I've heard a few people mention adding rebar to deck footings and piers to make them stronger, but I haven't been able to find any details on how exactly to do this.
Is it sufficient to just hammer 3 or 4 pieces of rebar into the bottom of my hole so they stick straight up and then pour the concrete over them? If not – what is the proper way to do this?
Best Answer
Concrete does not have very good tensile strength. Rebar is laid in such a manner that it adds tensile strength in the concrete.
Depending on the size and weight load the pier/footer assembly is expected to support and the length of the pier, it could be reinforced in the following manner.
For a bridge just built here, they spiral-wrapped the vertical rebar reinforcement with a long helical bent reinforcement as a seismic forces precaution to prevent the rebar from shedding the concrete (rebar doesn't have very good strength against compression and bending).