Bearing walls in brick houses: how to make a window

Gusevsky Andrey Anatolyevich

In brick houses, load-bearing walls

In brick houses, load-bearing walls are the frame of the entire structure. It is they who account for the main burden. This creates certain difficulties during the redevelopment. Indeed, just like that, bearing walls in brick houses cannot be demolished, and even for reconstruction it is necessary to take a permit.

Today we will tell you how openings are made in the bearing wall in different ways. Also on the video in this article and photo you can see the most critical areas of work.

Making openings in the bearing wall

Bearing walls in monolithic brick houses carry the function of a skeleton and you need to make openings in them carefully and accurately. The implementation of these works can be done in different ways. It all depends on the size of the opening.

In principle, all the work can be done with your own hands, then the final price will not be significant. Let's now understand in what cases and how this work is performed.

Guidelines for defining load-bearing walls

There are times when, when replanning or repairing, the load-bearing wall in a brick house must be determined, and the first thing you should do for this is the easiest step, find the room data sheet.

Only if this is not possible, but to find out which walls are bearing and which are not, you can go to other methods:

• A common feature for all load-bearing walls is their thickness, they are always thicker than conventional partitions. For example, in panel houses, the wall is less than 12 centimeters, and in brick houses less than 25 centimeters, they will definitely not be carriers. You can resort to another method, look at the location of the plates in the ceilings. The walls that are their support, and will be bearing.
• It's even easier to find them in a brick house. In a brick house, the carrier will necessarily be the facade and the wall that divides the building exactly in the middle and at the same time runs parallel to the exterior. In addition, the walls between the apartments and the apartment itself and the staircase, the same will be bearing.
• In panel houses, load-bearing walls are located approximately the same as in brick, and an even larger part of the walls perpendicular to the facade will be load-bearing. Moreover, all the walls inside the apartment rarely turn out to be load-bearing, exceptions are found, but extremely rarely.

Attention: The time of building creation, as one of the factors in finding the load-bearing wall. The time when the house was built, in many ways can be of help in determining the load-bearing wall.

• So in old buildings (stalinka and older houses), in addition to the load-bearing walls themselves, architectural decisions such as columns and crossbars take on a load, and also, surprisingly, even special wooden partitions. Houses built during the time of Khrushchev and a little later until the 80s, which received their name in his honor, the Khrushchevs, for the most part have a common construction project for everyone. Most of these houses have five floors, and the supporting walls are the external walls and the wall separating the apartments.
• In addition, it is worth mentioning that in brick Khrushchev, the thickness of the bearing wall exceeds 30 centimeters. All other walls, as a rule, are not bearing. Finally, the most difficult case is houses built after 1990. In the 90s, Russia was rarely built according to standard construction projects, and most of the buildings were erected according to individual projects.Thanks to this, it is extremely difficult to immediately understand where the load-bearing wall is in such a house.

The best solution would be to find documentation, or consult a specialist.

Learn about the wall a little more

Having learned what type of wall you have to deal with, you should find out some details about it.

• To begin with, you should take care of the metal detector, buy or borrow from someone for a while. It will help to find the electrical wiring hidden in the wall, fittings and pipes, as well as the chimney, if any.
• All these structures will somewhat interfere with the work with the wall, but will not at all become an insurmountable obstacle to work. So in the case of wiring it can be completely removed to another place.
• With a chimney, it’s a little more complicated, if you are going to make an opening, you must step 3 meters away. The most difficult case is if pipes go through the wall where you want to make an opening, then you’d better not try to do the work yourself, but consult a specialist .

Basic rules for creating openings in the wall

The arrangement of the aperture is not as simple a matter as it might seem to a layman, but not so complicated as not to cope on its own. The main thing is to follow a number of not too complicated rules.

The scheme of openings in the wall

So:

• Before you start creating an aperture, you should check to see if what you want to do corresponds to building codes. So it should be located in the center in the bearing wall, the height should not be more than 2 meters 10 centimeters. The width of the opening varies from 70 centimeters to 2 meters, but apartments located on the ground floor have more stringent restrictions.
• In this case, the width should not exceed 90 centimeters. The reference point is how correctly you made the opening, the masonry seam will be, the top of the opening should match with it.
• When planning an opening for a door, consider a small backlash of two and a half centimeters on the sides and 6 millimeters on top between the opening and the door frame. Window openings are done exactly the same.

Attention: Apertures from 90 centimeters and less are considered to be slightly detrimental to the structure and do not reinforce them. Wider openings, as well as openings in the bearing walls, are strengthened without fail.

Openings in the walls of brick

Starting to make an opening, you should take care of tools and materials. The required minimum is a puncher and a grinder with a diamond cutter, boards, timber, hardware, concrete mortar and measuring tools. Of course, this short list can and should be supplemented, but at least it will be enough.

Reinforcement of a brick wall opening

So:

• First, you need to get to the very laying of the bearing wall, removing all the trim from it. Now on the bare wall with the help of measuring instruments we outline the future opening. We draw places for jumpers, and if the planned opening will be more than 90 centimeters, then we retreat one and a half centimeters from the edge, leaving space for reinforcing supports.
• We make two corners 0.3 meters wider than the opening. Now you need a grinder, a diamond disk is placed on it, and cuts are made at the corners. Depending on the profile, the depth of the slots is also determined, so a 4 by 4 centimeter profile will require a 4 centimeter recess. We install the corners and fix them filling the existing slots with concrete mortar.
• Further along the entire perimeter of the proposed opening, two more vertical and six horizontal cuts are made, to the depth of the corner shelf. The corner inserted into the recesses is cut, the elements fold in pairs. All this is carefully fastened with clamps of two blanks, after which we make holes in each pair.
• We mount the profiles, first the vertical profiles are installed, and only then the horizontal ones, and by means of the holes made in them, we drill the wall itself. They are installed studs of reinforcement with a thickness of at least 12 millimeters, carefully securing them with a knot of washers, engravers and nuts.
• After all this, we can say that the load on the wall is distributed more or less evenly, we proceed to the process of breakdown. We make several holes in the wall with a puncher to loosen the masonry. Bricks are knocked out, and the resulting opening is cleared of debris and bumps.
• Profiles are welded, seams are cleaned and all this is sealed with mortar.
  You can go a little different way. All the same marking is carried out and after it a strobe for a jumper is made in the wall. A channel is taken, which is cut into two equal parts, and installed in a future opening. Holes are made 2 centimeters wide at a distance of half a centimeter. They put the bolts that tighten the channel.
• After that, supports are built at a distance of 6-9 meters. As a material for them, you can use brick, reinforced concrete beams or jacks.

Mounting a window opening in a brick wall

Installation of an opening under a window in a brick house should be done in a self-supporting wall. All work on the device of the window opening is similar to punching the doorway.

A window in the supporting wall of a brick house is made as follows:

• Marking up, if there is such a possibility from the outside, and a strobe breaks under the jumper.
• Corner is being installed, channel or beam, when choosing the last option, the hole is made through. We mark the location of the beams on the outside and drill the walls from the outside to transfer the coordinates inward in order to install the studs.
• Stud mountingmade of timber, you need to verify, namely the uniformity of their performance from both the outside and the inside. The subsequent installation of the supports is carried out with the laying of a wooden beam on them in order to distribute the load. The supports are well fixed with nails, thus connecting the studs and bars.
• After that, we remove the bricks in the place of the future jumper. You should start with a row just beneath it, immediately from two sides. In order for the opening immediately to go straight, you need to use a diamond tool, but you can do without it, just then you have to level it and clean it.

Attention: When planning to make an opening in a brick supporting wall, you should approach the matter very carefully and accurately. Prepare and coordinate the project, in order to avoid future problems, especially if you live in an apartment building. An incorrect design can endanger not only you, but also violate the integrity of the entire building structure.

Prem in the load-bearing wall using the I-beam

Sometimes the openings are quite large and it is difficult to pick up a concrete partition. Then it can often be replaced by an I-beam. Which can withstand heavy loads.

I-beam opening in the load-bearing wall

Attention: This option is suitable for a wall whose width is equal to the width of an I-beam. Otherwise, it will be necessary to order a concrete block.

Let's look at how this work is done:

• First of all, we calculate how long the beam you need. It should be provided that the I-beam should be rigidly standing at the edges. It should not lie on the wall less than one brick.
• Now, after marking, mark the opening for the I-beam. Now we make an incision in the wall with a grinder.
• Now, along the contour in the corners, we make through holes with a perforator and apply marking on the back of the wall.
• Grinder make a cut along the contour of the beam attachment. And we knock out everything where the I-beam should stand. This is done to a depth of not more than half the wall.
• Now the backwater is an I-beam. If necessary, you will need to hire a crane to install it.
• Having installed the I-beam, we fix it in the upper part with the help of wedges.
• Now, on the reverse side, along the marked contour, make a cut with a grinder and knock out a brick to the I-beam, which is already wound up on the reverse side.
• We remove the wedges from the two-piece and start it to the end along the wall.
• On top of the I-beam, we crush with rubble. Only the solution should be of high quality. At least M400.And we are waiting for complete drying.
• After that, you can knock out the opening.

Now you are familiar with the technique of making openings. The instructions will help you do everything right and avoid mistakes. If you are not involved in early construction, then experiment is not worth it. Consult a specialist for help.