Rusted lintel (linteau): what it is, how serious, what it costs

Above every window and door in a brick wall, a horizontal piece carries the weight of the brick: the lintel, « linteau » in a French report. In Quebec houses, it is most often a steel angle, which you see as a strip of metal under the first row of brick.

Reports mostly say “rusted lintel” or “stair-step cracks above the window”.

Surface rust is maintenance: scrape, paint, seal. But rusting steel swells. Over time, it pushes the brick, opens the mortar joints in a stair-step pattern above the opening, and the lintel can bend.

In analyses, I place it according to what the report says: “Can wait” for surface rust, higher when there are cracks, shifted brick or a lintel that sags.

Treating the rust and sealing a steel lintel: $300 to $800 for one lintel, $800 to $1,600 for several openings. When it is bent or the brick has moved, a structural assessment: $800 to $1,600.

Replacing a lintel means taking down the brick around it: that is another order of magnitude, which only a mason’s quote can price.

These are ballpark figures for Quebec, to be confirmed with quotes.

1. How many lintels are rusted, and on which walls?
2. Are there stair-step cracks or shifted brick above them?
3. Is the lintel straight, or starting to sag?

Does your report mention lintels? Upload it: in five minutes, I tell you what comes first, what to have checked and what to ask the seller.

Because the water that gets behind the brick collects on them. Flashing above the lintel and clear weep holes help it drain.