Originally Posted By: Greg Fretwell This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
This is the standard way a Ufer is made up in SW Florida
You can see there is nothing particularly "electrical" in nature until the elecrician connects the GEC to the rebar. If they follow the standard structural practices, insured by a structural inspector I don't see a problem with the NEC definition of a concrete encased electrode.
I have a bigger picture but I reduced the pixels for our dial up users
Originally Posted By: Monte Lunde This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
The picture shows a stock piece of rebar with a 90 bend. Stock rebar comes in 20’ lengths. This Ufer rebar is just a extra bar placed in the concrete footing (Not part of the footing reinforcement) Tying the rebar would only insure that the Ufer bar would be set in the lower part of the footing if reguired.
Originally Posted By: Greg Fretwell This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Monte the code specifically states that the rebar “shall be permitted to be bonded together by the usual steel tie wires” so if it is tied in the bottom of the footer the same way the other 40 or so uprights are tied it meets the requirements of 250.52(A)(3). In our case, with the wind code requirements that Ufer effectively connects to every chunk of concrete, from the footer to the roof trusses. Every one of those uprights gets poured into a solid cell and that connects to the solid tie beam at the top of the building or at each floor, if they are concrete.
These shots are of the garage wall. Over on the other side of the building they will pour a 16" tie beam before they pour the floor of the house, then extend the steel and concrete matrix to the roof tie beam.
Like I said before, this becomes a Faraday cage. It is great for lightning but your radio/TV reception sucks inside unless you get the antenna above the tie beam. You have to be real careful where you place transmitters if you want WiFi or RF speakers.