ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Ufer conn, acorn?

Stamcon,
I use about 6 to 8 tie wires,the same ones that are used to tie the footing rebar together.
Chris

Chris, inspectors have never complained about this? Code states the electrode to be at least 20' of ½" minimum rebar or at least 20' of not smaller than #4 copper. There have been several posts lately, regarding
what "listed" clamps for UFER installations exist and tie wiring a ground rod to the rebar seems to me to be a non acceptable(listed) method. Just curious......

Stamcon,
The footing rebar is at least 150 linear feet encased in concrete and is tied together with steel wire ties.The 5/8in,8ft right angle ground rod(electrode) is laid in the footing trench before the footings are poured and is likewise tied to the footing rebar by steel wire ties about every 18 inches.There is another 8ft ground rod (electrode) that is driven into the ground near the meter socket and the Ufer grounding system(concrete encosed electrode).All of this is hooked together with a continuous #4 bare Cu starting at the meter socket and ending at the driven ground rod(using acorn connectors).
The inspectors inspect before the footings are poured and at final.These guys are city inspectors,electrical only.
If there is a violation(NEC) with this method please let me know because we are starting some new construction and we want to get it right and make it safe.
Chris

Chris, my concern is that "tie wire" is not listed for bonding electrodes together and I don't see how it is a stable method for creating continuity.

Stamcon,
250-50(NEC 1999) allows the bonding of rebar by means of steel tie wires,therfore I would guess that the bonding of the ground rod to the rebar could be done with steel wire ties encased in concrete.
Chris

http://www.reos-enterprises.com/ground_rod_clamp1.htm

Look at this site for some information

Joe, I see no product, except exothermic welding, that would be for connecting to rebar. Am I missing something?

All of our concrete encased electrodes consist of a GEC sized Cu with >20' encased. Rebar is not acceptable here in SoCA.
Acorns have been accepted for tying the Cu to ground rods, etc. although there must be access to them after the installation, unless "DB" listed, in which case they can be buried. We usually use exothermic welding to attach them to other parts of the electrode system.
To use tie wire to tie them together would undoubtedly get us a correction notice.

Look again, you missed a lot ---- and why didn't you search while you were there?

Exothermic welding must be done properly.

I favor the Burndy fittings instead.

There is a company called Greaves Corporation that makes a UL listed clamp for copper to rebar.

Also, from the UL White Book, the listing for direct burial also includes concrete encasement.

Tom