What is a Stalton lintel?
A Stalton lintel (Dutch staltonlatei) is a lintel made of fired clay with prestressed steel reinforcement embedded in concrete inside it. It spans a window or door opening and carries the masonry above. Because the outside is clay, it behaves in the wall almost like an ordinary brick. Similar prestressed clay lintels are made by several manufacturers across Europe.
Advantages
- Cheap and quick: the lintel is simply built in with the brickwork, without formwork or a crane.
- Good bond: mortar bonds well to the clay.
- Easy to finish: plaster bonds well, and because the material matches the surrounding masonry, cracking in the plaster above the opening is less likely.
Steel or concrete lintels are the alternative, for instance for longer spans or heavy loads.
Application
- Choose the right length. The lintel needs adequate bearing at both ends. Follow the manufacturer’s minimum bearing length.
- Prop while building above. Many clay lintels are designed to work together with the masonry above them as a composite. Prop the lintel until that masonry has cured and keep to the minimum height of brickwork above.
- Bed it in full mortar and fill the perpends above it completely.
- Do not cut it. Cutting damages the prestressed reinforcement. Order the correct size.
- External walls. In an outer leaf, steel lintels with a cavity tray are usually used. Ask a structural engineer if in doubt.
Common mistake: removing props too early or loading the lintel as a free-spanning beam, for example with a floor, before there is brickwork above it. The lintel can then sag or break.
Related terms
- Lintel
- Stalton floor
- Perpend joint
- Calcium silicate brick
- Structural engineer
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