shrinking a door opening in a brick wall
cutawooda
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
How do you go about reducing the opening ina brick wall. Currently there is a 5’0 double door/ I want a 3’0 single. Slab was poured witha brick ledge up to the door and startrs again on the other side of the door. No lintel needed because door top has boxed soffet. How do you keep the courses correct. Do you chip out 1.5 inches x5.5 inches to creat a new ledge.
thnks
Replies
Just install a 3'0" door and one sidelite.
Or, center the door and build a narrow raised panel strip for each side.
Or, build up both sides with wide fluted pilasters or other architrave around the door.
Nope, you want to do it he hard way.
First, find an exact match for the brick. If you can't do that, forget about it. It WILL look like a patch job.
Second, if you do find the match, then match the mortar. If you can do that, then proceed. You'll need to tooth the old brick, that is remove the end bricks that form the corner so you can fit in new bricks up to the new corner. If you have a concrete pad across the current opening I think, without actually seeing the situation, that you can just lay the bricks up from there.
FWIW, I would keep the wider, orignal opening. It looks more inviting than a narrow one.
To keep the courses even and get a nice job, you get a good mason. This is harder than it looks. Otherwise, as already suggested, go with sidelights. An amateur brick job will look like one. Even a good professional job will probably not be invisible.
I realize that it is a difficult job. That is why I am asking advice. I am doing a garage conversion for a client and he is leaning toward a single door there to get more usable space in the interior. I told him it would be hard but I need to get as much info as I can get to disuade him. Also, when I got to thinking about it I wanted to know myself,..just how to go about it. I have cut many doors INTO a brick wall but have never shrank an opening,..and though I am always up for a challenge,..the intrigue did not outweigh my common sense. But I still am wanting feedback because knowledge is power....thanks
"he is leaning toward a single door there to get more usable space in the interior."
What usable space??
Think about it. Stand at a door. Open and close it. Carry a few packages through it. The actual swing of a door is one thing but the space it takes, unless you sidle sideways when you walk, is always more. The most you may be able to glean would be blank wall, someplace to hang a picture. Not space for furniture. The floor area of the overall room/foyer (whatever) will remain unchanged.
it could mean alot of room. If the room is 20 feet long and I manage to utilize 30 inches of it...lets say 2 feet of it...that is an extra 40 square feet I have managed to salvage. I would say that is substantial. Apparently you dont know how to squeeze blood out of a turnip like I do. The size of a door counts,..the swing of a door counts.Every foot counts,every inch counts,.......every answer counts.
You could use 6"x -- cut limestone to make pilasters for each side of the door. and a stone look decorative foam top over the door.
Apparently squeezing blood out of your turnip has seriously impaired the delivery of oxygen to your math cells. <G> Note the <G>.
What you are saying is that a 5' wide door/entry section compromises an entire floor plan, wall to wall, or 100SF by your figures, and just reducing the size of the door, gaining just two linear feet of WALL space frees up 40SF of floor space.
As with people, doors have a personal space, which encompasses the actual swing of the door over an area of floor and the zone where one or more people stand to operate the door and move through the area comfortably. No encroachment by furniture, etc.
As I said previously, stand by the door, Open and close it and walk through it. You will see that wall space gained has no practical effect on the amount of floor space it takes to use that door. I'll grant, that on occasion, the opposing leaf of the current door might have to be opened, utilizing an equal arc of travel. Squaring off the half circle arc of the second door leaf that could swing a full 180 degrees uses about 15SF of additional floor space. My contention is that this second leaf swing space will only be part of the a single doors personal space (utilized by people operating the door) and not affect the use of the rest of the room.
Once you are outside of that working area, the rest of the rooms floor area and its use, is unaffected.
But what you initially wanted was a way to brick up the outside and make it presentable for a smaller entry door. It's already been suggested that anything short of a perfect mason with perfect materials matching will result in a glaring add-on look if you try to piece in the brick as if it were an original wall.
A brick pilaster to either side, would not have to be a perfect match since it would be in an eye-fooling different plane and could actually work as an accent for the new door. This, and any other method, such as fancy mouldings, which would end up centering the door in the original opening, would work the easiest.
"......every answer counts."
By removing one side of the door and framing up a wall ther will enable me to creat a "T" 6 inches away from the opererating door, thus, forming a perpendicular wall that can run the entire 20 feet. Plenty of oxygen here. I am not saying that I will do it,..I am just taken aback by the fact that you think the idea has no positive outcome. Personally, I like double doors,..I built my house using double doors for three of the exterior doors for easy furniture moving. It has paid off perfectly. However,..there are time when I realize that I have compromised room space by having them there.
OK - I see we are not on the same design track.
Nothing I have posted should indicate a negative approach to your ideas. I'm just doing the best I can explaining my views on how a door and the people using it impacts, or doesn't, the floor area.
Without knowing the interior layout, walls, intersections, dimensions, windows it's difficult to tell how you plan to set the door and how its swing impacts the floor area.
It would have been helpful to know that your intention was to swing the door off center from the original opening and that the exterior brick would be extended from one side only. This still brings up not only my post about matching difficulties but also Bobs and Lostarrows. Unless you have some ideas about wide, very wide trim to cover the old and the new brick on either side of the door you must be sure your mason can pull off the match.
Ading a perpendicular wall where the old leaf was also changes the hand of the new door. I don't think you want to be reaching into a corner to pull open a door into the room.
Are we getting somewhere now?<G>
I have had the same sort of thing done before. If you can match the exact brand of brick, there will still be variations in the color from batch to batch. Also the color of the mortar varies. If they used they yucky gray ready-to-mix mortar, there's maybe less variation, but if the masons mixed their own on-site, as is usual, then you have to know where they got the sand and the mix they used. I have never found a mason who will promise anything close to a really clean job. Yes, you need to cut in a brick ledge, preferably below grade somewhere and you have to cut back to whole bricks to weave in the new ones. Also, the mortar takes a really long time to achieve its final color. Even if you match it well, it either will be the wrong color for a year or it will be OK for a year and then become obvious. It is far simpler to do something deliberately contrasting. This needs a mason with exceptional skills. What looks OK from close up may be really obvious from 20 feet back. The mason has to guess how the mortar will match when cured, which is nowhere near how it looks in the dry mix or when fresh. If you can get the exact same brick and the match is good, you still probably need to repoint the entire wall with new mortar to make it look decent.
This is another option to consider. If you're centering the new door in the center of the present 5' opening , you'll have 12 " each side to fill in. 12" equals one and a half brick or 3 batts (batt= 1/2 brick). You could build a decorative brick pilaster each side of the door. Each course you could use a batt against the door jamb in line with the present brickwork and a whole brick projected out about 1/2 - 3/4" from the wall, or you could use 3 batts every course, first one against the jamb in line with the present wall , second one out about 1/2" , third batt out 1" from the wall. Maybe you can get some idea of a possibility if you check this web site http://www.markarrowmasonry.com
I'm with the others who thought that using a 3/0 door with a sidelight could be the best option.
But if that ain't gonna fly - What if you went ahead and put in the smaller 3/0 door, and filled in one or both sides (Of the removed brick area)with fypon panels of some sort, or building something out of wood?
The summit of happiness ir reached when a person is ready to be what he is [Erasmus]
Frame it in with an insulated 2x wall and build a faux brick porticulus? (cant' find my glossaries), outlines the door.
Or use faux stone.
Build a covered porch with columns.
It's all about appearance at this stage.
SamT
you're doing this for a client... makes U a contractor ...
so contract it!
call the best mason you can find ... get his price .... add 15% ...
and tell the client it'll cost this much to do it right.
Simple.
Done!
Glad I could finally be some real help around here.
Jeff
Buck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite