Overspannen van openingen in bakstenen muren

When building brick walls, openings for windows and doors need to be supported with lintels, corbels, and arches to withstand the loads from the wall above.

Lintels can be made of reinforced concrete or steel angles and are simple to install. Lintels are usually hidden in the brick walls.

Corbels have limited spanning capability and are best used for small openings or ornamentation, sometimes as a beam-supporting bracket.

Brick arches are a widely used and powerful structural form, but their construction requires precision. A centering of wood or steel is needed, and constructing spandrels can be time-consuming.

Gauged brick arches require each brick to be rubbed to the shape of the wedge needed, making them expensive to construct. Rough arches depend on wedge-shaped mortar joints for their curvature.

Brick manufacturers can custom-produce tapered bricks for arches tailored to any specific shape and span.

When the arch is moved perpendicularly to its plane, it results in a barrel vault, and when the same arch is rotated about its vertical centerline, it forms a dome.