rebar suppliers in Fontana
If you are a contractor, it is essential to work with the best rebar suppliers in Fontana because most of your concrete structures will need rebar to be strong. Most concrete requires reinforcement because of the different stresses that can be placed on the structure. There is the compressive stress and there is the shear stress. There is also tensile stress. Concrete can handle shear and compressive stress well but it will perform poorly when it comes to tensile stress. Concrete’s tensile strength is about 10% and 15% of its compressive strength. It is, therefore, important to use rebar to increase the tensile strength of your concrete.
Concrete rebar
Rebar is a steel rod that is used to enhance the strength of steel. Rebar comes in various thicknesses and lengths and usually have no bumps or ridges so they bond with steel to create a strong structure. Steel is used to make rebar because steel shrinks and expands at nearly the same rate as concrete in cold and hot weather.
The benefits of rebar
As we had already mentioned, concrete is known to handle compressive stress well but doesn’t have the appropriate tensile strength to support a structure. This is a problem because nearly all structures experience more than one force that acts on them. A good example is a classic beam. The classic beam experiences compressive stress at the top and it bends. When a beam bends because of compressive stress at the top, the bottom of the beam stretches. This means that the bottom experiences tensile stress. Concrete on its own doesn’t make a good structural material but when the right rebar from rebar suppliers is added to it, two things happen.
First, when rebar is placed in concrete, it combines with concrete to make a composite material. Concrete protects the structure against compressive stress while rebar protects the structure against tensile stress. The composite material is very strong and concrete that has bonded with rebar has a breaking point that is nearly double that of concrete alone without rebar.
Second, when rebar is placed in concrete, the structure gives a warning before the concrete breaks. On the other hand, concrete that doesn’t include rebar is brittle. As the pressure increases on concrete without a reinforcing bar, it suddenly breaks without any warning. Concrete that includes rebar is ductile. This means that as the pressure exerted on it increases, small cracks and fissures form in the concrete. This is beneficial because the concrete that contains rebar will be strong even with small cracks and a warning is given before the concrete fails completely.
When should contractors use rebar?
You do not have to use rebar from rebar suppliers in Fontana all the time. There are some times when rebar should be used. If you are pouring a concrete driveway that will not hold more than the family van then you might not need rebar but if you doubt then you should consider using rebar. No matter how small or large the concrete pour is, rebar will make it stronger. Any structural concrete should include rebar.
