Expert: Bruce E. Johnson - 10/30/2008

Question
Hi there again i emailed you yesterday regards this and you got bk to me thanks. The floor joist above are sitting on the wall i want to create the hole in. the structure is brick and masonry and the size of door im looking to put in is 2 meter high by 0.80 meter wide

Answer
Hi again Perry,
truth be told there isn't much bearing weight on this narrow of an opening so you really don't need to support the floor system while the work is being done.  What I do for masonry walls is the following: on the inside I make a cut using as big of a saw as possible preferably a 14" masonry blade and a gas or electric powered cut saw.  Most tool rental stores carry them or you can have a concrete cutting company come out and do the work.  I like the concrete cutting companies because they have chain saws and all kinds of neat saws to do the work effortlessly.  Anyways I make my top of door header cut first and run it 6" past the side of the new opening both directions.  Then I do the vertical cuts but do not run them past the the top cut.  Before I remove the masonry I install a steel angle.  In your case, a 3" x 3" x 1/8" angle should suffice.  Make the angle 8" longer than the width of your door opening (4" for each side).  Then I drill some holes in the top part of the angle every 6".  Then I slip the angle into the top door cut, overlapping the sides 4".  Now you have an angle iron in place to hold the masonry.  Using concrete screws I attach the vertical leg of the angle iron to the masonry above the door.

Once the angle iron is in place and attached you can remove the masonry.  Do the same with the brick on the exterior.  It's probably a good idea on the exterior angle to use galvanized angle iron.  Or if your door has brick moulding then you would cut your brick out enough to install the brick moulding after the door is installed.  

I hope this information helps feel free to write again regarding this or other matters, sincerely bruce e johnson..bejohnsonconsulting.com