Cutting an opening into a single brick wall

if you can I,d leave 4 to 5 bricks above the door way & rather than flat bar
use one heafty angle type the thickness of the bricks (5" or so) I,ve
done similar to accomodate fridges but had a third of the wall still above
(better to much than to little !...regards Terry

Thanks for the advice.

Has anyone any experience with using one of these for such a job? You can get hire them from Kennards.

http://icsbestway.com/en/documents/I..._Datasheet.pdf

Thanks Bloss, but when you say 'commonly used 9" angle grinder' and 'grinder with diamond blade is a more controllable device' do you mean a normal angle grinder with a diamond blade, such as this



or a demolition saw such as this which uses water to cool the blade and prevent dust?



If I use just a normal grinder with the diamond blade, wouldn't that be extremely dusty (not to mention quite a bit slower), or does the diamond blade reduce the dust compared with using a normal stone/masonry blade?

Also the Arbotech saw you mentioned in the other post, can that be used for actually cutting through the bricks, as my understanding was that it is designed for cuttiing through mortar only? - to remove whole bricks from a wall for example.

AS170 Product Info

I've had to cut many brick openings in my place (generally to widen doorways).
You have a few options how to cut it:

1) If the wall is single brick and you have a 9" angle grinder (with a diamond blade), run a cut up the wall. But seeing as though a 9" blade will only go about 2/3 through the brick, you will need to get on the other side of the wall and finish off the cut. Bit over $200 for a good makita 9" grinder, then add $50+ for a basic diamond blade.

2) Otherwise you can use a 12" wet saw, which will just rip through the wall in one go and make alot of mess. Hire these from kennards etc. I've had to borrow a 12" wet saw when cutting through a cavity wall when I couldn't get to the back of the bricks to use the 9".

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Here are some pics.

In the first 2 pictures/attachments you can see the wall in my garage which I have discussed in earlier posts - the wall I want to remove. (I couldnt stand back far enough to get the whole wall in, but it gives you an idea) The red line shows where I was going to make the cuts, and the black line shows where I was planning to insert the lintel.

The 3rd picture/attachment is directly upstairs in my kitchen, showing where a wall once was, that has obviously since been removed. (It sat on the slab directly above the wall downstairs in the garage in the first picture). You can see that a lintel has been installed to hold up the ceiling ( the floor of the unit above). There is another wall directly above the lintel in the unit upstairs.

Given that the wall which was removed in my kitchen is no longer there, can I assume that the wall I now want to remove in my garage (pictures 1 and 2) is now NOT load bearing, with the weight above being taken by the lintel? (picture 3)

If this wall is NOT load bearing, would I be able to remove the wall completely to the ceiling and not need a lintel? Or should I use the lintel and keep three courses of bricks above it just to be safe?

Also would there be any issues with inserting the lintel into the inside course of bricks of the outer wall as shown by the dotted line in Picture/attachment 1, given that the weight of the unit upstairs from me would now be pushing down through that wall as a result of the lintel being installed in my kitchen? (Picture/attachment 3)


The width of the opening as shown by the red lines would be about 1.6 metres.

Yes, there is a concrete slab on it, what you see in the picture is the underside of that slab which is my kitchen floor, which is directly upstairs. But I am confused as to how the wall may be load bearing (apart from just the weight of the slab) given that there is no wall/load above it now, only empty space? In picture 3 you can see where a lintel now replaces where the wall directly above the wall to be removed once was.

I thought that the load would now be only at each end of that lintel, pushing down through the inside course of bricks of the external wall on the left hand side, and down on another wall on the right hand side which has not been removed, and has a wall directly under it in the garage which is also not being removed.

I have attached some floor plan photos which I hope will make it easier for you to determine whether the wall I want to remove is load bearing or not, and what sort of lintel (if any) etc it would require. The first photo shows the garage and storeroom with the wall I hope to remove, shown in gray. The 2nd photo shows the floorplan directly above.

Thanks Bloss for the advice which I will take. The slab is obviously being held up by the walls!

But note that the same slab continues across and also forms the ceiling of my garage, where the unsupported area/span is much bigger, (5.5m x 3.75m = 20.65sq metres), than the unsupported area/span above the storeroom ( {2.85m + 1.45m} x 2.35m = 10.105 sq metres when the wall is removed), so I would be surprised if removing this wall would cause a problem to the support of the slab there.