GV61051

Marc we have flashing under the sill and weep holes above and below the windows. I have also considered putting a breathable water repellant just on the mortar joints surrounding the part of the lintel that extends past the windows.

Today we took out the worst visibly rusted lintel on our house and replaced it with a galvanized steel lintel with stainless flashing and other materials. I'm looking for opinions and advice on what we found. The top of the lintel that was covered by flashing and the back of the lintel which was against the wall were clean. However, the bottom of the lintel that extended 1' on either side of the window and was not protected by flashing and was sitting in mortar had surface rusting. A picture is below. (Some of the rust could have bled through the inadequate paint, but areas along the edges look like fresh rust.) We talked to the engineer this afternoon. He was negative about the rust, saying the process is likely to continue over the years. He has not commented on the pictures we sent or given advice yet on what to do with the 40 remaining lintels. I have come up with an idea short of removing or ignoring them all. It involves shoring up the lintel and then removing the two bricks that are underneath each end. Cleaning up the lintel and coating it with a cold-galvanized coating/zinc rich paint. Then replacing the brick. I would appreciate your opinions on the signficance of the rust, my idea, and any other thoughts you might have. TIA Darker silver area was painted after the lintel was in place.

Thank you all for your advice. It's greatly appreciated. Kurt you have a depth of knowledge that is rare. We actually have a 1936 brick house in NYC that has had a lintel rust and crack the mortar going up the wall from the corners of the windows. So we are sensitive to the issue. On our new house we did have end dams put in during the brick removal for flashing/weep hole insertion. They aren't the best as they were made on site using the copper flashing. The joint was caulked. [/img] This picture is of what originally alerted us to a problem and what can happen with porous brick that has no flashing or weep holes! Imagine having a house where all your windows looked like this for days after a rain! We occasionally still have a similar but much less noticeable pattern and far shorter drying out time. [/img] The builder has agreed to take out four lintels to see what is happening behind the brick. One of which needs to be removed as it is tilted and rusting worse than the others. We are now searching for the right brick restoration contractor to do the work. Thanks again for everyone's input.

A painter was sent over by the builder who said that he would sand, prime and use an oil based paint. Then he could put a bead of cement caulk along the bottom edge of flashing where it is visible and where lifted. Thoughts?

Hello All, I am a homeowner hoping to get advice/opinions on how to proceed with the lintels and flashing on our new construction house. In summer 2010, our house was bricked. Immediately we started seeing problems when the bricks under our windows had huge wet half moon shapes that took weeks to dry. Consulting an engineer revealed that no flashing had been installed anywhere as is required by the building code in New York. In late November 2010 the builder started removing courses of brick around the perimeter and under/over windows and doors to install a thin self sticking copper flashing with a scrim and applied a sprayed glue. They were also supposed to paint the lintels but did not use a good quality paint. We noticed the lintels were rusting this spring when we contacted another engineer to assess other brick problems. We also discovered that despite being given building codes for installing flashing and diagrams, they had done it wrong. The flashing does not cover the edge of the lintels. Behind the wall the flashing goes up six inches and underneath the Tyvek. When the flashing is visible, it is sometimes raised up along the edge allowing water to get under the flashing. We are concerned about what might be happening behind the brick especially on the bottom of the lintels where there is no flashing to protect the steel. One lintels will definitely have to be removed as it is tilted and the rust is especially bad. We've paid a lot of money to two engineers and gotten two differing opinions. One saying to remove all the lintels again and have them all flashed properly (lawsuit inevitable) and one saying to remove the ones where the flashing is not visible. We do hope to keep the house long term. I've attached pictures. (I recently painted the bottoms of the lintels but could not reach the edges.) Hope you all can offer some guidance. Click to Enlarge 30.96 KB Click to Enlarge 35.62 KB Click to Enlarge 25.76 KB Click to Enlarge 45.7 KB