Rebars, wire mesh or nothing?

[Austtheboss]

Hiya I am going to build my home/office out of breeze blocks in the garden. My Footings will be 300mm deep and 800mm wide. Overall size is 5meters by 3 maters. Should I use rebars wire mesh or not use anything? I will be going 13 courses up.

Please can someone advise me on this issue?

Cheers

 

[Deluks]

Assuming the ground isn't clay, crappy, surrounded by trees, near to any other structure etc etc You 'd do better digging down 1M, 450mm wide and 300 deep. or something.

 

[Austtheboss]

Hi Deluks not sure what u mean by 1m down 300m deep? Also this build will be double skinned with 100mm cavity

 

[tommyl18]

never hurts to put a bit of rebar in

 

[Deluks]

Hi Deluks not sure what u mean by 1m down 300m deep? Also this build will be double skinned with 100mm cavity

Dig hole a metre deep. then fill with 300mm depth of concrete, but as you are going cavity then 450 width prob won't be enough. You can go fully filled trench and unlikely to need any steel at all.

Need loads more detail really, why such a large cavity? are you planning on using 100mm breeze for both inner and outer?

 

[noseall]

Hi Deluks not sure what u mean by 1m down 300m deep? Also this build will be double skinned with 100mm cavity

What Deluks meant was you need to excavate a standard footing, i.e. dig down 1m in depth and 600mm width. The concrete will need to be a minimum of 225mm thick although it will be more cost effective to mass fill, i.e. 550mm thick or so.

 

[Austtheboss]

so if I dig my trench this deep will there be no need for rebars or mesh?

 

[r896neo]

If the ground seems ok then you could give the reinforcing a miss.

 

[rick85]

Rebar is not required in strip footings unless in extreme circumstances.i.e. an exceptionally wide footing. In such case, the use of rebar would stop the weight of the wall from shearing the conc. strip resulting in only a thin strip of the poured footing transmitting the load to the ground.

I cant remember the guideline rule but i think the width of the strip footing has to be three times its thickness before mesh is considered.

mesh in foundations will not compensate for poor ground