Lintel

Every opening in a load-bearing masonry wall needs something to carry the brick or block that would otherwise sit directly on the window or door frame, and that's the lintel's job. Steel angle lintels are common in brick veneer, while older stone and solid masonry buildings often used a stone or heavy timber lintel instead. The lintel has to bear far enough into the wall on each side to actually transfer that load, and it needs flashing above it to keep water from collecting on top of the steel.

A rusting steel lintel is one of the more predictable failures we see on brick homes with some age to them, because rust expands and pushes the brick above it outward, which shows up as a crack right at the top of a window before the lintel itself is visibly bad. Catching it early, usually by flashing and repointing above the opening, is a lot cheaper than waiting until the brick above the window has actually shifted.