If you are knocking through a wall, replacing a bay window, opening up a kitchen or fitting bifold doors, you need a lintel. At Ultra Fabrication we supply and install steel lintels across York and Yorkshire, cut to size at our workshop at Mount Farm and delivered ready to fit, usually within a few days of the order being confirmed.
A lintel is the structural member that carries the load above an opening. Get it right and nobody ever thinks about it again. Get it wrong and you have cracked plaster, dropped brickwork and a Building Control officer who will not sign off the job. That is why we work from the structural engineer's calculations wherever they exist, and why we will tell you honestly when the size you have been quoted looks light.
Most of our lintel work comes from builders working on York's older housing stock, where standard catalogue sizes rarely fit the actual opening. We cut to the exact length required rather than making you order the next size up and cut it on site.
Types of Steel Lintel We Supply
Box lintels for cavity walls
The most common lintel in modern and post-war construction. A box lintel carries both the outer and inner leaf of a cavity wall in a single section, with a built-in cavity tray profile. We fabricate box lintels to the exact span and bearing you need rather than working from a fixed catalogue range.
RSJ and universal beam lintels
For wider openings, heavier loads or where a floor or roof bears directly onto the opening, a rolled steel joist or universal beam is the right answer. This is standard on knock-throughs between two reception rooms, on large rear openings for bifolds and on structural alterations to load-bearing walls. Read more about our full steel beam supply and installation service.
Angle lintels
A simple steel angle is often all that is needed for a single leaf of brickwork, a garden wall opening or an internal non-structural opening. They are cheap, quick and perfectly adequate when the loading is light.
Bespoke and non-standard lintels
Curved heads, arched openings, awkward bearings, corner openings with no return, extensions that do not sit square. York throws up a lot of these. We fabricate to drawing and we are equally happy working from a sketch with dimensions on it. If the shape is unusual we cut the plate on our CNC plasma table so the profile is accurate before anything gets welded.
Lintels for York's Older Properties
York has an unusually high proportion of Victorian and Georgian terraces, solid wall construction and period frontages, plus a large conservation area covering much of the city centre. That creates lintel problems you do not get on a new build estate.
- Solid nine inch brick walls with no cavity, needing a different bearing approach
- Bay windows where the original timber bressummer has rotted and needs replacing in steel
- Corner openings and returns with limited bearing at one end
- Openings that are nowhere near a standard catalogue length
- Conservation area properties where the finished lintel must be concealed entirely
- Cellar and undercroft alterations common in the older city centre streets
We have cut and fitted lintels in all of these situations. If your opening is awkward, that is a reason to call us rather than a reason not to.
Getting the Size Right
Lintel sizing is a structural calculation, not a guess. It depends on the clear span, the width of the wall, the loads coming down from above, whether there is a floor or roof bearing on it, and how much bearing you have at each end.
On any structural opening you should have calculations from a structural engineer. We will fabricate directly to those calculations. If you do not have an engineer yet, we can point you towards one locally, and we will not quote a size for a load-bearing opening without proper calculations behind it. That protects you as much as it protects us.
| What we need from you | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Clear span of the opening | Determines the section size and total lintel length |
| Wall thickness and construction | Cavity, solid or timber frame changes the lintel type |
| Loads above the opening | Floor, roof or wall only will change the section required |
| Bearing available each end | Usually 150mm each side, more on wide spans |
| Engineer calculations if you have them | We fabricate directly to spec with no interpretation |
Building Control and EN 1090 EXC2
Ultra Fabrication holds EN 1090 EXC2 UKCA certification. For structural steelwork going into a building this matters. Your Building Control officer will want to know the steel was fabricated by a certified fabricator to the appropriate execution class, and an uncertified lintel on a structural opening can hold up sign-off.
All structural welding is carried out by a fully coded welder. Full details of our certification are on the accreditations page, and you are welcome to pass the certificate straight to your Building Control officer or structural engineer.
Finishes
Steel lintels rust if they are left bare, and a lintel is not something you want to be dealing with again in fifteen years. We offer:
- Red oxide primer as standard, suitable where the lintel is fully enclosed and dry
- Hot dip galvanising, the right choice for external openings and exposed positions
- Painted finish to a colour of your choice where the steel will be visible
- Powder coating for exposed architectural lintels and feature openings
Our metal work and finishing service covers all of these, so the lintel arrives on site finished rather than needing treatment before it goes in.
Supply Only or Supply and Fit
Plenty of builders in York just want the steel cut, finished and delivered so their own team can fit it. That is fine and it is a large part of what we do. Send the sizes, we cut, you collect or we deliver.
Where the lintel is heavy, the access is tight or the opening is structurally awkward, we also install. That includes propping, cutting the opening, seating the lintel, packing and making good the bearings. Because we do our own site welding we can handle connection details on the spot rather than making a second visit.
Typical Lintel Jobs We Handle in York
- Kitchen and dining room knock-throughs in terraced and semi-detached properties
- Bifold and sliding door openings on rear extensions
- Bay window lintel replacement on Victorian and Edwardian frontages
- Garage door openings, both new and widened
- Internal structural openings during full refurbishments
- Loft conversion openings and dormer support
- Replacement of failed or corroded original lintels
- Farm and agricultural building openings across the Vale of York
Areas We Supply Lintels To
Our workshop is around six miles from York city centre, so most lintel deliveries into York are same day or next day. We also supply builders across Selby, Tadcaster, Harrogate, Pocklington and Wetherby, with wider delivery across Yorkshire. The full list is on our areas we serve page.
Lintel Mistakes We See on York Sites
We get called out to a fair number of jobs where the lintel has already been ordered and something is not right. The same few issues come up again and again:
- Not enough bearing. The lintel is the right length for the opening but there is nothing left to sit on. Bearing is usually 150mm each end as a minimum and more on wider spans, so the steel always needs to be longer than the hole.
- Sizing from a similar job. A lintel that worked on a neighbour's identical-looking terrace may be carrying a completely different load. Solid wall, cavity, floor bearing and roof bearing all change the answer.
- Bare steel in a damp position. Untreated steel in an external or exposed opening will corrode, and a corroding lintel expands and cracks the brickwork above it. Galvanise it.
- No padstone. On heavier openings the point load at each end needs spreading. That means a padstone or a spread plate, not just brickwork.
- Ordering before the opening is measured. Old openings are rarely square and rarely the size on the drawing. Measure the actual hole.
None of this is difficult, it just needs someone to check it before the steel is cut. If you send us the opening details and the engineer's calculations, that check is part of the quote.
Why Builders in York Use Us for Lintels
A large share of our lintel work is repeat business from builders and small contractors working across York. The reasons they give are consistent: we cut to the exact size so nothing needs modifying on site, we answer the phone, and we give a lead time we actually hit.
We also do not treat a single lintel as a nuisance job. If you need one 1.8 metre box lintel on a Tuesday, that is a perfectly good order and it goes through the workshop like anything else. Builders who start with a one-off lintel tend to come back with the beams, the goal posts and eventually the structural steel on their bigger jobs, which suits everybody.
Related Services
- Steel beams and RSJs for wider spans and heavier structural openings
- Structural steelwork including frames, posts and goal post arrangements
- CNC plasma cutting for bearing plates, padstones and connection details
- Bespoke fabrication for curved, arched and non-standard openings
Frequently Asked Questions: Steel Lintels in York
Most standard lintels are cut and ready within a few days of the order being confirmed. If you are on site and stuck, call Ryan on 07972 089 013 and we will tell you honestly what we can do rather than guessing.
For any load-bearing opening, yes. Building Control will want calculations. We fabricate to the engineer's specification and can recommend engineers working locally in York if you do not have one.
Yes, and this is one of the main reasons builders use us. We cut to the exact length your opening needs rather than you buying oversize and cutting on site.
A lintel is any structural member spanning an opening. An RSJ is a specific type of rolled steel section often used as a lintel on wider or more heavily loaded openings. For a narrow opening a box or angle lintel is usually enough.
Yes. Hot dip galvanising is available and we would recommend it for any external or exposed position. Red oxide primer is standard on enclosed internal lintels.
Yes. We offer supply only for builders fitting it themselves, or full supply and installation including propping and making good the bearings.
We are EN 1090 EXC2 UKCA certified with a fully coded welder, which is what Building Control is looking for on structural steelwork. We can supply the certificate for your records.
Yes, regularly. Solid wall construction, bay window bressummers and concealed lintels on period frontages are all work we handle routinely across York.