Door Cut on Existing Masonry Wall, Supporting Masonry Above

[YuleMsee]

Intention is to cut a door through an existing masonry wall, in lieu of a R.C lintel, contractor is suggesting this as its difficult to install R.C lintel. Wall is natural stones, 400 x 200 x 200mm, 25mm mortar joints.
What are your thoughts, any better solution?

 

[GeorgeTheCivilEngineer]

Yuck.

What is their issue?

If is the (common) problem that atone walls has rubble infill then I do not think those bolts would do a thing.

Usual approach with stone/rubble is to prop at 200 - 600mm centres (as opposed to 1000mm for brick) and have steel plates to bridge gaps to prevent rubble falling out.

You may also consider lime grouting to consolidate the wall before starting, or afterwards if the wall was worse than anticipated.

 

[YuleMsee]

@George,

There is no rubble infill. The masonry blocks look like this. The height of the wall is 6m, door height is 2.4m.

 

[dik]

Many bolts and they could be at 16" o/c to match the block dimensions. For that small an opening, can you use 2x12 lumber on each side with arching action considered? Bolts may likely be A307 or eq.

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[JLNJ]

You might consider a pair of angles toed inward jammed into a saw cut in the mortar joint, one angle from each side, with a couple of through bolts to draw it all together.

 

[GeorgeTheCivilEngineer]

I don't see why they can't just do a normal lintel install. Prop, cut out a gap for the lintel, install, remove rest of blockwork.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

That's pretty much what I've done with an old brick masonry wall when we wanted to put a new opening in it. We actually used single angles with the horizontal legs turned in to better frame the opening. Then clipped clipped those horizontal legs where they weren't needed (i.e. where the angle was extended past the opening. We would have used channels like yours if the opening was longer or the extra strength was needed. But, it was a more elegant (i.e. less obtrusive) solution for the architect to use two single angles.

I've never done anything like this with stone. Not sure how the strengths compare.