Lintels

Doorway at the mission in Santa Barbara

California Bob sends us this picture of a doorway with a lintel constructed of tapered stones. Could there be a better way to construct it? Uniberp responds with links to two sites that explore the world of lintels.

• Local History has a page about Lintels
• Engineering Learn also has a page about Lintels

Just in case you are building with masonry.

P.S. If you are building a lintel like this, or an arched lintel, the walls on either side need to have high lateral strength because these lintels will be pushing outward with a force proportional to the weight they are supporting. If you have a solid lintel, you don't need as much lateral strength. You still need some to keep the walls from collapsing, but on a frame wall a 1 x 4 strip of wood nailed diagonally is enough. But now I'm wondering how strong that mortar is. An arch needs no mortar to stand as long as there is enough lateral support, but this lintel has mortar, and mortar has great adhesion and it's pretty strong as well, so once it has dried, you might not need any lateral support at all. I'll have to try that out in my next life.