Lintel Replacement in Palos Heights, IL

Paul Lally's Masonry provides lintel replacement in Palos Heights, IL, and this is our home base. We look at the rusted steel over your windows, garage door or storefront and tell you which of three things it needs: cleaning and coating, new steel, or new steel with the brick above rebuilt. We're family-owned, insured and have served Chicagoland since 1988. Call (708) 448-8866 for a free on-site estimate.

Not every rusty lintel is an emergency, and not every homeowner who's told they need replacement actually does. The right answer depends on how far the rust has gone and what it has done to the brick.

Rust on a lintel isn't the deciding factor. What the rust has done to the brick above it is.

Coat, replace or rebuild: lintel replacement in Palos Heights starts here

| What you see | How far it's gone | What it needs | |---|---|---| | Light surface rust, steel flat, brick straight, no cracks | Level 1: early | Clean and coat the steel, repoint open joints, check flashing | | Flaking steel, hairline cracks from the corners of the opening | Level 2: active | Replace the lintel, with flashing and weep holes, and rebuild the brick it carried | | Heavy flaking, wide cracks, steel visibly swollen | Level 2: advanced | Replace soon, and don't let it go another winter | | Brick sagging, bulging or loose above the opening | Level 3: failing | Secure it now, replace the steel, rebuild a larger section above | | Long garage or storefront span that's visibly deflected | Level 3: structural | Replace with properly sized steel, with an engineer's input where needed |

What a lintel does, and why they rust

A lintel is the beam that carries the brick over an opening. On most Palos Heights homes it's a plain L-shaped steel angle with the brick sitting on it. Many of them have never had real flashing, or the flashing has failed, so water that runs down inside the wall lands on the steel and stays there.

As the steel rusts, it swells. That's called rust jacking, and it's what pushes the brick upward and cracks it. It's why the crack starts at the corner of the window and climbs away from it.

Signs you need lintel repair or replacement

• Rust you can see or flake off above windows, doors and the garage.
• A stair-step crack climbing from the top corner of an opening.
• A horizontal crack along the top of the steel.
• A gap opening between the steel and the brick above.
• Brick out of line when you sight along the wall.
• Windows or doors that have started to stick.

Replacing one lintel or all of them?

The lintels on a house are generally the same age and the same steel. But they don't all wear equally. South and west walls get more weather, and openings under a leaking gutter or next to a downspout go first.

Our usual advice is to replace those at Level 2 or 3 now, coat the Level 1 lintels so they buy time, and look at them again in a few years. If most of them are close, doing several in one visit means less setup and fewer patched areas to match.

Our lintel replacement process in Palos Heights

1. Check every opening, not just the one you called about.
2. Shore the wall above the opening so nothing moves.
3. Remove the brick above the lintel, saving what can be reused, and take out the old steel.
4. Install new steel sized to the opening, with proper bearing on each side.
5. Install through-wall flashing with end dams and a drip edge, and keep weep holes open.
6. Rebuild with salvaged or matched brick and color-matched mortar.
7. Clean up and walk it with you. We stand behind our work, because our name is on every job.

Risks of waiting

Rust doesn't stop on its own. Each winter, water gets into the cracks, freezes and opens them further, and more brick loosens. A single lintel replacement can turn into rebuilding a larger section of wall and repairing a damaged window frame. Over a door or a walkway, loose brick is also a safety problem.

Materials we use

Galvanized or primed and painted steel angle sized to the opening; rust-inhibiting coatings for lintels that can be saved; through-wall flashing with end dams; weep vents; salvaged or matched face brick; and Type N mortar color-matched to your joints, with Type S where the location calls for it.

What drives the cost

We don't publish prices, because every opening is different. What changes the number:

• Length of the opening: a window, a garage door or a storefront.
• How much brick has to come out and go back.
• Brick matching, especially on older or discontinued brick.
• Access: ground level, second storey, bushes and decks.
• How many openings are done at the same visit.

Call (708) 448-8866 for a free on-site estimate and a written scope.

Lintel replacement around Palos Heights

Palos Heights is mostly brick ranches, raised ranches, Georgians and larger custom homes from the 1950s onward, with commercial buildings along Harlem Avenue and 127th Street. Many of those steel lintels are now 50 to 70 years old. Long garage lintels on raised ranches and the storefront lintels on Harlem are among those we see failing most.

We also replace lintels next door in Palos Park and Worth, and handle Palos Heights tuckpointing and brick replacement. For a closer look at the crack patterns, read about failing lintels and cracked brick over windows.

Why Palos Heights homeowners call Paul Lally's Masonry

Paul Lally's Masonry Inc. is a family-owned, insured masonry contractor serving Chicago and the Chicagoland suburbs since 1988. We handle tuckpointing, brick repair and replacement, chimney repair and rebuilds, lintel replacement, masonry restoration and waterproofing for residential and commercial properties. Built on Craftsmanship. Backed by Experience. Free on-site estimates. Call (708) 448-8866.

• Our home base: Palos Heights is where we're from.
• Since 1988, on homes and commercial buildings across the southwest suburbs.
• Straight answers: if your lintel only needs coating, we'll say so.
• Insured, with a certificate of insurance on request.

Related services: lintel repair and replacement, brick replacement, brick repair and tuckpointing.

Get your lintels checked

Request a free on-site estimate or call (708) 448-8866. Built on Craftsmanship. Backed by Experience.