I am trying to buy a 3 year old town house and had a home inspection on the house. The house has brick front and two car garage.
The inspector noticed that a steel plate acting as lintel beam is running over the garage door to support the brick layer above, but it ended up 3 inches short on one end. According to the inspector, the steel plate is an angle beam carrying the brick layer on bottom flange. The inspector says he never saw this condition before and he is not sure how to analyze it.
If the steel plate is indeed a horizontal lintel beam over the garage door, it is hard to imagine how it can support the brick layer above with just one end support.
My question is, is it possible to support the brick layer above with some other construction mechanism like using garage door frame as supporting beam, and the steel plate is simply resting on the garage door frame. If so is that a standard practice?
I really appreciate some body give their opinion on this?
Thanks in advance,
Ajay Kanduru