DATUM

Rebar Calculator — bars, laps and spacing check

Bar count and weight for a slab, including the lap splices most calculators omit and a check against the ACI 318 maximum spacing.

Rebar Calculator — bars, laps and spacing check

Bar count and weight, plus the two things most rebar calculators leave out: the lap splices that make your order longer than the slab, and whether your spacing passes the code maximum.

Bars each way at the spacing you set. Where a run is longer than a stock bar it has to be lapped, and every lap is length you buy but do not span.
Bars each way
Net bar length
Lap splice length
Total length to buy
Stock bars
Weight
Code maximum spacing

Bar weights are the standard nominal figures — #3 at 0.376, #4 at 0.668, #5 at 1.043 and #6 at 1.502 lb per foot. Bars each way are (dimension − 2 × cover) ÷ spacing + 1.

Maximum spacing for slab reinforcement under ACI 318 is the lesser of three times the slab thickness or 18″, so a 4″ slab caps at 12″ on centre. That is a maximum, not a design: the actual size and spacing come from the engineer of record, and this page only tells you whether the number you typed is inside the ceiling.

Lap length is entered here as a multiple of bar diameter because the real value depends on concrete strength, bar grade, coating, position and confinement. Forty diameters is a common placeholder, not a specification — take the lap from your drawings. This estimates material for a flat slab on grade; footings, walls, beams, hooks, chairs and tie wire are separate.