How to Saw a Brick Wall

Mark the line that you wish to cut onto the outside of the brick wall with a piece of chalk. If creating an opening for the frame of a door or window, make certain that you mark is straight with 90-degree angles by using a straightedge and carpenter’s square as a guide in making your chalk lines.

Put on safety goggles, a facemask, heavy work gloves and earplugs. Attach a masonry bit to a hammer drill.

Place the drill against the brick surface at one of the upper corners of your marked line. Trigger the drill and drive the bit straight through the brick at the corner. Remove the bit and repeat the process for each corner of your marked opening. The holes will serve to mark the location of your proposed opening from the other side of the wall, if the wall thickness requires you making the cut through both sides of the wall.

Attach a masonry blade to a circular saw and then set the depth of the blade for a 1/2-inch. Place the saw against the wall beginning at the bottom of the cut and start the blade. Cut through the wall to the 1/2-inch depth, following the chalk line around the entire opening. If the opening extends to the ground, it is not necessary to make a bottom cut through the wall.

Change the cutting depth of the saw blade to one inch. Make a second cut into the bricks, following the line of the first to increase the cut depth in the bricks. Continue to change the depth, increasing it 1/2 inch with each change and cutting further through the bricks until you reach the full depth of your blade, or cut through the wall entirely.

Switch to the other side of the wall and connect the drilled holes with a straightedge and a piece of chalk if you reached the full saw depth on the first side without cutting all the way through. Repeat the 1/2-inch incremental cutting process from the second side until you reach the saw depth or cut through to the first cuts made on the first side of the wall.

Strike the bricks from the inside of the wall within the cutout area, with a sledgehammer, following the line of the cut to dislodge the cut bricks. Continue to strike the bricks until you dislodge them along the cut line, then break down the rest of the bricks in the cutout area with the sledge until you clear all of the bricks you need removed from the opening.