Rebar to connect stem wall from footers

[patriotz]

I am having a 20 X 20 addition put on the side of my house with a full basement. It consists of 3 walls each at 8' high and will have a finished floor. It is all below ground in NH. The company that I hired just poured the footers (18" wide), but did not put in rebar to attach the stem walls to. Is this common or correct? I called them and they said this is how they do it. From what I can see it is always recommended to use rebar when attaching footers to the stem walls. This is a large company that has been in business a while. Please help.

Thanks,

Mike

[Rich]

If they aren't putting the verts in what else are they going to leave out? Are they going to drill and epoxy rebar in? What a waste of money - could easily triple the cost of putting the rebar into the footer during the pour.
I've always put them in and tied at least a 2' overlap with the wall verts. It may work without the verts in 9 out of 10 cases - it's the 10th one that kills you. Hopefully you're not #10.

[patriotz]

Thanks for the reply. So, I take it they should have done this. Why the heck would they leave out this minor cost addition? What should I do?

[Rich]

First let me say this - The slab will hold the bottom of the wall if they put the slab on top of the footing.. but there won't be anything holding it all together from top to bottom. I would ask them how they are going to counteract the force of the soil on the bottom of the wall over an extended period of time? Then ask how they are going to compact the soil so it doesn't kick it in (should be at least 95%).