Widening a garage basement door in a brick house

[191 champ]

I'm starting to look for a retirement home. What we want is an older brick ranch (one story living) with a full basement for storage. We want an older home to remodel to our liking with a low maintenance exterior. Regardless, it seems like that if they have a garage door it is 8' wide.

Anybody here ever widen a basement garage door in a brick house?

Did you do it yourself or pay someone?

How bad was the job or the cost?

I've never done anything like this on an exterior wall. Not afraid to try it but the older I get the more likely I am to pay someone.

[GaBass21]

The main thing is your going to need a structural engineer to come out and see what needs to be done. You'll likely need a large engineered beam, and that only matters if you have the headroom to get it in and still have enough height on the door. It's definitely not a one man job. Those beams can weigh anywhere from 150-300lbs.

[donpilot]

Probably easier and better to just build a detached garage. Probably the same money.

[ericm]

Shoring and "needle beams" will be needed to do this work. Basically, you punch +/- 8" square holes through the wall above the existing header / lintel at +/-32" OC and run 6" "junior beams" through and support these on shoring scaffold on each side and jack them up tight with the scaffold screw jacks. This allows you to safely remove the existing header, brick lintel, and jambs. The the new header and lintel can be installed and the jambs relocated / rebuilt. This is not a DIY job unless you have extensive experience doing this work. Plus patching existing brickwork takes some experience as some tinting of the mortar is needed to match the old weathered mortar. Otherwise, the patching will stand out like a sore thumb.

[Meadows]

Shoring and "needle beams" will be needed to do this work. Basically, you punch +/- 8" square holes through the wall above the existing header / lintel at +/-32" OC and run 6" "junior beams" through and support these on shoring scaffold on each side and jack them up tight with the scaffold screw jacks. This allows you to safely remove the existing header, brick lintel, and jambs. The the new header and lintel can be installed and the jambs relocated / rebuilt. This is not a DIY job unless you have extensive experience doing this work. Plus patching existing brickwork takes some experience as some tinting of the mortar is needed to match the old weathered mortar. Otherwise, the patching will stand out like a sore thumb.

This.

We perform this type of work regularly with our structural concrete cutting division. Widening the existing opening through masonry is relatively easy, as well as the temporary shoring. Installation of new beam or lintel shouldn't be more than a day for a qualified GC, but there must be an engineered plan set in place to make sure it can carry the load. For all this I'd figure roughly $6-7K. That doesn't include putting in a new garage door, jambs, and hardware.

[Meadows]

I'll PM you a contact for the Lynchburg area that I know fairly well if you want.

[191 champ]

Thanks to you and Ericm for the input. This does sound like something I'd contract out. I'm not in Lynchburg anymore. I've just never updated my profile.

[Rangerdeepv]

That will be very, very pricey...........how about a separate building?

[C.Y.]

Good afternoon Champ 191! I did something like this a few years ago, I went from a two bay garage (with a brick divider between the doors) to a single bay garage with a 16' door opening. My house was wood frame with brick veneer, the contractor put (what looked like) a doubled up 2 x 12 header and used hydraulic pipe-jacks to lift the opening while he put the new header in. I had this done in 2014 and it cost $6500 for everything (materials, doors, labor). The guys did a great job and I went from a two bay garage that held a 17.6 ft boat to a single bay garage that held a 24' - 26' boat (placing the boat at an angle). I hope this info helps...good luck!