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Technical > Special design lintels

Most of our lintels are manufactured to order, thereby enabling us to offer the largest range in the UK.

Manufacturing on a flexible 'Just-in-Time' philosophy means we can readily integrate specials into our production, and because we can delivery specials quickly, they account for a substantial portion of our annual turnover!

Design Capability

Basically, if it supports masonry, we can probably design it!

We are not restricted to lintels, we also design special windposts and other masonry support systems on request, especially where required to coordinate with our lintels.

We can design for loads of over 200kN, and practically unlimited spans. Larger lintels frequently become the remit of a structural engineer, and we partener with our preferred structural engineers to ensure the structural integrity of unusually large lintels or systems of lintels.

Design Coordination
In addition to our own in-house CAD-CAM software we use AutoCAD to design many of our lintels. We can accept AutoCAD files (any version) and design lintels to suit your design.
We can also supply the lintel details in DWG format for inclusion in your drawings.

 

special

One of 35 large outer leaf arch lintels designed and manufactured for a two storey Tesco car park - the largest of which spanned 18 meters

Delivery
One-off specials usually take less than 48 hours to design, and can be manufactured and dispatched within days of drawing approval. Larger projects take longer, but typically no more than 4 weeks to design even for the largest of projects. Delivery can be staged to suit site schedules.

 Load Calculations
Where required can can take responsibility for calculating the loads on your lintels. Often special lintels have unusual loading requirements. Loads are calculated in accordance with the relevent British loading codes, and lintel design standards.

Special Design Example:

The following arch formed an entrance way, open underneath and with the brick pattern from the walls on either side continuing beyond. the feature brick on the arch had to continue uninterrupted on the underside of the arch on up the back. The loads consisted of first floor masonry as well as a concrete floor and roof loads, and the steel of the arch was to be completely hidden!

How we solved this one:


We designed a box arch lintel to which brick slips were adhered to form the feature brick pattern. The arch was lifted into position complete with slips attached and the surrounding masonry built up around the arch in full bricks.

Once installed the slips were then pointed. Restricting the use of slips to the feature bricks, and pointing on site ensured all colours matched exactly.

The feet were carefully designed to allow full bricks to butt up to the box ends of the arch, and to ensure the coursing pattern was maintained around the corners. The steel of the arch is completely hidden.

The inner part of the box is heavier steel and the bearings were sized to support the substantial load of a concrete floor above.
The box section suits a 327mm wall, to ensure the brack pattern wraps correctly around the arch, but the rest of the wall is 342mm!

Structural calculations were done to BS 5950-5, the hollow section was fully insulated to minimise thermal losses from the cavity above, and 15mm site tolerance was allowed to the floor above.

Finally, the entire arch was fabricated from stainless steel, so there was no possibility of corrosion having an adverse effect on the adhesion of the brick slips in years to come

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We use Kevington Brick for our special brick requirements, and supply their steel lintels.

Only adhere bricks to stainless steel surfaces, otherwise oxidisation of the surface will cause the adhesive to loose it's grip on the parent metal!