Services
Garage Lintel Repair in Metro Atlanta
The steel lintel above your garage door carries the weight of the brick above it. When it rusts and sags, cracks climb up the wall in a telltale stair-step pattern. We restore real support above the opening and repair the masonry it damaged.
The steel above your garage door is failing
The lintel is the steel beam that spans the top of your garage door opening and carries the weight of all the brick above it. It's out of sight, so most people never think about it, until it starts to sag and the brickwork above the door begins to crack.
Warning signs
- Stair-step cracks climbing up from the corners of the garage door
- A sag or bow in the middle of the opening, where the brick looks like it's frowning
- Vertical cracks or gaps in the brick veneer above the door
- Separation between the door frame and the brick around it
Why lintels sag
- The steel lintel has rusted and lost its strength over the years
- An undersized lintel was installed that can't carry the weight of the brick above it
- Bolts were never installed to secure the steel to the framing
- The footing or center column settled, pulling the whole opening down with it
A single wide door and a double door with a center column each fail a little differently, but the fix comes down to the same thing: restore real support and repair what the movement cracked.
How we fix it
We've developed a way to reinforce the support above the door without tearing out the brick, which matters, because matching and replacing masonry is expensive and time-consuming. Depending on what we find, we:
- Add steel support and drive through-bolts into the existing framing
- Lift the lintel and plumb the opening back to level with hydraulic jacks
- Where the footing failed, drive steel piers to stabilize the base
- Repair and match the existing brick and mortar
One contractor, structure and masonry both, done so it looks like it never happened.
