Have you ever wanted to open up a brick wall to create a new doorway but weren’t sure where to begin? You can do this project on your own if you have the necessary equipment and follow a methodical process. A useful skill to have when remodeling or adding a new room to your house is knowing how to create an opening in a brick wall. This tutorial will lead you through each step of the process, from preparing the space and drawing it out to breaking through the bricks and smoothing the edges.
It takes careful planning and preparation to create an opening in a brick wall. Examine the wall to decide where your new doorway will look best before you start. Take into account elements like the surrounding space’s layout and structural integrity. Once a suitable location has been selected, use masking tape or a chalk line to mark the opening’s dimensions. This will act as a guide for you the entire project, guaranteeing precision and accuracy.
Next, assemble the equipment and supplies needed for the task. To remove bricks, you’ll need an angle grinder or circular saw with a diamond blade to cut through the mortar joints and bricks. You’ll also need safety goggles, gloves, and a dust mask to shield yourself from flying debris. Have a strong ladder or scaffolding in place as well so that you can safely access higher portions of the wall.
When you’re ready, start by carefully taking out the bricks in the designated area. Starting at the top and working your way down, carefully chip away at the mortar surrounding each brick with a hammer and chisel. Take your time to ensure a clean removal and prevent any damage to the nearby bricks.
- Features and requirements for the design of doorways
- Consumables and tools
- During construction
- After laying the wall
- How to cut it yourself?
- During the construction of a brick wall
- Punch into the finished structure
- How to transfer?
- What is required for this?
- Description of the process and technology
- How to cut without mistakes?
- Price of work
- By layout
- By tenderloin
- Video on the topic
- How to make an OPENING in an existing wall + TIMELAPSE
- Easily and quickly make an opening in a brick wall. in 30 minutes.
- Doorway in a brick wall
- Window opening in a load-bearing brick wall with your own hands
- How to make an opening in a load-bearing wall?
Features and requirements for the design of doorways
In the event that the doorway in the brickwork is made incorrectly from the start, you will have to painfully and time-consumingly redo everything, upsetting the interior composition that has already been finished.
When making a door opening, there are a few details to take into account:
- Building regulations. According to SNiP, the size of the opening is established according to the type of walls. In a load-bearing wall, the width of such an opening should not exceed 70-200 cm, with a height of 210 cm. It should be located closer to the center of the wall – this will evenly distribute the load on the structure. If the apartment is on the lowest floor, then its walls experience maximum pressure. In this regard, the width of the opening in the brickwork should not exceed 90 cm. This size can be increased by constructing special supports.
- Accuracy. At the design stage, be it a new opening during construction or cutting down a standing wall, it is important to be careful. All work should be carried out carefully, because inaccurate markings will lead to undesirable consequences.
- Accuracy. In order not to miscalculate, you need to decide in advance why the opening is needed. If it is an arch, then it must contain a gap for finishing. If this is a niche for installing a door frame, it is necessary to provide plus 1 cm in width and 0.6 cm in height for installation.
Redistributing the load on the wall is necessary to strengthen it if you intend to make a cutout in the brickwork. This is accomplished by building a reinforced concrete or wood lintel over the cutout.
In this post, we’ll walk you through the process of making a door opening in a brick wall, using simple tools and unambiguous instructions. We will cover all the necessary steps, from planning and marking out the location of the door to safely cutting through the brickwork and finishing with framing the opening, whether you’re remodeling or adding a new doorway. This useful guide attempts to provide do-it-yourselfers the assurance and skills they need to take on this project successfully, so your building or remodeling project goes off without a hitch.
Consumables and tools
The kind of tools and quantity of material needed will depend on the type of repair. You can create a cutout in a wall that has already been completed or create an opening while the wall is being built.
During construction
During the construction phase is the most convenient time to do it. There is no chance that other communications embedded in the wall or the wiring will be impacted.
Brick is a necessary material, and how much you need depends on the size of the wall. It’s also important to decide how many bricks to lay at a time and work your way from there. Bricks can be solid or hollow. Sand, water, and M400 cement are also required.
Instruments that will be useful:
- trowel for laying mortar;
- cord and plumb line to create horizontal and vertical guides;
- pickaxe for splitting bricks in half;
- building level;
- order;
- square;
- roulette.
A bucket for water and another for mixing the solution are also required. You will need a drill with a mixer attachment in order to mix.
After laying the wall
After laying a brick wall, it is common to think about creating a doorway. Other tools will be required in this situation:
- Bulgarian;
- diamond disc;
- hammer;
- sledgehammer;
- chisel;
- square and long ruler;
- jumper;
- hammer drill.
Among the supplies you must get ready are:
- wooden beam,
- boards and fasteners,
- cement mortar (sand, cement, water),
- corner 35×35 mm.
A trowel or spatula, as well as a drill with a mortar-mixing attachment, are also required. It is worthwhile to get ready a construction pencil or a permanent marker in a contrasting color for marking.
A construction vacuum cleaner is also recommended because cutting into a brick wall will produce a lot of dust. Another helpful tool for thoroughly cleaning the opening before finishing it is a vacuum cleaner.
How to cut it yourself?
Depending on when the opening is created—during the wall-laying process or after the arrangement is finished—different technologies will be employed.
During the construction of a brick wall
The wall is constructed in the conventional manner, with one or more bricks used to determine the thickness. This is how the work appears:
- Preparation of the solution. To do this, use cement, sand and water. Add 3-5 parts of sand to one part of the binder. Add water gradually to achieve the desired consistency – it should resemble thick sour cream. It is better not to prepare more than 40-50 liters of solution at a time, remembering that its “life” is no more than 2 hours. You can add slaked lime to the solution: this will make it more plastic.
- Masonry. It starts with installing beacons in the corners and in the places of the future opening. The cord is used to form a line corresponding to the outer edge of the brick in the row being laid. This will help lay it flat. The lighthouse brick is located transversely to the masonry. To check the horizontal, use a level, and to check the vertical, use a plumb line.
- Arrangement of the opening. The opening is laid using temporary formwork. If the dimensions of the box are known in advance, then the opening is adjusted to these parameters. If during the installation of the door it turns out that the passage is too wide or high, the brick is reported.
The structure needs to be bandaged before you can lay a wall or an opening because this will strengthen it.
Punch into the finished structure
The task will be more challenging if the wall is ready and you need to cut an opening in it:
- Marking. The area of the future passage must be cleared of finishing and markings must be applied. In places where the cut will be made, you need to make holding jumpers. If the opening is more than 90 cm, you need to prepare supports. To do this, take steel corners and use a grinder to make cuts along the markings to a depth of 40 mm. Insert the corners there and secure them with self-tapping screws.
- Perimeter work. A grinder makes several vertical and horizontal slits. Their depth should be the size of the corner shelf. The corners are cut and secured in the slots. Profiles are mounted vertically and horizontally. Holes are made in them, the wall is drilled and reinforcing rods are inserted.
- Punching. Several holes are drilled using a hammer drill to weaken the masonry. Take a hammer or sledgehammer and hit the wall, carefully knocking out the bricks. The protruding ends of the bricks are beaten off, and the space is cleared of dust and dirt.
After cement is used to seal the cracks, wood or reinforced concrete beams are erected as supports. If necessary, additional insulation is applied to the junction points.
You can learn how to cut a doorway in a brick wall by watching this video:
How to transfer?
Apartment owners frequently wish to relocate the doorway when renovating their unit. There are various reasons why this could occur:
- for comfortable movement;
- to isolate the passage room;
- when changing the design of the room.
Sometimes an apartment has multiple rooms, and you have to walk through the whole place to get to one of them. It’s not always practical.
Owners frequently reposition the doorway so that the door from the parent’s room leads directly to the children’s room when a small child moves in, as this allows parents to have constant access to the child’s room.
Converse circumstances also exist: apartments in the post-Soviet era frequently had layouts with two passageways connecting one room at a time. It was common to use this hallway as a living area.
Many of the owners of these apartments choose over time to remodel, divide a room, and isolate it entirely. In this instance, moving the doorway will also be necessary.
Coordination with the appropriate companies is required when redesigning a room or in other circumstances where shifting the opening is unavoidable. If this isn’t done, the owner might be fined for moving the opening without permission when the apartment is later sold.
What is required for this?
The same tools you would need to cut an opening in a brick wall are also required for self-transfer:
- Bulgarian;
- disk for working with bricks;
- building level;
- pencil for marking;
- roulette;
- hammer;
- chisel.
Brick will be needed because the old door must be laid after the wall is cut through. Furthermore necessary for disassembly work:
- putty knife,
- hammer drill,
- sledgehammer,
- construction vacuum cleaner.
The mortar needs to be mixed and laid as follows:
- bucket,
- cement,
- sand,
- water,
- drill with mixer attachment,
- trowel for work.
Description of the process and technology
The workspace must first be de-energized, and all wiring on the wall where the doorway will be installed must be removed. Next, mark the location of the new door with a building level and a tape measure. The passage is removed by grinding it out; both sides must be done.
On both sides of the wall, the future opening’s outline needs to be drawn. If required, you can also reinforce the hole with metal corners; the procedure for doing so was previously mentioned.
Once the doorway is fully prepared, clean the masonry’s surface of all dust and debris using an electric vacuum. Bricks have blocked the previously used passageway.
It is preferable to purchase fresh, clean material because it is unlikely that a brick that has been knocked out of the wall can be used.
The opening that results is sized to match the door frame. You will need to use mortar or lay bricks in the floor if the hole is too big for a new door.
How to cut without mistakes?
When amateurs start working, they make a lot of very important mistakes. It is simpler to avoid problems and carry out transfer or cutting down using technology rather than correcting the consequences.
The most typical errors are:
- Full cutout, no blocking.
- Strong blows with a sledgehammer.
- Lack of reinforcement.
- Using unsuitable materials.
Cutting out a doorway without first dividing it into blocks is regarded as a serious error. Once the marking has been made, you will need to use a grinder gradually.
There’s no need to use a power tool to go around the entire perimeter right away as this could cause the structure to collapse instantly. When a brick wall is load-bearing, there is the greatest risk; in this case, careful and deliberate work is required.
If you use a sledgehammer to force an opening, you run the risk of doing the same total destruction to the wall. Additionally, the ceiling may start to crack. In any case, this is risky, but when the ceiling becomes the floor of the subsequent floor, there is a chance of collapse.
Progress is made in the work to prevent such an error. The absence of reinforcements is comparable. It is advised to make the cuts beforehand, tuck the corners into them, and then finish the cutting. This will make it possible for the opening to be accurate and prevent a collapse threat.
You will be in violation of technology if you use an improper tool at work. For instance, the wall will collapse if you don’t purchase a diamond disc for a grinder in order to properly cut out the opening. Many people violate the technology by failing to do this. The wall inside the opening must therefore be repaired.
Price of work
A number of factors affect how much the work to create an opening for doors will ultimately cost. For instance, the cost will vary if the opening is made during the building phase because the master only needs to use masonry to lay out the opening for the door.
If an opening needs to be cut, the type of wall—solid or partition—the kind of brick, and the wall’s thickness all complicate the process and have an impact on the overall cost.
By layout
In St. Petersburg, the cost of lining a doorway starts at 1,700 rubles per square meter. In Moscow, masonry that is 120 mm thick will cost 1000 rubles, and masonry that is 250 mm thick will cost 3000 rubles per square. Brickwork for openings in the city of Temryuk ranges in price from 1000 to 2800 rubles, based on thickness and complexity.
By tenderloin
If they need to cut an opening that is at least 10 square meters, most contractors will give you a quote for the work.
For instance, they charge from 1200 rubles to cut a square that is 6 to 8 cm thick; in Moscow, however, you will have to pay from 6,000 rubles if the thickness is three bricks.
In St. Petersburg, the cost of diamond cutting a brick wall that is 100 mm thick starts at 5,000 rubles. They will demand 7,000 rubles for a service in Yekaterinburg.
For many do-it-yourselfers, drilling a hole in a brick wall to install a door is a manageable project. These detailed instructions will help you successfully create a new doorway in your house.
First, measure the door’s dimensions carefully and mark them on the wall. To make sure your markings are precise and straight, use a level. After that, carefully remove the bricks along the designated lines using a hammer and chisel. Take your time so as not to break the nearby bricks.
After the bricks are gone, tidy up the opening’s edges and get it ready for the door frame to be installed. Make sure the frame is level and fits tightly when you insert it into the opening. Make sure the frame is firmly fixed to the surrounding bricks by fastening it in place with masonry screws or anchors.
After that, install the door in accordance with the manufacturer’s guidelines. Verify that it locks firmly and swings freely. Lastly, use mortar to fill in any gaps and add more support around the frame’s edges.
Making a doorway in a brick wall can be a fulfilling project that improves your home’s appearance and functionality with careful planning and attention to detail.