Rebar

Rebar (short for reinforcing bar) is steel bar embedded in concrete to give it tensile strength — the ability to resist the pulling and bending forces that concrete alone cannot handle. It is identified by size, such as #4 or #5, which corresponds to its diameter.

Rebar appears in nearly every concrete element: footings, slabs, walls, columns, and beams. Drawings specify its size, spacing, and placement, and the structural notes govern lap lengths and concrete coverage.

Estimating rebar means reading the structural drawings to calculate total weight or length by size, then pricing material and placement labor. Because it is counted off the same drawings as the rest of the concrete scope, pulling rebar quantities as part of an AI-assisted takeoff keeps the whole concrete estimate consistent — the workflow Quotr is designed around.

For concrete subcontractors, accurate rebar quantities protect a thin-margin bid. For estimators, rebar is one of the details that is easy to under-count and expensive to get wrong.