How to Replace an Exterior Door With Block
If you are remodeling an old building you my desire to take out the exterior door and replace it with block. Using cement blocks to fill the hole will make the wall as sound and secure as possible. You will get a very solid wall once the cement hardens.
Materials Needed:
- Screwdriver
- Hammer
- Nail puller
- Cement
- Sand
- Water
- Cement mixer
- Wheelbarrow
- 5 gallon bucket
- Trowel
- Cement blocks
- Brick ties
- 6d masonry nails
- Masonry hammer
- Dusk mask
- Safety glasses
- Work gloves
- Pop the hinge pins loose by placing the screwdriver tip against the bottom of the door and then tapping it what the hammer. Remove all of the door's hinge pins. Once the pins are all removed, lift the door from the frame and set it aside.
- Place the small end of nail puller's tip next to the trim pieces around the frame. Hit the nail puller with your hammer to get it under the trim and pull on the handle of the nail puller to remove the trim from the frame. Make sure to remove all the trim from the wall.
- Pour 5 gallons of water into the cement mixture and start the machine. Add 2 bags of cement, 30 gallons of sand and an additional 5 bags of water to the mixture. Thin the mixture if needed by adding more water. Allow everything to mix until the mixture is the consistency of thick oatmeal. While the mixture is still running, fill the wheelbarrow with cement by pulling the dump pin and tilting the hopper of the machine. When done, lock the hopper when it is upright and turn off the mixer.
- Scoop out the cement from the wheelbarrow and use your trowel to make a 4-inch bed of mortar across the doorway. Make sure to keep the blocks are even with the exterior of the building and leave a 1/2-inch gap between each block. Use cement to fill the gaps between the blocks and the holes. Scrap away any access mortar from the blocks and put it back in the wheelbarrow.
- Form a 90-degree angle by bending two brick ties. Place a metal tie on each side of the blocks so the arm rests upward against the doorframe. Secure the metal to the wood by using your hammer to drive a masonry nail through the hole in the brick tiles. Bend the new blocks to the existing structure by adding brick ties to each course of blocks in the wall.
- Continue to lay blocks in the hole. Make a adequate roof for the blocks to sit on by placing a 4-inch bed of mortar on top of the previous blocks. Continue to work the area and clean it by scraping off the excess mortar. Allow 48 hours for the cement to cure.