You DO NOT caulk the lintel. The lintel is, in effect, the through wall flashing for the brick veneer in this case.

Lintel will rust no matter how the opening if flashed if the bricks are saturated. Just a function of structural and veneer construction.

You can prep and paint it to preserve it a bit more. It should not be sealed by mortar or caulking so as to allow the water to weep out.

Assuming the structure is wood framing this isomer or less the detail.

Water will pass through the brick and run down the back side of the brick until it hits the lintel angle where flashing directs it to the outside through weeps.

This is not a DIY maintenance task; get a good mason to look at it.

If the weeps weren't installed like the detail RES has shown, I'd be concerned that the flashing may not be installed correctly either. Either will cause long-term issues for the sustainability of the structure.

For what it's worth, ensuring these type of details are properly executed during construction is an important task for the builder/GC. They need to be on site frequently. No amount of details, notes or specs on the plans will make that happen. It's the difference between a professional and the low-bid guy.

Our local building inspectors look for weeps required during their inspection. They learn pretty quickly which companies do it right and which don't and up their inspections accordingly.

Mortar should be used between the lintel and the brick... Caulking should be used between the lintel and the window. Paint the lintel to prevent rust.

Required weepholes over the window--at least in the current Code in our neck of the woods--are missing. (OTOH, I frequently see the weepholes caulked tight during renos and repairs by trades and diy who know no better.)

Its odd that there is a full mortar joint on top of a lintel and the brick above the soldier course has been cut instead of the soldier bricks.. The bricks don't appear to be modular. Perhaps the building is in a country other than the US.

This is diagram of U..S. modular bricks. Unfortunately the lintel has been omitted.

A typical residential lintel is 1/4" thick and fits in a 3/8" mortar joint at each end bearing directly on the brick below. The space for a mortar joint immediately above a lintel is 1/8" to 3/16" which can be a thin mortar bed, a drain mat, sealant under metal flashing or just flashing. An alternative is to use a lip brick for the full length of the lintel angle that hides the angle.

Res everything you suggesting sounds really good and I'm sure some places use these practices and they must be done when the brick is laid.

This is existing and I'm sure they laid the brick the typical way (which is nothing wrong with it, just some mortar fell out and all they have to do is re-grout that joint to prevent the water collecting on top of the lintel and rusting it out and painting that lintel will protect even more not to mention it will look much better.

RES tackled the questions of both function (flashing and weeps) and form (aligning the top of the soldier course with the brick coursing.) I concur with him that the aesthetics are poor. In builder-speak a "crappy job."

If you invest in a brick feature (e.g., a soldier course, jack arch, stone lintel, etc.) above a window--which calls attention to itself-- it should be done right. No doubt the low-bid mason did the work.

Thank you all for the great insights. You are all great and awesome.. This is a house in Coppell Tx, built in 1997. It's an existing home that I bought recently and didn't have much knowledge to look into these much detail. The inspection did highlighted these windows and mentioned about getting better info and fix it. Any recommendations of good masons to fix these? Thanks all again!

It doesn't appear that anything needs to be done to the mortar. A mason needs to drill a few weep holes between the soldier bricks as low as possible. That must be done with care to avoid damaging the flashing. Hopefully the weeps will reduce the amount of water that gets trapped behind the brick on the angle and reduce rusting.

Any rust should be removed and the steel painted with a zinc rich coating. If you add a top coat avoid lacquers or alkyd coatings; follow the recommendations of the zinc-rich coating

Thank you RES 3d Sketches for the suggestions.

As above. Retrofitted weep vents might better channel the flow and certainly look better.

Just inspected a home this morning, repossessed and under restoration. Three-year old build. Here's how they handled the issue:

(Messy caulking between the two sill pieces is unnecessary; every window was done that way.)

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Lipped brick. I must say I've never seen that. (Or maybe I have but didn't notice.)

But if the brick supplier doesn't offer it, I can only imagine the upcharge by the masons!