Vertical Rebar

[mreynolds]

I am building my house on my own and my first project is a 24x24 garage. Speaking with some friends who are in the construction trade they strongly urged that I place vertical rebar into my footer to tie into the block walls I am building. I understand that I need to place these 4' O.C. My question comes with how exactly to set these in wet concrete. Should I set the entire length of rebar in as I pour the footer (garage foundation 5 courses) or should I set a small rebar piece like 18 inches and then tie it to the longer pieces. I was concered because if I just set a 4 foot piece of rebar into the footer I was not sure it it would stay straight as I was laying block. Thanks
Mike

[Rich]

It's ok to just use shorter lengths of rebar in the initial footing pour. Just make sure to use full length bars from there up and to overlap the verts at least one foot.

[mreynolds]

Thanks for the response, I will be trying it out this Wednesday morning.

[EL-Rebar]

How did your vert rebar go?? I am getting ready to use the L-rebar that is 3 foot long by one foot long - supposed to sink the one foot section into the rebar when the concrete is still green and set it. I am worried that they wont line up with the block openings.... any tips you learned would be greatly appreciated

EL-Rebar

[mreynolds]

I wound up not installing the rebar in that fashion. After some more research, I had several people suggest it was not necessary because of the way I was building my garage. I bailed for the same reason you are asking the question, I was getting really nervous about lining up the blocks. I had one builder comment that I would "Hate myself" if I did it. So I went without. Believe me, learning to lay block was challenging enough. Sorry I couldn't of been more help, however one of the members is a block layer, I think it is "Stanley", he probably could give some better advice on this topic.