OT: Cutting a 1meter x 2meter hole in brick wall

[Black Forest]

The good wife decides she wants a second door in our detached guest apartment. The wall is a redbrick wall and is three bricks thick. The wall is 300mm thick. I hired a firm to come in and do the two vertical cuts I needed. First I cut the inside wall out so I could see what I was getting into. I was very relieved to find 150mm deep studs which meant the brick wall wasn't so think as I thought it might be. There were four power lines in the wall so I had to cut them to get them out of the way.

The firm came and gave me an estimate of what it would cost to make the cuts and I told them to come as soon as possible.

I was really impressed with the saw they used. First they drilled four holes in the wall. Two on each side. THen they trough bolted a linear rail vertically to the wall. The saw then was mounted on this linear rail. All the connections made, water, electricity (380v. 3phase) and the remote control. It was raining really hard so I let them screw a plastic sheet to the soffet. It took about 1 hour for them to get set up and 1 hour to tear down. They also drilled two 200mm holes at the bottom on each side because of the radius of the saw blade not able to cut all the was through. The actual cutting took maybe ten minutes! I was really impressed with the whole process.

The video is about two minutes long.

https://youtu.be/k1-0wZrNZzY

[plunger]

Ive seen it done with a diamond encrusted cable. It takes longer than that saw blade though.Nicely done. I doubt that system would work here in S Africa. We would just do it manually by grinding with a 230mm diamond blade on both sides and then use a sledge hammer to bash it out.
You germans do things too effeciently,

[CCWKen]

Wow! That looked easy. Do you have the door in yet?

[danlb]

I liked it. Never occurred to me to use a panel saw setup for brick.


Then again, I don't have a small machine with a jackhammer to punch through when the sawing is done. I'm envious.

Dan

[Peter.]

That's what I do for a living.

[alanganes]

Impressive.

30+ years ago I watched a couple of guys cut an opening like this through a poured concrete wall in a building at the college I was attending in Boston. They had a similar setup with the linear tracks and the cored holes at the corners of the cuts. Difference was that their diamond saw was driven by a large air motor driven by a similarly large compressor and they had to crank the saw up and down the track manually with a crank. Noisy and lots more water getting sprayed around, the guys were in rubber boots like the concrete guys wear. Still impressive how quickly they got the job done, and when the cutting was over, they walked the entire slab out of the wall with bars and tipped in onto the ground for removal.

This stuff has obviously come a long way. Thanks for posting that, most interesting.

[doctor demo]

That's what I do for a living.

I watched most of the vid, fast forwarded a lot of it I can't believe how bad of a job they did on removing the material they totally trashed the right edge. I would have had a butt chewing for that back when that was what I used to do for a living.
It is amazing how easy it is to be critical of someone else when it is something that you do or did on a daily basis.

Steve

[Peter.]

I think that Black Forest did the breaking out himself, though I agree that busted edge would make a poor looking job of it. Gotta be damn careful with brick too it's easy to do a lot of damage. A guy I know just rubbed some portland stone with a small machine cost his company 14 grand. It was already cracked but they got shafted with the bill.

[Peter.]

Impressive.

30+ years ago I watched a couple of guys cut an opening like this through a poured concrete wall in a building at the college I was attending in Boston. They had a similar setup with the linear tracks and the cored holes at the corners of the cuts. Difference was that their diamond saw was driven by a large air motor driven by a similarly large compressor and they had to crank the saw up and down the track manually with a crank. Noisy and lots more water getting sprayed around, the guys were in rubber boots like the concrete guys wear. Still impressive how quickly they got the job done, and when the cutting was over, they walked the entire slab out of the wall with bars and tipped in onto the ground for removal.

This stuff has obviously come a long way. Thanks for posting that, most interesting.

Air motors are from before my time and that's 27 years now. Funny you should mention the wind-along saws I was just discussing longyear air-motor wind-along machines this past weekend with my (older) working partner and commenting on how far things have progressed. Noisy howling things that you would not be allowed to use on site today. This was whilst using a saw head complete with 24" blade that I can lift with one hand with an electronic drive about the size of a sewing machine.

We are spoiled nowadays.

[awemawson]

I've done similar cuts from both sides with a 9" angle grinder putting doorways and windows in previous houses, but by heck it makes a dust that gets EVERYWHERE

Mind you I bet hiring that rig and setting it up cost many times what my angle grinder cost !

[Black Forest]

I was in fact the one running the excavator and although the edge did get broken out some it doesn't matter because the outside stucco is getting ripped out for two feet on each side of the doorway. So that is why I wasn't be real careful. And it is my damn house so if I break it I won't get chewed on too badly by the owner!

[Black Forest]

I watched most of the vid, fast forwarded a lot of it I can't believe how bad of a job they did on removing the material they totally trashed the right edge. I would have had a butt chewing for that back when that was what I used to do for a living.
It is amazing how easy it is to be critical of someone else when it is something that you do or did on a daily basis.

Steve

I was thrilled to death with the job I did Mr. DD. The excavator was in a really tight place and at a bad angle. If I would have been doing it for someone else I would have broke the whole thing up in bits starting from the top and work down. I might have gone inside and just pushed the slab out by hand. But I was having too much fun and the job is good enough as it is. There are other times to be more precise. This wasn't one of them.

The firm charged me 1695.00 Euros. About 1800 dollars and I was thrilled to death.

[doctor demo]

I was the one running the excavator it doesn't matter stucco is getting ripped out for two feet on each side of the doorway. And it is my damn house so if I break it I won't get chewed on too badly by the owner!

I thought that you hired out the whole job. Yeah, two feet should hide that easy enough.
I guess if the owner was upset, you could always buy her another horse.

Steve

[Black Forest]

Hey don't even joke about another horse!

The main reason I was so happy to put the hole in the wall no matter what it cost was because that guest apartment is where my in-laws stay when they come as in MIL and SIL. Now that I can split up the apartment they might not be so happy!!!

[doctor demo]

I was thrilled to death with the job I did Mr. DD. The excavator was in a really tight place and at a bad angle. If I would have been doing it for someone else I would have broke the whole thing up in bits starting from the top and work down. I might have gone inside and just pushed the slab out by hand. But I was having too much fun and the job is good enough as it is. There are other times to be more precise. This wasn't one of them.

The firm charged me 1695.00 Euros. About 1800 dollars and I was thrilled to death.

Hey, if you are happy I'm happy for you. I'm not trying to start a fight, and like I said in my other reply I thought you hired out the whole job. The devil is in the details.

I'm not saying that I would have been any better ,I have had more than one job not go as planned and more than one butt chewing over the years, I was merely pointing out how easy it is to be critical of someone else.

Steve