I need to cut a hole in a brick wall to mount an outside power outlet, and another one for a cat door. I was going to use a hammer drill and finish with a cold chisel, but this seems very labor intensive and likely to be untidy. I have a Sawzall, but they don't seem to do a brick-cutting blade. I also have a supposed brick-cutting abrasive blade for my 7 1/4" circular saw, but (a) it takes forever to cut and (b) I don't want the cuts overlapping the edges.
Any suggestions?

 

hi
they have gas cutting saw with diamond blade it cuts real fast
you can rent them from a rental place
or you could used dynamite 2

 

Are you talking about a (circular) concrete saw, like they use to cut pavement? If not, do you know what it's called? Most of the gas-powered saws I've seen have a huge circular blade. I just want to cut a neat 4" square hole.

 

For a 4 inch hole, just remove one brick and trim it off. Reinstall. The brick plus the two 3/8 inch layers of mortar should give you 4 inches vertically. Trimming the brick will give you the 4 inches horizontally.

To cut for a pet door, a masonry blade in a circular saw should work. It is messy. I would focus on aligning the door with the existing mortar lines. You could remove the affected bricks, trim, and reinstall to make a neat job with less dust.

Hope this helps.

 

What tool do you recommend for a large cut, i.e., the length of a door, through both brick and half block?

A 1950's addition was added to the back of our house, and I removed the panelling (yes, good grief--fortunately the rest of the home is plaster) to steal some of the brick to lay in a window opening I'm tearing out in another part of the house. After taking down the panelling, the brick wall is going to stay uncovered and undisturbed (I've located some brick that will match the existing). The problem, however, is that the hole that was busted through the wall to make a doorway to the addition was not done with any care--it looks like a sledge was used. I tested using a masrony chisel to see if I could do it by hand, but that will not give me a clean cut. So...

I need to make a cut the length on the door on both sides of it, through both the brick and concrete half block. And it needs to be straight. Suggestions on what tool to use for such a (straight) cut that will not cause the other bricks to crumble?

Thanks!