Cutting a hole through a load bearing brick wall - how to prop it before putting a lintel in?
Question:I'm planning to cut a 2.1mwide hole through a load bearing brick wall. Better still its an internal wall central to the house - so its taking the load from the roof on both sides (single storey house).
I'm looking for ways to take the load of the roof temporarily whilst put a lintel in to permanently take the load. I know if I cut the wall otherwise it will sag and or crack and or just fall down with the roof! :)
Answers:
You have a couple of problems here. You can't just support the ceiling as the roof framing will likely have struts that bear onto the brick wall. And the brickwork above the opening you cut will collapse into a sot of upside down "v" over that span even if there was no roof load imposed on it.
What you normally do is poke a few "needle holes" through the wall just above the lintel location .These are large enough to slot a bit of hardwood through the wall.. you need to extend that timber about 600mm on either side of the wall. then you prop the hardwood on both sides of the wall tightly (the acro props must bear onto something very solid at the base.. something that isn't going to deflect under the load - so you need to consider the adequacy of the floor structure)... You would put those needles at closer centres if you don't have much brickwork above the head of the new opening. but say about 600 mm centres max if you have a metre of brickwork above the head of the new opening. Then you saw cut the brickwork to be removed... and then you carefully remove it without hitting the temporar props ... then you install the new lintel sized appropriately to carry the load of the brickwork and any point load of the roof above... and then you grout the brickwork to the lintel using non shrink grout, remove the needles infilling one at a time as you go.
So you can see.. it is clearly not a job for an amature... and that for good advice.. with nothing going wrong.. you need someone to look at it and size the lintel appropriately, as well as check the structure of the floor and design the intervals of the needle props. An engineer is required.. or alternatively a highly experienced builder will over design it for you to ensure you have no difficulty with movement on completion.
You must support the ceilings on either side of the wall using two Acro`s holding a scaffold board held tightly to the ceilings.
Build 2 tempo stud walls on each side snug close to floor and ceiling. 8 feet long will do the job. Brace in middle to inhibit bowing of studs across the width of your tempo walls.
is this an 8 in. thick brick wall? with header courses? if it is you could use 4 in. wide concrete lintels and install them one at a time. tear out 4 courses of brick on one side of the wall where the lintel will go . then install the one lintel. do the same on the other side. then cut your opening below the lintels .just a thought, dont know that it will work without seeing it...
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