Structure
What do lintel problems look like in a survey?
A lintel carries the wall above an opening. Cracks that start at the corners of a window or door are the usual clue that it is struggling, rotten or missing. Concrete, timber, steel and stone fail in different ways. If the lintel is covered, a home survey cannot see it, and it will say so.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless a source says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the surveyor worried about over an opening?
The load from the wall above has to go somewhere. A lintel, an arch, or a hidden beam does that job. When it does not, the cracks show at the weakest point, which is often the top corners of the window or door. The frame may then carry load it was never meant to carry, which is why doors stick and glass cracks. The survey is describing that load path, not selling you a window.
Why does the material of the lintel matter?
Timber lintels rot if they stay wet, often because the gutter or the sill above them has failed. Steel lintels and cavity trays can rust; the rust expands and lifts the brickwork, which looks like a crack even when the steel is still doing some work. Concrete and stone crack differently again. Replacing “the lintel” without knowing which one is how people pay for the wrong opening-up.
- Ask whether they saw the lintel or inferred it from the cracks.
- Ask whether water from above is the reason it failed.
- Ask whether the window frame is now holding the wall up.
Do building regulations apply if the lintel is replaced?
Replacing a structural lintel is building work. Approved Document A is the England document on structure. Whether you need an application or can use a competent person depends on the job. The survey does not make that application. Your builder should not start by knocking out a bearing wall because the report used the word lintel.
What should you find out before exchange?
If the surveyor says the support over an opening is failing, get a written description of the repair before you are committed: which openings, whether the wall is loadbearing, and whether water must be stopped first. A quote that says “new lintels” with no count of openings is not a quote for the paragraph you read. There is no national price on this page.
Common questions
One crack above one window means a new lintel, doesn’t it?
Not always. Settlement of the frame, a failed mastic joint, or a crack in the render can sit in the same place. The survey should say if the masonry is displaced. One cautious sentence is not an instruction to replace every opening in the house.
Are bay windows a lintel issue?
Bays often have their own beams and posts, and they rot or spread for reasons that include the roof of the bay, not only a single lintel. Read the paragraph about the bay. Do not fold it into a generic window quote.
If the crack is only upstairs, is the lintel downstairs fine?
Each opening has its own support. A problem on the first floor does not prove the ground floor, and it does not clear it. Ask about the openings the surveyor actually looked at.
Can a plastic window frame act as a lintel?
It should not have to. Frames hold glass and keep weather out. If the surveyor thinks the frame is carrying masonry because the lintel has failed, that is a structural comment, not a glazing comment. Replacing the window without replacing the support repeats the problem.
Does a listed building change the repair?
It can. Consent may be needed before you alter the appearance or the structure. The survey is not that consent. Ask the solicitor and the council’s conservation officer before a contractor specifies a steel beam you can see from the street.
Will insurance pay for a lintel?
Often this is wear, rot or a lack of support, which is maintenance rather than an insured event. Read the policy. Do not assume a crack over a window is subsidence because ABI defines that word more narrowly.
Can you replace a lintel yourself after completion?
Support has to be in place before the old one comes out. Getting that wrong drops the wall. Treat it as building work that needs someone who will design the temporary support, not as a weekend job described on this page.
Should every window in an old house be budgeted as a lintel?
No. Budget the openings the survey identifies. An old house can have sound brick arches over most windows and one rotten timber over the wettest one. Price that one, and the reason it got wet.
Sources
Key facts
- Job of a lintel
- To carry masonry or other load across an opening so the frame below is not the structure.
- Clue
- Cracks stepping away from the top corners, or a gap opening over the frame.
- Materials
- Timber can rot, steel can rust and expand, concrete can crack, stone can fracture. The survey should say which it thinks it is, if it can see it.
- Limit
- Covered lintels are not inspected. The survey does not remove render to find them.