Bricking up a door way

[hoppo4.2]

I need to brick up an external door on my house it has 9" solid walls. I have some matching brick but am I best to block the inside with breeze block and then leave a caverty and brick the out side or just use the standard 9" pattern and brick the lot. Also the house has no original damp proof corse I was thinking I would need to use some engineering brick with a bit of Dpm on the bottom row? Also what's the best way to tie the new brick into the old?

Thanks for the help guys

[Nuisance_Value]

hoppo4.2 said:

I need to brick up an external door on my house it has 9" solid walls. I have some matching brick but am I best to block the inside with breeze block and then leave a caverty and brick the out side or just use the standard 9" pattern and brick the lot.

I presume you have a solid lintel in place, so are you going to leave that in or take it out also? I would brick the lot as per existing. You could use 4" block in the inside 'skin' and brick externally to match with snapped headers (if the bond type requires them, I would expect so in a 9" solid wall) to cut down on costs and time/labour if you like. This would leave you about a 20-25mm 'cavity' that you should just fill with mortar as you proceed (though you get this cavity on the stretcher sections of solid 9" walls anyway, it's just filled as work proceeds). If using brick and block I'd be tempted to shift my block in 5mm or 10mm as the internal finishes would make it up and make sure you're using 7.3kn blocks. Leaving a 20mm cavity is pointless.

hoppo4.2 said:

Also the house has no original damp proof corse I was thinking I would need to use some engineering brick with a bit of Dpm on the bottom row?

Speak to building control on what they would advise and do that, but I would expect they would want some DPC in there on top of engineering bricks. You might have to extend this slightly into the existing walls. For the costs I would just do it anyway. Mind to lap it up when you hit the internal floor slab though (if you do, depending on external ground vs floor construction/heights)

hoppo4.2 said:

Also what's the best way to tie the new brick into the old?

Thanks for the help guys

Two options. Either carefully knock out alternate courses of bricks at the reveals and tooth the new into the old, it will make for a better finish, or screw croc ties to the existing reveals and tie into them. This is quicker and cheaper but would leave you with an obvious outline of the doorway and looks rubbish. (you could do a mixture though, tooth it in externally and croc tie it internally) Mind and match the mortar colour and pointing style also.

[herbialfa]

Plus, are you now blocking off a means of escape????

[hoppo4.2]

Thanks for the advice guys. The appearance is not important as the wall will be rendered. Should have mentioned that. As for exits I still have 3 on the ground floor with out it so should be fine

[Roy E6]

If the wall is being rendered then whats wrong with using 9" blocks?

[hoppo4.2]

Edited by hoppo4.2 on Wednesday 20th April 07:50