Lintel

A lintel is a horizontal member that is fixed over the opening, doors, viz., windows recesses and etc. to support the structure over the opening. Lintels are therefore a sort of rectangular beam that afford facilities for fixing the door and window frames, while they are used. Lintels might be made of various materials like as wood, brick, stone, reinforced brickwork, rolled steel or reinforced concrete sections embedded in cement concrete.

The width of lintel should be equivalent to the width of the wall. A proper bearing of lintel ends on supports is extremely necessary. As a common rule, the bearing of the lintel at its ends should be either 10 cm or 4.0 cm for every 30 cm of span, either is greater. For extremely long spans, the bearing to the lintel ends should at least be equal to the depth of the lintel. In addition, as a rule, the depth of the lintel could be adopted as 1/12th of the span or 15 cm either is greater. The depth could be adjusted to course heights of stone or brick. The lintels should be strong sufficient to resist failure because of the forces of compression, shear and tension.