need a little help please

this is a brick outhouse that i've got and will be using to house a couple of motorbikes



obviously the single door is not really convenient for getting 2 bikes through, so i will be knocking a hole in this end wall and installing a pair of 6' wide french doors



what i want to do is use the bricks from the french door hole to brick up the existing single doorway, but how do i get the bricks out in one piece and get the mortar off to be able to use them again?

i was thinking of slicing the opening in the end wall with a 14" diamond disc cutter and using several large but manageable chunks of still together bricks so that the amount of bricklaying and mortaring would be less. is that a good idea? obviously i'd be removing the half bricks at the side of the doorway at the moment and tieing in the chunks properly.

the wall is just a single skin of bricks.

alternatively, if it's too much of a ball ache to reclaim the bricks, is it cheap and possible to buy that amount of matching bricks, or will they look too different due to weathering over 40 years?

 

im 99% certain they are london bricks which are THE most brittle brick ever produced...so much so you cannot use them under DPC level. You will struggle to clean them up without chipping or breaking them. They are ready available to buy, are shit, but yet one of the most expensive bricks to buy

 

thanks lee, that would be the bloody case.

where and how much for enough to do a doorway?

 

about 120 plus a few more to allow for chips etc...

Most mearchants ie Buidbase have em Even some B&Q have em

 

thanks matey, will have a look about.

at least the colour is varied anyway, so shouldn't be too much of an issue about matching

 

they look like LBC 'windsor' type bricks mate in case you need name but take a sample to local merchant

 

looks like a concrete roof aswell so you gunna need some sort of lintel and get a couple of akros to prop roof..

if you allready know all this tell me to shut up jus didnt want you to have a concrete roof on your head

 

sedan man

look like copings to me

 

sedan man thanks for offering advice but it's not a concrete roof. there's several wooden beams running across from the side where the existing door is to the opposite side and these are covered with asbestos board and felted.

if i had taken a slightly wider shot, you would have seen that the concrete on the top of the end wall is just a capping for a couple of courses of bricks that are higher than the rest of the sloping roof that slopes away from that end. you can just about make it out by looking at both pics

so above the french doors will be a few courses of bricks but that's all. i figured that they would pretty much support themselves and the door frame by itself would be enough.

lee, thanks again for the advice. i'll take a couple up the builders merchants and find a match

 

updated - am i doing the right thing with the brickwork?

for the french door, i have cut out the opening and need to knock out the remaining bricks. have also cut a slot across the top for a concrete lintel



where the original door was, i have cut out the half bricks from each side so that i can tie in to every other course



think i'm doing it right, but just would like reassurance

 

i think you may have forgotten to install a lintel to hold the weight of the roof

Your going to need to get some of those acrows now i think so you can remove the bricks and put the lintel in. May have been easier to put the lintel in before removing the bricks but maybe not.

 

your about there ,but life would be much easier with a couple of Acros and 2 "strong boys" to hold the brickwork whilst you put the lintol in mate.
Or you will have to take pot luck that it dont fall in .
Or you could use a couple of lengths of 3by3 through the brickwork higher up above the lintol to take the weight of the brickwork.

 

as per righthooker but you could also do with a bigger seating area for the lintel. Youve got about 100-110 mm at a gues there and should really be 150mm at LEAST ...especially with those bricks as like i said before they are crumbly bastards. Make sure when you install the lintel you pack in plenty of mortar above it to hold the brickwork up above..

 

Nick are you doing the brickwork yourself
Dont forget the after pics so me and Lee can have a giggle

 

As the other said matey,get some lintels in place to support those roofs you can get steel ones or concrete.
I had steel ones put in on both my porch and kitchen doors, seem ok aswell,athough you lot will be the first to know if they aren't

 

Hes putting a lintel in its obvious with the way he has cut the bricks back for the seating area of the lintel.

PMSL @ Righthooker,,,thats cruel

 

thanks for the advice. there's not a lot of weight above where the lintel is going - only a couple of course of bricks andsome caps. none of the roof is supported by that area of bricks, there's a wooden beam running from the left hand side to the right just behind the end wall.

it's still up there this morning, so shouldn't be a problem

the hole for the french doors is 1800mm, the lintel is 2100mm so that is 150mm each side

righthooker yes i'll be doing the brickwork myself. i don't expect it will be brilliant for a first go, so have no problem posting the after pics up for you to 'laugh at'. it's only an outhouse, so i'm not too bothered what it looks like. will probably be putting a trellis up on that side anyway

 

take ya time and lay them 'frog' up

 

bit of a change in plan. i've also now taken out all the bricks that would havebeen above the lintel as there were a lot of crumbly ones in there. these will be replaced with ones that i salvaged from the area where the french doors will be

just got to try and learn bricklaying now

why frog side up lee? the building is built with frog side down all over?

 

youll get there

 

why frog side up lee? the building is built with frog side down all over?

Thats why it will be a tad weaker then and the bricks above the lintol wont have as good a hold.


Good luck and have fun

 

laid 3 courses in the door way so far, and put the lentil in place. looks alright. will look better after pointing obviously.

the key to it all is getting the mortar mix right. the actual setting of the bricks is quite easy in the doorway as it is only a maximum of 5 wide and you have the existing levels there to guide you

last night i filled the 2 yard skip with old bricks and mortar and had a general tidy up so i can properly see what i'm doing and have space to work now

 

There is no way on gods earth that a vegetable is going to hold that lot up

 

it's not a vegetable you plonker










































a lentil is a pulse

 

Fair play in giving it a go yourself mate

I'd love to be able to do brickwork but Lee Reynolds the cunt wont come to Brum to teach me

 

A J luckily i'm learning on something that is not that critical in terms of strength or looks

 

nearly finished - just need to mortar the final coping stone in place and fill and level the floor.

pointing is a mess, left some of it too long before scraping it to shape

above french doors looks saggy in the middle as it was difficult to keep a straight line with the smaller bricks

overall, i'm reasonably ok with the result. it will be better next time. i wouldn't say i'm proud of it, but it's acceptable

where the side door was is going to have a trellis over it, so most of the bodge will be covered

 

Leave it to set and then use pressure washer to remove the leftovers on the bricks to make it look clean?

You've done well... good work!

 

tsutton good idea - thanks matey

 

bttt for righthooker and Lee Reynolds to have a laugh

 

I ain't no builder chap, but to me it looks a good job!

Can you see the french doors from the street? If so, I'd black the glass out

 

thanks thrush

no, you can only see doors from kitchen window - but i will be putting some obscuring film on them. the back window is also obscure glass

 

Thats not bad for a first attemp at all mate well done

 

really? as i say, i wouldn't say that i'm proud of it, but as a first go i'd say it was alright. didn't know if you professionals would see it the same way though - thought it might be one of those things like drawing that you can either do well or you can't.

but i think with practice it would get better. getting the mortar mix right and keeping it that way is the hardest bit, particularly without a mixer. and then knowing how much to put on the brick so you fill the right height without splurging too much out the side takes some practice

 

looks good to me mate and fair play for having the balls to do it

 

well done Nick

 

looks ok mate


when you were pointing it did you use your fingers at any point? tell the truth!

common to see non brickies getting the old index finger into action when pointing up

 

that looks good for your first go mate, nice effort

you've just described my old man!!

 

haha - honestly i didn't. used a pointing trowel and then finished off with a special half circle type thing