back door into french doors

dandowding

I have a back door witha window eitherside of it - kind of a "T" look i guess!!
I want to put in french doors which would be no wider than the total of the width of the door plus the windows. Would I just be able to take out the door and windows and then cut away the brickwork below the windows to create the hole needed for the french doors? or is there more to it than that? I guess there would already be a lintel above the door and windows anyway?!

Any help much appreciated

DD

mrschaucer

Yes, nice easy job as long as you don't increase the width and you've checked the lintel. Get the builder or whoever to "turn" the half bricks left after cutting to make a better looking job.

tony6403

The cut bricks on the lower part will not give a satisfactory finish. They will have "frogs" or perforations which will be exposed after cutting.
Half bricks will have mortar marks on the ends where they were originally laid.
You might find that the "perps" (vertical joints) on all the bricks which need to be removed do not line up with your new opening. In any event they too will have mortar on them.
I would carefully take down the sections under the windows and re-use the end facing bricks from there to reinstate the new opening. Fiddly but the best way of getting a good finish.

capeverde

disagree, firstly not all bricks have frogs and secondly, given the 70mm frame width of the door, these would be covered anyway, so you only see a small amount of cut brick. Once you start teething bricks out in this situation, you make a rod for your own back as you will probably lose some of the whole bricks and keep having to go further back. You then have the problem of getting the mortar exactly the same colour, which looks worse than cut bricks. I would reccoment using a 22mm quadrant beading to the outside to picture frame the door and provide a feature, you will just have an 8mm reveal on show then which is fine.