The 2-bit rebar is dead.

i didn't know you guys had 24" of cover dirt out there, i thought it was just all rock. i keep planning on making the move from #4 to #5 but i never seem to run out of caps that fit #4 and #4 rebar at the same time and i'm too cheap to buy #4 and #5 at the same time. one day...

In February paid $0.87 each and I picked them up.

It is the $4.75 tpost that I put by monuments and along boundaries that is adding up.

24" rebar is pretty much std around here. We have a lot of topsoil in most of the valley. Some places you'll find heavy gravels but mot of the time you can drive them in. Some crews will use #4 18" long to work through the rock better.

Sometimes when I'm really feeling survey-ninja-ish, I just grip the bar tightly, look at it all snake-eyed, ala' Littlebig amn, and will them right in to the ground.... [sarcasm]honest[/sarcasm]

we cut 1/2' conduit into 5' stick and use them for witness posts.
Buy it from Home Depot, in bundles of 10. Take it down to the metal shop and cut the whole bundle in half. - makes them about 0.90 each. we put a reflective decal on them, when they're set.

Wow...last I bought them it was running $0.72 a piece....

I use 1/2" rebar for 99% of my corners. I buy 20' pieces, and cut them myself. It works out to be about $0.48 each.

The lumber yard is about 10 minutes from the house, and I can cut enough rebar to last me for a few months in about 30 minutes.

We use 18" long pieces here. The last time I used a 24' piece, my helper hit a gas service line. It was not a pleasant experience.

I priced 1/2" x 20' rebar in Home Depot this week. They were $7.73 (plus tax). For 18" pieces that works out to about $0.60 ea., plus tax, before the cutting.

I use 5/8" RB x 16" for a typical property corner (also capped per previous posts). State rules require that.

It's a bytch to carry more than 6 or 8, plus the marker lath, plus the 5' x 1" PVC marker, plus the 30" x 1/2" conduit to hold the PVC marker, in my golf bag up a mountain to set them. But we prevail. Geezer Management 101.

I've had some out of state folks who didn't want it all flagged up, just the corners set, be happy with me sending them lat/long of the corners. I've done that, but the jury is still out on my opinions of protecting the public vs scope of project. Still recorded the survey though. It just gives them warm & fuzzies $$

We use 3/4"x30" rebar with a 2-1/2" aluminum cap stamped "Calif Dept of Forestry."

We also use 2"x30" aluminum flarable monuments with a 3-1/4" cap stamped "Calif Dept of Forestry and Fire Protection." I really like these, they make a nice monument.

I stamp additional information onto the caps as needed including my license number.

I also have some shorter rebars for rocky soils.

Been using either 1" or 7/8" rebar for a while now. Free from a concrete pouring friend.
Last time I bought them it pushed $4 a bar. But boy do they. make the locator hum!

what do you guys cut the rebar with?

I have a 10" Makita chop saw. It does pretty good unless you try to cut through the rebar too fast. I use a metal cutting blade available at Lowe's for less than $5.

Cut-off saw or chop saw

We buy ours pre-cut (torched), but you could cut the stuff easily with a stick welder and some heavy sticks. You can buy cutting electrodes, or soak regular ones s in water for a few hours. With my cheap lincoln cranked up, I could blow threw a piece of rebar in about 3 seconds tops.

you know in light of how much it costs the client to figure out where to put the rebar, $4 is really a pittance.

Strange how we have this culture of skimping on monuments. Sometimes I think it contributes to our poor public image.

One of the pleasures of small town life: I park my truck next to the 1/2" rebar and cut 18" pieces with battery powered saw-zaw. Throw them into the drawer in the truck until the battery dies, then go in and pay about $0.65 each. They keep a box of 60D spikes in stock for me too. Note sure how much longer they will be able to compete with the Home Depot store in the next town though.

I'm the same with Jimmy Cleveland but I use a plasma cutter. Used to use a chop saw but I order around 30 20' sticks of #4 at a time and the chop saw blades are moving on up in price and the plasma cutter cuts #4 like butter. Then I bump them on the grinder to put a finishing touch. I'm really digging the cutter. Buying more in my small town and I get a contractors discount. This will last me a long time if I don't have much new subdivisions. Seems like I would use 3-6 blades on the chop saw before I finished. With a plasma cutter its just a $10 tip and compressed air. Tips for me last forever. I don't rush the cut.

Maybe so, but add in $4 gas, etc... and the fact that its beyond minimums here along with the fact that the client doesn't care and it does add up. What is a pitance for some could be a heart felt atempt to go above and beyond the call by others.

> you know in light of how much it costs the client to figure out where to put the rebar, $4 is really a pittance.
>
> Strange how we have this culture of skimping on monuments. Sometimes I think it contributes to our poor public image.

I kind of agree. But it's harder for a solo guy (like Wayne said) to carry all those big/heavy monuments up a big hill or deep into the woods in a golf bag (I'm in the same boat). It's AMAZING how much different that 5/8" x 30" rebar looks now that I'm older and my shoulders are shot... I could carry 15 or more at a time with witness stakes back in the day.... But not these days.

I try not to set anything less than 24" if it's going to be flush, if it's going to stick out some, I'll try for 30". Lately I've been setting 3/4" galvanized pipe out in the county/sticks/rural and 1/2" galv pipe in town. It's more expensive, but I can put my prism pole on it solo without the problems that a newly flattened rebar causes (point sliding off). I don't but $100's of dollars worth at a time either, I buy enough to get through a few jobs, and then buy some more.