Vertors.comTying Rebar for Cement Block Wall Footing Reinforcement
In Depth Information on Cement Block Patio Walls
I think back to 1975 when I first started learning to set rebar using tie wire and pliers and I am amazed at how many how of my life were devoted to doing something so mundane and tedious. I first used Vertors in 1999 just before I retired from masonry and suddenly I could send one guy tie a rebar rack where three guys were required before.
No joke. No Vertors will not replace “rod busters” (rebar tying professionals) or all of your rebar tying or footing reinforcement needs, but Vertors will save you a tremendous amount of money on patio wall footings, simple house foundations, garage footings, monolithic concrete pours.
In the 90s I was a superintendent for a large patio wall (4” masonry fences actually) company and we did miles of patio walls. Concrete block walls that are only 4” wide only need footings that are 12-16” wide with two strands of #4 rebar running down the middle of the concrete footing. The most difficult part of pouring a footing for a cinder block or cement block patio wall is setting the vertical rebar in a structural way.
Rebar Quick Tying Tool
Lots of guys will use the trick of placing the vertical rebar in the footing after they pour, but any engineer will tell you that setting the rebar in a patio wall footing after the concrete is poured is not the best way to get the structure you need for reinforcing the vertical structure of a concrete block patio wall.
The proper way to get this structure is to tie the vertical rebar in such a way that the rebar is vertical to the earth and held still and rigid as the concrete is poured and sets around the steel rebar. By placing the vertical rebar after the concrete is poured disrupts the concrete aggregate thus disrupting the set of the concrete. The concrete in a footing will set harder and take a better grip of the vertical rebar if the rebar is tied still and the concrete flows around the rebar and is allowed to set in place undisturbed.
Rebar Rack Tied with Tie Wire
To tie the rebar to remain vertical and stationary during the pour requires some tricks and the time-consuming methods of building a rebar “rack” that will withstand the heavy flow of concrete as it slides down the concrete shoot from the mixer truck to the footing. The weight of the concrete will tear a flimsy rack of rebar apart. When this happens and you have concrete mixer truck on the job site on stand by for hundreds of dollars an hour, it can get pretty expensive.
Using Vertors to tie the rack is a lot like snapping together some legos. No tie wire, no rebar racks. Yet still the rebar is held in suspension in the center of the footing and the vertical rebar is held rigid enough to withstand the force of the concrete sliding form the mixer truck into the footing.
I have been in the masonry and concrete business since 1975 and I have set a lot of rebar chairs and rebar dobies and rebar placement tools, rebar holding devices and even professionally tied rebar racks put together by professional “rod busters”, but nothing compares to Vertors for saving time setting rebar, for having a perfectly set rebar rack in about 30% of the time it usually takes.
In addition to a better and quicker rebar rack, using Vertors to tie rebar is a sure fire way to make sure the rebar is dead center of the wall. Nothing is more costly, disheartening or time consuming to patio wall production that to layout the wall only to find that the rebar do not line up with the holes in the concrete block.
Job Built Rebar Rack Stand
Lining up the holes for a block wall to fit perfectly around rebar set in concrete is simple in theory. However in application setting vertical rebar that will line up with the holes in cement block is difficult because the rack can move as the heavy concrete falls onto the rebar. The typical way a rebar rack is set is suspend the horizontals from a cross piece of rebar laying across the trench at the precise place the holes in the block will line up – that also coincides with the distance between rebar for the vertical grout cells of the block (typically 48” on center). Move this just a smidge and you miss the position of the center of the rebar or the rebar rack becomes crooked when the concrete slams into the rebar and the rebar rack swings and the rebar moves.
The masonry crew shows up to build a patio wall and the concrete block holes miss the rebar. Next the crew is (instead of laying block) bending rebar and chipping block to force the rebar over into the holes of the cinder block wall. Bending the rebar compromises the structure of the wall. And for every hour that a mason is bending rebar and chipping block, it is money down the drain!
This is not the scenario with vertors. Vertors will stay straight and they snap together in 1/3 the time!! You can’t get better than that when it comes to setting rebar in a patio wall footing!
