Alright fellas, my partner and I were roughing in a new house last week, and I noticed that the rebar sitcking out of the footing for us to bond to was the epoxy coated stuff. Does this coating on the rebar decrease its effectiveness when used as a ufer? I can and did grind the coating off where my clamp is at, but it got me to wondering about the part that is in the concrete. As far as my AHJ, I could bond this rod or not, he just wants to see 2 8 foot rods bonded together and hooked in the meter pan. What do you think?

You are not allowed to use epoxy-coated rebar to make an electrode.

That should have failed the footer inspection. That is when the Ufer rough is done here. It is usually done by the structural inspector but he is supposed to know better. Typically what happens here with epoxy rebar is you get a complete 20' stick of bare rebar in the bottom of the pour and another 20' stick bent up into the wall and the remaining 15' or so tied to the 20' in the hole with a bunch of bow ties.
Most of the time the whole footer is uncoated rebar. 2 loops of #5 (continuous).

Same here in NJ, Building Inspector does footing inspection & UFER connection to rebar. I don't think epoxy coated rebar is used for footing/foundations in resi. I see a lot on highway construction, and large structures.

theoretically, more bonding to a ufer is better

i often wonder if it's possible to calculate the R value , expoxy or no.......~S~

I’d say it looks like you don’t have much choice now but to use the two 8-foot ground rods anyway. It’s too bad, since all the concrete guy really needed to do was roll out a lousy 20-feet of #4 Cu in the footing before he poured it and just leave a tail for you to connect to and everything would have been fine. Instead the building owner is stuck with the crappy rods and some #6 Cu for a grounding electrode.

If they haven't back filled the outside walls you might be able to do a ground ring but the price of copper makes that pretty expensive.

My 'OOPS'.

Assumed plastic water pipe. did the 2 rods(builder does not use rebar), then suddenly 650' of 1" copper water pipe shows up!

Meter and panel on the left rear,in the garage, W-main is in the right front.

140' later,it is bonded.

Which leads me to a question:
200A #4 to the grd rods. Do I need #4 to the water main? or is that now a bond and # 6 will do?

(I ran #4 already- Ouch)

Never assume!

Actually you have it backward and got lucky. You do need #4 to the pipe and #6 to the rods ... and you need both so you are in compliance. It's Miller Time.

Ha,HA!!

Lucky in a strange way!

I figured #4 for the water main, I know the rods are supplemental.
First time in this town and they require copper water mains.
Live and learn. I knew where the main was coming in but the pipe showed up 2 weeks after the power was on.

AAAARRRgg.