Making an internal doorway wider... please help

[gingerdodger]

Hi

I have a downstairs doorway which I want to make wider and just wanted to check to make sure I'm going to do it the right way.

First of all the wall is made of breeze blocks and is about 3m wide. The doorway is about 80cm wide. The wall doesn't continue upstairs but I understand that it could still be supporting joists.

I only want widen it by about 30cm and was wondering the best way to do this?

I was going to check if there’s a lintel above the doorway first and if there isn't then it would be ok to go ahead, but... please tell me if I'm wrong and how best you think I should go about this.

Many thanks.

 

[noseall]

first find out if there is a lintel above the opening, this should have minimum 150mm bearing at each end. if you have more bearing than is necessary mark an upright line using a pencil and a level and drill a series of holes down the line, about 20mm apart should do, then hammer and bolster chisel down the drill holes, the masonry will fall out a treat. make sure there are no cables in the way first!

 

[gingerdodger]

cheers for that mate.