# Forum Home Renovation Doors, Windows, Architraves & Skirts  Making a door in brick wall

## nikkieninedoors

I don't know if this is possible...but we just bought a 50 year old house...and it's all brick...i really want to make an extra door that leads out to the sunroom from the kitchen....but i'm not sure if it's possible to cut brick and make a door...i'm not really smart when it comes to these things unfortunately....  :Smilie: 
Who do i look for to do that?
What would you think the cost would be to do that sort of thing?
Thanks for the response!

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## pawnhead

Hi nikkie  

> Who do i look for to do that?

  A bricklayer and/or a chippy, but preferably a builder. A builder is more likely to check that there's no beams / struts / supports over the top of the doorway first. If there is something major there (unlikely), and you're not leaving many brick courses above the door, and it's soft lime mortar (unlikely in a home only 50 years old), then you may need an engineer to design the support (unlikely), but more than likely he can just install a galvanised steel flat bar if it's just a standard width door opening. If there's something minor that needs support, he may put an angle in instead of a flat bar, or he may put a timber support beam in the roof over the door. This would add a little to the cost.  
Install the bar, cut the hole with a wet wall saw, make good to the floor, install door jamb, door, door furniture and architraves, patch up cracks. Give you the bill.  

> What would you think the cost would be to do that sort of thing?

  Saw hire $60? (Or if he does it with his own big angle grinder, from both sides, then there's just a few dollars wear on his diamond blade, but it will take a bit longer).
Lintel Bar  $20?
Mortar   $6
Cornice Cement (for patching the wall) $10
Possibly some framing timber for the floor $15
Floorboards to patch the floor $20 
Door jamb $25?
Door $40
Architraves $20
Passage set (door handles) $10 (at a bargain shop)
Nails, Gappo, Glue, Spaghetti, etc   $20 
So about $180 in materials. I'd allow $200  without painting (I'd slop a few coats of white paint on it for an extra $150.  If you want a good match, do it yourself or get a painter.), and I'd do the job in a day on my own. I'd probably charge about $700 unless I was flat out in which case I'd bump it up, or quote something ridiculously high if I didn't really want the work. I'd leave the bricks with you as well, unless you wanted to front up for a skip. 
I'd shop around if anyone quoted you much over a grand without painting (but you might be hard pressed). Of course it depends on the quality of gear you want to install (door, archs, handle, floor etc.). 
Edit; I didn't notice that you were from London. Tradesmen make good money over there I believe. Let us know what the quotes are if you get any.

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## autogenous

:Biggrin: Door jamb $25? 
Timber door jamb $90 
You want a quickcut @ $140 
People have to look at it from the perspective that what would they want for one days employment keeping in mind , check out the job, do the costings, pick up materials, supplying all those power tools and hoping to christ the house doesn't fall down? 
Inclusive of estimation and picking up materials its a few days work, thats "if" you get it after quoting. 
You can see why some poeple cant be bothered quoting a job like that. You spend hours driving, petrol, phone around quoting and as above and you might not get any of them. 
Maybe just work at Bunnings :Biggrin:  You make more money :Biggrin:

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## pawnhead

> Door jamb $25? 
> Timber door jamb $90 
> You want a quickcut @ $140

  Of course, but then, you don't know all the tricks.  :Wink:  ; 150x25  Pine F/J DAR  $5.50 X 5.4m = $29.70 (admittedly $25 was just a guess, hence the question mark. I'd make sure of my prices before quoting, and I think I could get it cheaper than that elsewhere anyway.)
You rip the 150 down to 130mm to suit a rendered brick wall, and you use PVA to glue the offcut on as a stop bead, as well as plugging some fixing nails in with your gun whilst you're assembling the jamb. It's about the same labour because you've probably got to rip down a 140mmm jamb anyway, and you save the time not having to trench the head.  :2thumbsup:   

> Inclusive of estimation and picking up materials its a few days work, thats "if" you get it after quoting.

  It would have to be in my neighbourhood to bother quoting it, but I'd quote it after work, pick up my materials in the morning, and I'd knock off early after the job was done. 
You should be able to assemble and install at least ten door jambs in brickwork in a day, and twice that number in studwork. 
With the right jigs, you should be able to swing at least twenty doors in a day, perhaps double that. 
You should be able to install the architraves on both sides of at least twenty doors in a day. 
With the right jigs, you should be able to install passage sets, including strikers, on twenty doors in a day. 
It should average about 1 1/2 hrs to; assemble and install jamb, swing door, cut and fix architraves, and install the door furniture. But of course if you're only doing one, then you could double that to three hours. Three or four hours to set out, install the bar, cut the opening, remove the bricks, patch the floor, patch the walls, and clean up at the end, and after adding a half hour at the hardware in the morning (but I might just do it on the phone and have everything delivered prior to arriving), you may have an early day. Otherwise you just arrive home late and chalk it up to experience, but I wouldn't go home until the job was done in one day. 
If you can't get somewhere near that, then you wouldn't be working for me, unless I'm paying you as an apprentice in which case I could afford to have you take twice as long to do a job.  :Tongue:

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## autogenous

> Of course, but then, you don't know all the tricks.  ; 150x25  Pine F/J DAR  $5.50 X 5.4m = $29.70 (admittedly $25 was just a guess, hence the question mark. I'd make sure of my prices before quoting, and I think I could get it cheaper than that elsewhere anyway.)

  What about the pack of nails, the glue, the hotdog and coke you buy on the way out?  :Biggrin:  
Personally 
If its external I would go hardwood against the weather. Pine expands/warps and locks the door up not to mention termites.
Then you have to make the frame up.
At the price for a pre-racked frame with spreaders I wouldn't bother.

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## seriph1

This person is listed as being in London so things may be different there..... certainly in my experience, prices are HUGELY different! 
Single storey? Possibly but maybe not, as it wasn't called a bungalow, or detached home. 
How high is the wall in total? 
Perhaps your local paper has a listing of tradespeople who can quote on the job  -  GET REFERENCES and CHECK THEM 
Possibly an engineer may be required to advise what structural work is necessary 
Keep the bricks if you care about ensuring the finished job looks as original as possible  -  consider making a brick lintel facade from the removed bricks .... this really helps when modifying brickwork for such things as windows and doors. (but I am talking 'period' so in a 50yr old home it may not matter)

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## pawnhead

> If its external I would go hardwood against the weather. Pine expands/warps and locks the door up not to mention termites.

  Of course if it's external you'd go for a solid @ around $100?, and stainless hinges @ $20 for three. (instead of a couple of 2 1/2" butts for a few bucks) A deadlock @ about $35? from Big W, $10 for some Alcor flashing over the door head, $5 for a tube of silicone, and throw on another $50 for labour, however;  

> .i really want to make an extra door that leads out to the sunroom from the kitchen....

  So that doesn't come into it.  

> Then you have to make the frame up.
> At the price for a pre-racked frame with spreaders I wouldn't bother.

  I don't know. I've gotten the whole time down to well under an hour a door, complete, for a bog standard house load. I certainly wouldn't pay much more for just a pre racked frame. There's bugger all time involved in doing that yourself with a drop saw and nail gun, and if it's 10mm too wide, then you'd have to rip it assembled and perhaps pull out a few staples first.
If I was working for a project mob, then quite possibly I'd get all the doors delivered pre-hung, with furniture and archs installed on one side (and loose tacked on the other), by monkeys in a factory, bought with a bulk discount so it only costs half of what anyone else would pay.
I'd install that in not much more time than it takes to carry it over to the opening. 
It all depends on what your time is worth to you.

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## Bloss

Seriph's on the point, London UK so who knows - long way to the nearest Bunnings!  :Biggrin:  
Double brick so need to be sure what it's holding up (and it could well be load bearing - not 'unlikely' to be - might at least be holding the ceiling joists in a 50 year old UK home). In any case the OP is not an experienced DIYer so best bet is to hunt around locally for an odd jobs person. 
As Autogenous says these are jobs that often cause home owners around the world to whinge about tradies - few will quote for them as they need as much fiddling as a job that'll take a few days and if they do quote they quote high to make it worth while if they happen to snag the job. 
But pawnhead's advice fits the bill in most Oz places (surely his moniker is missing an 'r'?)  :Biggrin:  
My guess form friends living in the UK that the OP would be looking at £300, but if it gives good access between the rooms probably a good idea.  :2thumbsup:

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## pawnhead

> Double brick so need to be sure what it's holding up (and it could well be load bearing - not 'unlikely' to be - might at least be holding the ceiling joists in a 50 year old UK home). In any case the OP is not an experienced DIYer so best bet is to hunt around locally for an odd jobs person.

  Thats a point. If it's double brick then it would be extra. Twice the work cutting the hole and installing bars in an external wall, wider reveals, and more floorboards. If it's internal as stated, then it's unlikely to be double, unless the sunroom is an add on. But I do think it's unlikely that there'd be anything that required support across the width of a doorway. I wouldn't worry about a ceiling joist or a trimmer. You'll always get at least one of those, but there's no need to put more than a flat bar in if there's half a dozen brick courses left above the door. If there's not, then it would have to be a higher door than standard, or a lower ceiling than regulation permits (here in Aus anyway).
If there's a hangar directly over the door (unlikely considering that there's usually only two points around the perimeter of a room where this will occur), then I'd just trim it with a 4 X 2 on edge, the width of the door, under the hangar inside the ceiling. If there's a roof strut (again unlikely) then perhaps it can be relocated, or reinforced with a 4 X 2 on edge, spanning over the top of a few ceiling joists over the wall. Either way it's not a huge deal, and it wouldn't add that much cost in the scheme of things. On the other hand, if you're extremely unlucky, and there's a big steel beam supporting a brick wall above, then I'd consult an engineer, and I certainly wouldn't commit to a price until I've seen his specification. The owner would have to pay for his consultation of course, but my quote would still be free.  

> (surely his moniker is missing an 'r'?)

  You can call me 'prawny' if you want.  :Wink:  My handle comes from the first on-line 'club' that I joined; the 'Internet Chess Club'. There's a lot of Grand Masters who play there, but I'm nowhere near their league, rated @ about a lowly 1300  :Redface: .   

> My guess form friends living in the UK that the OP would be looking at £300,

  I'd snap up that price. As I mentioned, I believe that trades in Britain get good money, especially so in London I'd imagine.

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