When to use steel lintel or a CMU lintel
When to use steel lintel or a CMU lintel
(OP)
Hello,
I'm looking for guidance on steel lintels vs CMU lintels. I need advice as to when to use either and the pros and cons of either. Any help is appreciated.
Best Regards,
Jim
I'm looking for guidance on steel lintels vs CMU lintels. I need advice as to when to use either and the pros and cons of either. Any help is appreciated.
Best Regards,
Jim






RE: When to use steel lintel or a CMU lintel
If that's not an issue than steel angles can be quite handy when installing openings in existing brick or CMU walls. That's because the steel angles can be sized to support each wythe of brick or each 4" of CMU, depending on specific circumstances, of course. Sometimes this can be done in a manner that precludes the need for temporary shoring.
RE: When to use steel lintel or a CMU lintel
Steel lintel for existing construction (though precast is possible), and steel lintel in new construction when a cmu or precast simply won't work. There are other situations as well, I'm sure.
RE: When to use steel lintel or a CMU lintel
http://www.powerssteel.com/lintels/
I am speaking about 8 and 12 inch load bearing CMU here, not for brick support.
It has been a while since I designed a CMU building with split-face, but it used to be you would have to form and pour those or use a steel lintel.
RE: When to use steel lintel or a CMU lintel
I am a bit skeptical about their tabulated capacities and tend to de-rate them about 15-20%.
RE: When to use steel lintel or a CMU lintel
I just did a job here in NC where the contractor wanted to use the Powerspan. Never had heard of 'em before. I typically use I-beams with plates, pre-cast or double angles. I derated them by 50% due to the lack of special inspection. The design values still seem a little suspect. Fortunately, I built in some additional factor of safety as well.
RE: When to use steel lintel or a CMU lintel
I assume to get Code approval all manufacturers these days have to offer quite a bit of proof their product does what they say it does. I know in Florida it is no joke to get something approved. When it comes to allowable loads of a steel lintel, there should be no proprietary black box vodoo, pretty straightforward structural engineering, no?
RE: When to use steel lintel or a CMU lintel
RE: When to use steel lintel or a CMU lintel
I have always specified pre-cast lintels, but I will keep this all in mind if I run across steel lintels. A little bit of differential expansion/shrinkage along that grout-steel interface and you may lose some of the bond and composite action. But they do have many years of use and I assume they had to do a lot of testing?
RE: When to use steel lintel or a CMU lintel
RE: When to use steel lintel or a CMU lintel
PE, SE
Eastern United States
"If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death!"
~Code of Hammurabi
RE: When to use steel lintel or a CMU lintel
And CTS are good people who I'm sure would be happy to provide you with data. I spent a couple years there right out of college. They had some interesting work utilizing these lintels and post-tensioned masonry walls in residential structures as well as freestanding post-tensioned masonry walls.
RE: When to use steel lintel or a CMU lintel