A steel lintel takeoff means finding every loose lintel and shelf angle on the job — most of which live on architectural sheets, wall sections, and a lintel schedule rather than the structural plans — then counting openings, applying bearing length to get piece lengths, and pricing by weight plus finish. On a typical masonry building, lintels run 2–6% of the steel tonnage but cause an outsized share of scope disputes.
Lintels are small, cheap per piece, and scattered across the drawing set. That combination is exactly why they get missed, double-counted, or fought over at buyout. Here's how to take them off cleanly.
What is the difference between a loose lintel and a shelf angle?
Both are usually angles, both carry masonry, and they get lumped together constantly. They're different animals:
- Loose lintels span individual openings — doors, windows, louvers, duct penetrations. The mason sets them on the wall as the coursing comes up; they bear on the masonry at each end. No welding, no anchors in most cases. They're called "loose" because the steel fabricator delivers them loose to the site, often just banded on a pallet with a piece mark painted on.
- Shelf angles (also called relieving angles) run continuously along the building face, bolted or welded to the structure at each floor line, and carry the veneer above a horizontal movement joint. They come with anchors, shims, slotted holes, and often kickers or HSS outriggers at slab edges — real fabrication content, not just cut-to-length stock.
For estimating, that distinction drives everything: a loose lintel is a saw cut and maybe a coat of primer; a shelf angle line item includes connection hardware, hole punching, galvanizing, and field measurement risk. Treat them as separate line items in your bill of materials even when the drawings mix them.
Where do lintels hide on the drawings?
The single biggest lintel mistake is taking them off from the S-sheets alone. On many jobs the structural drawings show only the big stuff — W-shape lintels over wide openings, lintels hung from the frame — while everything else lives on the architectural side. Check, in order:
- The lintel schedule. Usually on an architectural sheet (sometimes structural), often titled "Loose Lintel Schedule" or buried in the masonry notes. It maps opening width ranges to angle sizes: "openings up to 4'-0": L4x4x1/4, one per wythe."
- Architectural wall sections and plan details. Shelf angles almost always appear here, drawn at the slab edge with the veneer. If you only read plans, you'll never see them.
- Window and door schedules. Cross-reference opening counts and widths — the schedule gives you the rule, but the openings give you the quantity.
- Elevations. Count openings per face, per floor. Watch for openings that appear on elevations but not in any schedule (louvers and mechanical penetrations are chronic offenders).
- General notes. Phrases like "provide loose lintels at all masonry openings not otherwise scheduled" quietly put every unscheduled opening in someone's scope — read that sentence twice.
A drawing set that scatters steel across A-sheets and S-sheets like this is a big part of why steel takeoffs are hard — the labels aren't where a structural estimator instinctively looks.
What are typical steel lintel angle sizes and weights?
The workhorse sizes, with AISC catalog weights. Vertical leg goes up against the masonry; for cavity walls with brick veneer, the long horizontal leg carries the brick.
| Section | Weight (lbs/ft) | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| L3-1/2x3-1/2x1/4 | 5.8 | Short openings in a single wythe, up to about 3'-6" |
| L4x3-1/2x1/4 | 6.2 | Brick veneer over openings to roughly 4'-0" |
| L4x4x1/4 | 6.6 | The default small-opening lintel in most schedules |
| L4x4x5/16 | 8.2 | Same span range, heavier masonry above |
| L5x3-1/2x5/16 | 8.7 | Veneer openings in the 4'-0" to 5'-0" range |
| L5x3-1/2x3/8 | 10.4 | Same range with more load |
| L6x4x3/8 | 12.3 | Openings around 5'-0" to 6'-6" |
| L6x4x1/2 | 16.2 | Heavier walls at the same spans |
| L8x4x1/2 | 19.6 | Long veneer openings, often paired or on a plate |
Multi-wythe walls take multiple angles — an 8" CMU wall typically gets two angles back to back, a 12" wall gets two or three. The schedule will say "per 4 inches of wall thickness" or similar; apply it, because doubling the angle count is a 100% swing on that line. Beyond roughly 8 feet of opening you'll start seeing W8x10 or W8x13 with a bottom plate, or a bent plate lintel, instead of angles. If any callout looks cryptic, our steel abbreviations and drawing symbols guide covers the notation.
How much bearing length do I add per lintel?
The piece length is the masonry opening plus bearing at each end. Rules of thumb that match most schedules:
- Minimum 4 inches of bearing each end for loose angle lintels on masonry — so add 8 inches to the clear opening. This is the floor, not the target.
- 6 to 8 inches each end for wider openings (over about 6 feet) or heavier lintels; many schedules step bearing up with span.
- Round up to fabrication increments. Most shops cut lintels in 2-inch increments; some schedules specify "opening + 8", rounded to next even inch."
Editorial rule: if the schedule doesn't state bearing, price 8 inches total added length and flag it in your bid scope letter as an assumption. On a job with 200 lintels averaging 4 feet, the difference between 4-inch and 8-inch bearing per end is about 0.7 tons — small money, but it's also the kind of gap a buyer will use to hammer your number.
Galvanized or primed — and who pays for it?
Any lintel in an exterior wall, a cavity, or a wet area should be hot-dip galvanized — angles in cavity walls sit right in the drainage plane and shop primer alone will streak rust down the veneer in a few years. Interior lintels over dry openings are usually shop primed. Practical numbers for pricing:
- Galvanizing typically adds meaningful cost per ton over bare steel, and on small angle pieces the per-ton rate skews high because galvanizers price small, fiddly loads at minimums. Expect galvanized loose lintels to price at roughly 1.4–1.8 times the primed equivalent, delivered.
- The spec section matters: architectural masonry specs (04 20 00) often require galvanizing even where the drawings are silent. Read the spec, not just the schedule.
- Shelf angles are almost always galvanized, and their anchors and shims must match — stainless or galvanized hardware, never plain.
Mixed finish on one job means two piece-mark series and two shipping releases. Price the handling, not just the coating — it's one of the waste and handling factors that quietly erode margin on miscellaneous work.
Who supplies loose lintels — the steel fabricator or the mason?
This is the classic Division 4 vs Division 5 knife fight, and it's worth real money on a masonry-heavy job. The patterns you'll see:
- Spec says Division 5 supplies, Division 4 installs. Most common. The steel fabricator furnishes loose lintels FOB jobsite; the mason sets them. Your scope: material, fab, finish, delivery — no erection.
- Mason supplies their own. Some masonry specs pull loose lintels entirely into 04 20 00. If so, exclude them loudly.
- Nobody's sure. The schedule is on an A-sheet, the spec is ambiguous, and both the steel bidder and the masonry bidder either carry them (owner pays twice, someone loses scope later) or both exclude them (change order fight at coursing time).
The defense is boring and effective: list loose lintels and shelf angles as explicit, separately priced inclusions or exclusions in your quote, with the count and tonnage stated. "Includes 214 loose lintels per schedule on A-501, galvanized, FOB site" ends the argument before it starts. This exact gap is one of the most common steel takeoff mistakes we see on bid reviews, and it's covered in AISC's Code of Standard Practice discussions of scope — worth reading the current edition at aisc.org if you fight this battle often.
Counting is the tedious part: hundreds of small, repetitive callouts spread across two disciplines' sheets. SteelFlo reads the whole set — architectural sheets included — finds every lintel and angle callout on every page, and draws a box around each one so you can verify the count against the elevations before it hits your BOM. Each detection resolves against a library of 4,500+ sections across 6 standards, so an L5x3-1/2x5/16 comes back at 8.7 lbs/ft automatically, and with human verification of flagged items, accuracy runs 95–99%.
Quick answers
What size steel lintel do I need for a 4-foot opening? Most schedules call L4x4x1/4 (6.6 lbs/ft) per wythe for openings up to about 4 feet in normal masonry — but always price what the project's lintel schedule says, not the rule of thumb.
How much bearing does a steel lintel need? Minimum 4 inches each end; 6–8 inches for wider or heavier openings. Piece length = opening + bearing both ends.
Are steel lintels galvanized? Exterior and cavity-wall lintels: yes, hot-dip galvanized. Interior dry-wall openings: usually shop primer. Check spec section 04 20 00 and 05 50 00.
Who supplies loose lintels? Usually the steel fabricator supplies and the mason installs — but specs vary, so state your inclusion or exclusion with a count in your quote.
Where is the lintel schedule? Most often on an architectural sheet near the wall types or masonry details, not on the structural sheets.
Pricing a masonry job with a few hundred lintels? Run the angles through the free steel weight calculator to get tonnage fast, or browse angle sizes and weights at /shapes.