Rebar Tie Wire and Loop Ties

Tie wire has one job: hold the rebar or mesh exactly where the plans put it until the concrete sets around it. A tie that lets the bars shift when the crew walks the mat or the concrete hits it has failed, no matter what wire it is. So the real question is how you’re tying, because that decides the wire.

Tying by hand with pliers: the 16-gauge roll

The 16-gauge tie wire roll, 3.5 pounds, is the classic. It’s soft annealed steel, so it bends and twists easily by hand all day, and 16 gauge sits in the common range for rebar tying: heavy enough to hold, light enough to twist without wearing your hands out. Cut lengths off the roll, wrap the intersection, and twist with tie-wire pliers.

The USA-made steel tie wire, 50-pack, is for when American-made material is required on the job.

Tying fast with a twister: 6-inch loop ties

Loop-end rebar ties, 6 inch, 1,000 to a roll, are precut lengths with a loop at each end. Hook both loops with a tie twister, pull, and it spins the tie tight in a second. On a slab with hundreds of intersections, that’s a lot faster than cutting wire off a roll.

The 100-piece tie bar bag is a smaller count for a small job or a repair.

Rebar-tying guns: the gun’s own wire

A rebar-tying gun feeds, wraps, twists and cuts the wire itself, and it takes wire made for that gun. WBC’s 21-gauge electro-galvanized tie wire, five to a pack, is the thin wire gun reels typically use; check the package against your gun’s model before you buy, because gun wire isn’t interchangeable between makes, and hand-tying wire won’t feed through a gun.

Black or galvanized

Plain black annealed wire is the standard for rebar that will be buried in concrete. Galvanized wire has a zinc coating for corrosion resistance, and it earns its place where ties stay wet or exposed: work the specs call for it on, fencing, bundling and outdoor ties that won’t be covered by concrete. Where the plans specify a tie material, use what they say. Store any wire covered and off the ground; a coil left in the mud of a spring job site rusts before you use it.

Tying it right

• Snug, not cranked. Twist until the intersection can’t move, then stop. Overtightening can break the wire.
• Check a few. Push on the bars at a couple of your first ties; if they shift, tie tighter or add ties.
• Turn the ends in. Twisted tails that stick up catch hands and boots and can end up too close to the surface.
• Follow the plans for bar spacing, overlaps, which intersections get tied and how much concrete covers the steel. The wire just holds that layout in place.

On foundation repairs around Great Falls, where expansive clay is hard on foundations, getting the reinforcement held exactly where the engineer put it is the whole point.

The Pick

For hand tying with pliers, the 16-gauge 3.5-pound roll. For tying a slab fast with a twister, a roll of 6-inch loop ties. For a rebar gun, the gun’s own wire, matched to the model. Galvanized where ties stay exposed or the specs call for it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What gauge tie wire is used for rebar?

16 gauge is the common hand-tying wire, in the usual 16 to 18 gauge range. Rebar-tying guns use their own thinner wire made for the gun.

What are loop ties?

Precut ties with a loop at each end. You hook them with a tie twister and spin them tight, which is much faster than cutting wire off a roll.

Do I need galvanized tie wire?

For rebar buried in concrete, black annealed wire is the standard unless the plans say otherwise. Galvanized makes sense where ties stay wet or exposed, or where the specs require it.

How tight should rebar ties be?

Tight enough that the bars can’t shift under foot traffic or when the concrete is placed, and no tighter. Overtwisting can snap the wire.