbes, the caulk only has to stretch left & right, and the middle part of the caulk is free to stretch. Since it would be very difficult to just apply a thin layer of caulk, the backer rod is used to fill gap and prevent adhesion to the third side. Yes, the caulk is stuck to the backer rod, but the backer is more flexible than the caulk, and it will tear if stretched too far. The backer rod only has to perform long enough for the caulk to cure.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
This "gap" between brick and wall is what?...maybe 2 inches, if that? Mix up some Quickcrete sand mix and fill in the cavity. To keep from filling up the entire cavity, use spray foam to seal off the bottom and the side cavities, then pour in your mix. Use a 3/4 thick piece of board ( a 1x or a piece of ply) and position it against the front brick wall to act as a form . This board can be held against the wall with a few concrete blocks...or you could drill some small 1/4 inch holes through the wood into existing brick mortar joints and temporarily secure the board with some plastic wall anchors. Once the mortar has set, remove the board, remove the plastic anchors and seal off these holes with either mortar or silicone.
You are right...piece of cake.
Davo