Hello!
I recently moved into an older apartment from 1910.
In the kitchen, there is a pantry with a door, where I intend to remove the door and frame and widen the opening to the same width as the inside of the pantry.
The inner wall where the frame is located is a plastered brick wall. After removing the molding and chipping away some of the plaster, I discovered that the wooden lintel beam the frame sits in only has about 50mm of support on the brick laterally.
In order to align the brick with the pantry wall, I need to widen the opening significantly more than that, about 200mm.
Even though I suspect that the lintel is only for the frame (since it is relatively loose), I'm not willing to just remove it for fear of the brick above falling. The joints are, of course, brittle and quite unreliable.
What options do I have here? I'm attaching some pictures for clarification.
PS. For those concerned, the wall has been confirmed as non-load-bearing by both a structural engineer and a realtor, and a neighbor below with an identical apartment has removed theirs entirely.
Thanks!
I recently moved into an older apartment from 1910.
In the kitchen, there is a pantry with a door, where I intend to remove the door and frame and widen the opening to the same width as the inside of the pantry.
The inner wall where the frame is located is a plastered brick wall. After removing the molding and chipping away some of the plaster, I discovered that the wooden lintel beam the frame sits in only has about 50mm of support on the brick laterally.
In order to align the brick with the pantry wall, I need to widen the opening significantly more than that, about 200mm.
Even though I suspect that the lintel is only for the frame (since it is relatively loose), I'm not willing to just remove it for fear of the brick above falling. The joints are, of course, brittle and quite unreliable.
What options do I have here? I'm attaching some pictures for clarification.
PS. For those concerned, the wall has been confirmed as non-load-bearing by both a structural engineer and a realtor, and a neighbor below with an identical apartment has removed theirs entirely.
Thanks!
Mats-S
Construction veteran
· Sollentuna
· 3 637 posts
Mats-S
Construction veteran
- Sollentuna
- 3,637 posts
I suppose you are not going to remove the bricks above, or the beam that supports the bricks?
If that's the case:
You can take down the frame step by step.
- Saw off the inner frame on both sides a bit inside the opening so that the load-bearing remains on the beam that supports the bricks. Remove the sawn-off upper frame.
- Set up temporary props as support for the beam that supports the bricks.
- Remove the entire frame.
Then you'll have to improvise to create a new support for the load-bearing of the bricks, a classic case of LPP (Löses På Plats).
Not a complete answer, but a start perhaps
If that's the case:
You can take down the frame step by step.
- Saw off the inner frame on both sides a bit inside the opening so that the load-bearing remains on the beam that supports the bricks. Remove the sawn-off upper frame.
- Set up temporary props as support for the beam that supports the bricks.
- Remove the entire frame.
Then you'll have to improvise to create a new support for the load-bearing of the bricks, a classic case of LPP (Löses På Plats).
Not a complete answer, but a start perhaps
Thanks for the response!
The frame can easily be dismantled without support since the beam carrying the tiles above has lateral support on the tiles.
It's really the LPP part I needed help with
The plan now is to rake out a brick joint above the row that is above the wooden beam and insert a sufficiently long flat iron, perhaps 50x6mm, with a proper bearing outside the intended opening - in order to then remove the wooden beam and bricks laterally, how does that sound?
The frame can easily be dismantled without support since the beam carrying the tiles above has lateral support on the tiles.
It's really the LPP part I needed help with
The plan now is to rake out a brick joint above the row that is above the wooden beam and insert a sufficiently long flat iron, perhaps 50x6mm, with a proper bearing outside the intended opening - in order to then remove the wooden beam and bricks laterally, how does that sound?