Missing lintels

[Bain]

I checked out a two-year-old house last week that didn't have lintels above the second story windows. There was one course of brick between the tops of the windows and the frieze boards. I've seen this configuration on older houses where the bricks can literally be pulled out by hand. I wrote up the lackng lintels as a defect and heard back from the client today that the builder won't make modifications unless a code was violated. I'm wondering if you guys know which section I should be searching in so I'm not flipping pages all night.

John

[Erby]

I don't know the specific answer to your question, and don't have my code book handy to look it up, but it does provide me the opportunity to share more information than I ever wanted to know about brick construction details.

Brick Industry Association Web Site Technical notes.

http://www.bia.org/html/frmset_thnt.htm

[Bain]

Very cool, Erby. And thanks. I actually was able to answer my own question. The section was R703.7.3 in both CABO and the Kentucky Residential Code.

The second sentence reads, "Veneer above openings shall be supported on lintels of non-combustible materials and the span shall not exceed . . ."

Do you work in Lexington very often? I see this all the time in Firebrook and Palomar. Every once in while I'll even find a brick missing because it's dislodged and tumbled onto the ground.

Give me a call sometime. I'm directly beneath you in the new Alltel phonebook that's just been delivered. Maybe we can even do lunch some Saturday if I'm not working.

John

[Erby]

I'm in Lexington quite frequently unfortunately I inspect most Saturdays. We'll try to set something up soon.