Steel Lintel Sizing: Read the Stamp Before You Load the Truck
A steel lintel is the piece that carries a masonry wall across an opening. Put a door or a window in a brick or stone wall and something has to hold the weight above it. That something is usually a length of steel angle sitting on the masonry at both ends.
Rockhouse sells that steel. Steel Angle Iron Lintel costs $5.00 per linear foot. What the yard does not do is size it. Sizing a lintel is engineering, and the engineer is yours. This guide covers what the markings on steel mean, what the yard stocks, and exactly what to have in hand before you call the counter.
What Rockhouse stocks and what it costs
The angle iron aisle in the Rockhouse store holds one product. Steel Angle Iron Lintel prices at $5.00 per linear foot under the SKU MORT-ANGIRON. The store record prints the product and the unit and nothing beyond that, so the leg dimensions and the thickness of the stock currently in the yard are a counter question. Call 501-532-1905 and ask what is on the rack today before you drive out.
Two things follow from that per foot unit. A 6 foot lintel costs $30.00 of steel. A 10 foot lintel costs $50.00. The cost of the steel is almost never the expensive part of an opening, and that is worth knowing before anyone shaves an inch off a length to save money.
The rebar aisle holds Steel Rebar Reinforcement - 3/8" at $1.00 per linear foot, SKU MORT-REBAR. That bar reinforces block cores and footings. It is a different piece of steel doing a different job, and a bar in a core never substitutes for an angle over an opening.
How a steel angle designation reads
Structural angle gets described in three numbers after the letter L, and the L is a picture of the cross section. A designation of L 3 x 3 x 1/4 names an angle with one leg 3 inches, the other leg 3 inches, and the metal a quarter inch thick.
The first two numbers are the legs. Equal leg angle carries the same figure twice, as in 3 x 3 or 4 x 4. Unequal leg angle carries two different figures, as in 4 x 3, and the convention prints the longer leg first. The third number is thickness, and it moves in steps like 1/4, 5/16 and 3/8 of an inch.
Thickness matters more than most buyers expect. Two angles with identical 4 inch legs behave differently at 1/4 inch and at 3/8 inch, because the thicker section resists bending harder. Which combination your opening needs is a calculation, and that calculation belongs to your engineer or your building official. Rockhouse does no sizing.
One more figure travels with a lintel and never appears in the designation. That is the length you buy, which runs longer than the opening because the steel has to sit on solid masonry at both ends. How much longer is part of the same calculation. Get the number from the person who sizes the steel, then buy that length in linear feet.
What the mill stamp says
Steel carries its own identification, and reading it takes ten seconds at the rack. Rebar shows this most clearly, because the marks roll straight into the surface of the bar between the deformations.
A rebar bar reads in a fixed order. The first symbol is the letter or logo of the mill that produced it. Next comes the bar size as a number. Then a letter for the type of steel, with S for carbon steel under ASTM A615. Last comes the grade, printed either as a number or as one or two continuous longitudinal lines rolled along the bar.
The bar size number is the useful part for most buyers, and it works on a simple rule. The number counts eighths of an inch of diameter. A number 3 bar measures 3/8 of an inch. A number 4 bar measures 4/8 of an inch, or half an inch. A number 5 bar measures 5/8. The Rockhouse product called Steel Rebar Reinforcement - 3/8" is a number 3 bar, and a bar marked 3 at another supplier is the same diameter.
One thing the stamp never tells you is the finish. Plain steel and galvanized steel behave differently once moisture reaches them behind a wall, and that choice belongs in the specification beside the size. Ask the counter what finish is on the rack today, then check it against what your plans call for.
Structural angle carries its own identification too, though it lands on a mill certificate or a paint mark on the stock more often than on a rolled stamp. If your plans call out a grade of steel by name, ask the counter what documentation comes with the piece before you load it.
Why the sizing question goes to your engineer
Four things decide what steel an opening needs, and Rockhouse controls none of them.
- The clear span of the opening, the bare gap the steel has to cross.
- The weight sitting above it, including the masonry itself and anything the structure puts down on that wall.
- The bearing at each end, or how much solid masonry the steel rests on.
- The code in force where you are building, plus whatever your permit requires.
Every one of those is a question for a licensed engineer or your local building official. A yard counter cannot answer them, and a blog page certainly cannot. Rockhouse Stone Company sells material and does no on-site work of any kind, no design, and no sizing. Bring the specification to the counter and the yard will fill it exactly.
What the counter can do is stock, price and cut to the length your specification names, load it, and get it to your address. That is the whole service, and buyers who show up with a number get through it in minutes.
What the lintel carries: the veneer above it
A lintel over an opening is holding up the wall face, and on most modern jobs that face is stone veneer. Rockhouse stocks five products in the veneer category, and their units split in a way worth knowing before you price an opening.
- Natural Brown Thin Veneer Flats at $14.00 per square foot, the field stone that covers the flat wall face.
- Natural Gray Thin Veneer Flats at $14.00 per square foot, the same product in gray tones.
- Natural Stone Veneer Planks (Thin) at $14.00 per square foot, a long linear cut for a horizontal pattern.
- Natural Brown Stone Veneer Corners at $17.00 per linear foot, the wrapped pieces that turn an outside corner.
- Natural Gray Stone Veneer Corners at $17.00 per linear foot, the same corner piece in gray.
Flats price by the square foot and corners price by the linear foot, so an opening estimate needs two measurements. Measure the wall face in square feet for the flats. Measure the running length of every outside corner in feet for the corners. Ask the counter how the corner pieces figure against your corner length, and the yard will walk that math with you on the phone.
Thin veneer is the reason the steel matters. Full bed stone sits on a foundation ledge and carries itself. Thin veneer hangs on the wall, so the wall carries it, and over an opening the lintel carries the wall.
Pickup at the yard and free delivery in Garland County
Steel travels long and it travels heavy. The Rockhouse yard covers 7 acres at 5643 N Hwy 7, Hot Springs Village, AR 71909, open Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. Call ahead with your lengths and the crew has the steel ready when you pull in. Bring a trailer that can carry the full length without overhang trouble on Highway 7.
Rockhouse delivers free on 3 or more pallets to Hot Springs Village and all of Garland County. Below three pallets the yard quotes the run. Out of state buyers work through Rockhouse Connect for national freight coordination. Rockhouse Stone Company has supplied Arkansas builders under the Bennett Brothers of Hot Springs name since 1972.
The online store lists the stock and the current price. It takes no orders. Steel leaves the yard after a call to 501-532-1905 or a visit to the counter.
Trade pricing and net terms for builders
A builder pulling steel and veneer on the same job belongs on a verified pro account. That account carries trade pricing and net terms, and qualified buyers get trade credit with it. The Rockhouse Rewards Program layers tiered discounts over that for repeat and volume buyers. Direct-to-jobsite delivery puts the steel and the stone at the opening on the same run. Call 501-532-1905 to open one.
What to bring to the counter
Bring these four items and the steel order takes about two minutes.
- Bring the angle designation your engineer or your plans specify, in the form leg by leg by thickness.
- Bring the finished length of each piece in feet, straight off your specification.
- Say how many pieces the job takes.
- Say whether veneer, rebar or mortar goes on the same ticket.
Rockhouse Stone supplies the material and stops there. Call 501-532-1905 with the specification in front of you and the yard will price the steel by the linear foot, add the veneer by its own unit, and give you a delivery figure for Garland County. If you do not have that specification yet, call your engineer or your building official first. The steel will be here when the number is.