[afly007]

I have an existing door on a block wall that enters into the garage. It is a non-standard size and I would like to make it larger.

It has a ~6" poured concrete lintel. There is a second story above (the area directly above the lintel is unused living space).

If I can remove 6" to the right of the door and the 6" lintel above the door I will have plenty of room to frame in the new door.

What would the process be to replace the poured concrete lintel with a steel lintel? (To avoid having to re-pour a lintel)
Will I have enough room on the left side of the door to support the steel lintel?

Does it make more sense to remove one course of blocks and replace with a pre-poured lintel?

What would you do in this scenario?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[jomama45]

From a DIY standpoint, I'd consider removing the lintel and both courses of block above it, and replacing it with an LVL beam, or properly sized lumber beam. You would need to temporarily support the load above while doing it.

 

[afly007]

That's not a bad idea.

So the new beam will start 6" to the left of the current door and span approximately 5 blocks (6.5').

So a beam of (4) 2x10's + 1/2" plywood, would support this easily, then I would just frame in the remaining gap with wood.