Cutting a window into an internal brick wall
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Wondering if anyone has any experience with cutting a window into an internal brick wall. To give you a bit of background, this wall is a single brick 3m in length with a 600mm * 600mm brick column which houses an oven that joins it at one end and joins the external wall at the other end. The wall divides the kitchen and the dining room in a house. The column is staying as it is of obvious structural importance as most of the roof supports rest on it. The rafters in the roof run parallel to this wall (1 right on top of it) so it’s not carrying much of a load in the middle. <o:p></o:p>
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What I’m interested in doing is cutting a 1.8 m (length) * 1m (high) window in the wall to open the kitchen into the dining room. The window will go from above bench top height to about 4 bricks from the ceiling. At either end of the proposed window will be the 600mm * 600mm supporting column at one end and a 600mm section of floor to ceiling wall at the other end.<o:p></o:p>
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This is the proposed method of attack at this stage until someone tells me my roof is going to fall in. I’m hiring one of Kennards bricksaws for the day for the job. I plan on cutting a channel along the mortar line of the top of the window which will extend 400mm into the supporting column at one end and 400mm into the wall at the other end. The channel will be cut approx 3/4 of the way through the mortar and thick enough to fit a piece of structural angle steel. I was then planning on fitting a 2.6m length of structural angle into the channel to support the overhead bricks, cutting down the sides of the window, cutting through the mortar joint at the top of the window from the other side to the piece of steel angle and knocking the window through with a sledge hammer. This hopefully will not involve the good ole duck and cover principle employed when the roof falls in.<o:p></o:p>
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So comments, suggestions, easier ways of doing it? I’m also interested to know what size angle would be suitable for a span of 1.8m. Do I need to put a piece of angle steel in? I hope the above describes the situation in enough detail for people to visualiseit. If not I’ll try and take some pics and post them.<o:p></o:p>
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Cheers<o:p></o:p>
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Dale<o:p></o:p>
