I have a door way in a brick, non supporting wall. The stupid builder when he put in the wall used a 27 inch door frame and I need to widen the door frame to 30 inches, I did not specify door width, i.e. take 3 inches off one side of the frame. The old frame has a concrete lintel above which seems to overhang 3 inches each side. My question is if I cut the frame wider on one side do I need to replace the lintel or can I get away with just the door frame? How much lintel overhang could I get away with? Thanks
Yes, I did not specify the required door width, I assumed, wrongly, that he would put in a 30" door. I shall have to cut out the width, and the lintel, with a angle grinder. Cutting out the old lintel I assume will be more difficult and involve more plastering and possible cracking brickwork above it. Thanks
i'm not an expert, but i'd stick 2 acro props under the lintel, angle grind 1 1/2 inches off each side, take out a few bricks at the top, cement in good strong bricks under the 1 1/2 inch of lintel, and cover it over quick before the bulding inspector notices (if its really not load bearing)
or if you need a longer lintel use acro props and 'strongboys' which are easy to hire.
second thoughts itd be a lot easier and less mess to only cut one side of the opening to the width of a brick or half a brick, using acrows and strongboys, and you wouldnt have the nagging doubt of is it safe enough.
Well you may be grammatically correct, but you are incorrect with your "in this case the error causes misunderstanding" - I know what he means, and I presume that all those reading the post understands what the OP is saying.
Being a pedant myself, would *YOU* explain the differences between making an opening wider, much wider and way wider, as to me, they all mean exactly the same?
Keeping the subject in context: if you increase a "door way" or "doorway" by
1mm or 1000mm - you simply widen the damn thing!
Now a question for *you* - do you know how to resolve the problem stated in the OP [1]?
[1] Original Post[er] if you are unsure of the acronym.
Ignoring the fact that you did not specify the opening size - and the builder is not a mind reader *and* has a choice of several sizes of doors, and the apportionment of blame may be resting in the wrong place.
1 Lintol bearings -- 3" of bearing on either side is the absolute minimum (and it should be at least 4")
2 Door frame -- If the wall really is non-load bearing, then I would suspect that you really have a door lining rather than a 'frame', and if that is the case, then it is inadvisable to use this to support any brickwork and the lintol should be replaced with one of the correct length and size - and this should be done before any attempt is made to widen the opening.
3 Lintol replacement -- There are several ways to do this safely.
4 But before any method of replacement can be suggested, more information is needed from you as to the height of the brickwork above the lintol, and is the opening near any corners or other obstructions - the more (relevant) information you can supply the better.
This information is needed to ascertain as to whether the bricks above the lintol need supporting with needles and props - or to simply remove a couple of courses of bricks and replace them after the lintol is renewed
Are you happy to have an archway? in which case leave the lintel where it is (but not a serious suggestion!) If the bricks were in NZ or other countries that have earthquakes, the bricks would not be load bearing because they are not allowed to be.
Necertheless, I have a door without a lintel where the door frame has bowed enough under the weight of those bricks to cause the door to jam. One of my round tuit moments will be to jack them up and fit a bit of 1" equal angle iron under them and against the door frame. However, as the door is not really essential, that is some way down the list.
You can see it in old properties where the lintel has failed and the brickwork has needed to be repaired. The lintle only directly supports a triangle of bricks above it. In the case of a 27" gap ina stretcher bond wall, a maximum of three bricks lie on the lintle. Because the bonding holds the outer bricks in the row above that in place, those three bricks support two in that next row. They, in turn support one brick above them.
That is often what was used and later failed in buildings that have needed the brickwork above to be repaired.
They are cheap and readily available and do keep the weight of the bricks off the door frame.
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