Widening an upstairs doorway

[Dougie212]

Hi there.

I shall explain this as best I can...

I am about to convert my front bedroom, which is the width of my mid terrace house into 2 smaller rooms. The doorway into the current bedroom will no longer be a doorway but a walk through into a small space with the 2 new doorways for my 2 new rooms.

Ideally I would really like to take the current door and door frame out and widen it a little to make a nicer spacious walk through into my new rooms. The current doorway is on a brick wall which runs the width of the house so I believe is a supporting wall. Facing the doorway the frame sits directly onto the adjoining wall of next door, the frame doesn't have any form of lintel over it, and is brick on top upto the joist in the loft.

Can I open out this doorway slightly so I can have a walk through oris it a big no no?

If the above makes no sense or you need moredetailto help please ask ...

Thankyou in advance!!

Dougie

 

[tony1851]

You can widen the opening as long as you put a suitable lintel in to support the brickwork and ceiling above.
What type of lintel depends on your clear span.

 

[Dougie212]

Brilliant, Thankyou. I'm guessing I'd just need to build a support to the left of the current doorframe to support the left side of the lintel as the side of the frame is just screwed to the facing wall at the minute.

There's about 6 levels of brickwork above the current frame that the ceiling joists meet. Would I need to ask a structural engineer to calculate the lintel or is it not necessary for this?

 

[tony1851]

Brilliant, Thankyou. I'm guessing I'd just need to build a support to the left of the current doorframe to support the left side of the lintel as the side of the frame is just screwed to the facing wall at the minute.

There's about 6 levels of brickwork above the current frame that the ceiling joists meet. Would I need to ask a structural engineer to calculate the lintel or is it not necessary for this?

You might be making heavy weather of this.

No need to put a support in, unless your party wall is only one-half brick thick. Otherwise just carefully cut out a couple of bricks to seat the lintel in.

For a typical 6ft opening, use a simple box lintel, or a 140x100 concrete lintel (will be heavy, though) or even a piece of timber (a 6"x4" beam would be fine).

A few bricks will come loose and will need re-mortaring, but that's not a big deal.

No need for calculations from an SE on this sort of span and loading.

 

[Dougie212]

Brilliant..... Thankyou!!!

 

[big-all]

is there stairs in close proximity to the doorway
by close proximity i mean less than the stair width away

 

[Dougie212]

No.... They are a good 10 feet away...

 

[big-all]

No.... They are a good 10 feet away...

excellent that wont effect you

 

[Dougie212]

Brilliant... I will be checking how thick the party wall is between me and my neighbour. Fingers crossed its 2 bricks deep... They are old houses, so I hope they are.. Otherwise taking a brick or 2 out for my 6x4 timber may be interesting...

 

[Dougie212]

Apologies to reuse this but I have been having a think..... And other than installing a lintel to support the joists is there a way of supporting the joists in the loft which would enable me to remove the section of wall completely?