Lintel Replacement in Chicago Ridge, IL

Emerald Masonry LLC provides lintel replacement in Chicago Ridge, IL — taking out rusted steel lintels over windows, patio doors and storefront openings, installing new galvanized steel with through-wall flashing and weep holes, and rebuilding the cracked brick above. On apartment, condo and retail buildings the work is sequenced opening by opening so residents and tenants stay in place. Licensed, bonded and insured. Call (708) 288-1696.

Chicago Ridge is a small village with a lot of multi-unit brick. Away from the mall and the Ridgeland Avenue retail, much of its housing is apartment and condominium buildings from the 1960s and 1970s — three storeys, brick veneer, rows of identical windows and sliding patio doors, a steel angle over every one of them.

That matters for lintel replacement in Chicago Ridge, because a single building can carry forty, sixty or a hundred lintels. They were all installed in the same year, with the same steel and usually the same flashing detail — or lack of one. When one fails, the rest are on the same clock.

On a Chicago Ridge apartment or condo building, a lintel is never one lintel. It is the first visible failure in a set of identical steel members installed the same week, and the right response is a survey of every opening, not a patch over one.

What a lintel is, and why steel ones fail

A lintel is the beam that carries the masonry over an opening. On buildings of this era it is almost always a steel angle — an L-shaped piece of steel with its horizontal leg tucked under the brick and its ends bearing on the masonry either side.

Steel is fine as long as it stays dry. It rarely does. Water running down the face of the wall, and water travelling inside the cavity behind the brick, collects at the head of each opening. Without through-wall flashing and open weep holes to send it back out, it sits on the steel.

Steel that rusts expands — corrosion occupies several times the volume of the metal it replaces. That growth, called rust jacking, lifts the brick above the lintel, opens the bed joint, and starts the familiar crack.

Signs your building needs lintel replacement

From the parking lot, a property manager or board member can usually spot it:

• Step cracks climbing diagonally from the corners of window and patio door heads.
• A horizontal crack or open joint along the course directly above the steel.
• Orange-brown rust streaks running down the brick from window heads.
• Steel visibly swollen, layered or flaking, or bowed downward in the middle of a long span.
• Brick above the opening that is displaced, bulging or loose.
• Windows or sliders that have started to bind at the head.
• Interior water at window heads after rain, especially on south and west elevations.

Any one of these on several openings is a reason to have every lintel on the building looked at.

Risks of waiting on lintel replacement in Chicago Ridge

Rust jacking does not pause. Each winter, water in the open joint above the steel freezes and widens it, the steel keeps corroding, and the crack grows. What starts as two or three courses to relay becomes a section of wall over the opening that has to come down.

The other risk is overhead. Over a patio, a building entrance or a storefront door on Ridgeland Avenue, loosened brick above a failed lintel is a falling-masonry hazard to residents and customers — and that liability sits with the owner or association, not the contractor who has not yet been called.

Our lintel replacement process

1. Survey every opening. We record each lintel by elevation and unit, grade its condition, and photograph it, so the board or owner sees the whole picture rather than one complaint.
2. Written scope. Openings are grouped into replace now, replace next phase, and clean/prime/re-flash, with quantities and an access plan.
3. Resident and tenant notice. We give the property manager a schedule by stack and date so units can be told which day their window is affected.
4. Shore. Where the brick above needs temporary support, it is shored before anything is removed.
5. Remove brick and old steel. Masonry above the opening is taken down carefully, brick salvaged for reuse where it is sound.
6. Install new steel. New hot-dip galvanized steel angle, correctly sized, with proper bearing at each end.
7. Flash and weep. Through-wall flashing with end dams over the new lintel, and open weep holes at the head so the cavity can drain.
8. Rebuild and match. Brick relaid in matched mortar, toothed into the surrounding wall, the opening closed up and weathertight at the end of each day.
9. Seal the perimeter. New sealant where the window frame meets the masonry, so the joint we just rebuilt is not fed by a failed caulk line.

Materials used

• Hot-dip galvanized steel angle lintels, sized to span and load
• Through-wall flashing with end dams and drip edge
• Weep vents to keep the head of every opening draining
• Type N mortar colour-matched to the existing joints
• Salvaged original brick, supplemented with the closest available match
• Low-modulus sealant with backer rod at window perimeters

Typical price factors

We do not quote lintel work over the phone, because the price depends on things that have to be seen:

• How many openings, and how long each span is
• Height and access — ground-floor patio doors versus third-floor windows
• How much brick above each opening has to come down
• Whether temporary shoring is needed
• How difficult the brick is to match
• Phasing across buildings, elevations or seasons

A written scope lists each opening and its treatment, so an association can compare bids line by line.

Working on occupied Chicago Ridge buildings

Lintel replacement on a multi-unit building is as much a scheduling exercise as a masonry one. The work is done from outside, the window stays in, and each opening is closed up at the end of the day. What residents need is notice, a cleared space near the window, and predictability.

The same applies to small retail and commercial buildings near the mall and along Ridgeland and 103rd. A storefront lintel can be replaced around opening hours with overhead protection over the entrance. Neighbouring Worth and Oak Lawn have the same 1960s–70s multi-unit stock, and the same lintel pattern shows up there.

Emerald Masonry LLC is a family-owned commercial masonry contractor serving Chicago and the Chicagoland suburbs, led by career masons with decades of hands-on Chicagoland experience, in commercial tuckpointing, façade and parapet repair, lintel replacement, chimney and stack rebuilds, CMU block repair, brick repair and replacement, foundation and limestone/sill repair, caulking, sealing, and commercial, residential and historic masonry restoration. Free on-site assessments — call (708) 288-1696.

Why property managers and boards call Emerald

• Established 2024, led by career masons with decades of Chicagoland experience
• Family-owned, licensed, bonded and insured
• COI, W-9 and lien waivers on request
• Written, opening-by-opening scopes boards can approve
• Free on-site assessments

See how we work with property managers, HOAs and condo associations and commercial owners.

Related services

• Lintel repair and replacement
• Brick replacement for spalled units above openings
• Tuckpointing for the joints around the rebuilt areas
• Caulking and joint sealant at window perimeters
• Nearby: parapet wall repair in Chicago Ridge and lintel repair in Oak Lawn

Get a free lintel replacement assessment in Chicago Ridge

If the cracks above your windows are stepping upward, or rust is streaking the brick, call (708) 288-1696 or request a free on-site assessment. We will survey every opening and give you a written scope you can take to the board.