School parking garage job taught me to check the rebar spacing first

Big contract last month at a 3 story school parking garage in Fresno. Specs said rebar on 12 inch centers but the crew on site had it closer to 16. I caught it when I noticed the slab starting to sag near the expansion joints after the first pour. We had to bust out about 40 yards of concrete with jackhammers, took two full weekends and cost the GC an extra 11 grand. Now I walk every job with a tape measure before I even fire up the mixer. If the steel is off by 4 inches it doesnt matter how good your finish is, that slab cracks in five years. Anyone else run into rebar inspections that shouldve caught this way earlier?

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noahcampbell10d ago

Did you ever have one of those jobs where the inspector shows up in brand new boots and you just know he isnt crawling anything? Had one like that years back on a little retail pad, guy signed off on the whole foundation without ever stepping in the trench, and we found out later the chairs under the top mat were spaced so far apart the steel was basically resting on dirt. Point is your tape measure habit is the right call because by the time the concrete is hard the only person who pays is the guy holding the checkbook. That 40 yards you busted out probably cracked the GC's mood worse than the slab would have cracked in five years anyway. I keep a cheater bar and a paint marker in the truck now just so I can tag bad spacing before the pump shows up. Steel first, mud second, that order never changes.

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