How to Place Rebar During a CMU Wall Construction [PDF]

Why I write this article is because you may think that placing the rebar inside of a CMU wall is relatively easy and part of that it is but not really one of the things is when you're laying rebar obviously your vertical dowels are going to be coming from the footing as you can see place in the rebar on the footing the correct way is one of the most important things they have to do when you replace it

CMU Wall Construction

You always have to watch for your foundation in most cases if the cmu wall is relatively small you will be building the footing as well as the wall but there are several instances where there's going to be a concrete contractor that will be placed in the footing for you and you will be placing the masonry wall

CMU Wall Construction Image by: Billbeee, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

In other words, the moment you're starting to work on the foundation you also have to keep in mind where the face of the block is going to be this is the only way you're going to determine what the vertical dowels

CMU wall full form

CMU Wall Reinforcement

The dowels don't just go in the centre that may be the case and some freestanding walls but it is not the case for retaining walls or restraining walls 

Now remember that you have to keep in mind all the horizontal members are going to go in the bond beam so you're going to have a horizontal piece of reward or two depending on the case 

Usually, CMU wall reinforcement one but it may be two and you want to make sure they're tied with the vertical reinforcement and as you go building up your wall don't forget they have to place this a horizontal beam facing steel the reason

Why I said that is because once you have placed your cmu wall you're committed there is no going back there is no way to put the rebar backs you wanna keep in mind that your cmu wall insulation with your reinforces still inside

Another tip for you make sure that as you're placing the cmu wall reinforcement that you're always checking on the inside of the block and making sure that the bottom of the inside of the cells is clean 

Don't leave any type of messes with the mortar or the splashing mortar or debris on the inside of the cells inspectors don't like it and honestly, that is not the right way to play three words so you want to make sure everything is clean on the inside because remember the concrete is what's going to hold the wall to get it. I am sure you agree with me? 

You want a good bonding with the steel, you want good bonding with the foundation so it has to be pretty clean okay

The next thing is when you were placing your Reinforcement/Reber on the foundation you were obviously not setting or you should have been setting your vertical dowels full high to the wall usually that doesn't happen

What you have to make sure that your vertical dowels are long enough that you can act you can splice them if needed and continue with your wall and as you're building a CMU wall up you want to make sure that you put your splices and use you attach the reward as tight as possible

When you do that you obviously want to support your vertical dowels with the horizontal bars and once again you want to make sure that your cages are pretty well secured so they're not moving all over the place and if you need to put a couple dowels on the inside of the wall to make it secure and you have the clearance that is required for your structural drawings then you should be able to do that so in short pay attention to your reward before you pour the foundation

Your horizontal bars as required with all the laps then it will require all the verticals at the required don't forget the lintels these are very important don't forget about the corners the rebar that is vertical on all the corners is typically two of them or is a bigger size and just pay special attention to the structural doors