Old foreman told me to stop using the laser level, he was RIGHT

Been doing residential drafting for about 5 years now, mostly basement layouts and remodels. I always used my Huepar laser level for EVERYTHING. Last month we got a new guy, almost 30 years in the field. He watched me set up to mark a load bearing wall and just shook his head. Said lasers lie on rough poured floors, the beam bounces off dust and debris. I thought he was being a dinosaur. Then I used a chalk line and a 6 foot level on the same wall and the laser was off by a half inch in the corner. Had to redo all my measurements and the framing crew was already scheduled for the next day. That was a rough afternoon. Anyone else had an old school method beat the fancy tool? What else should I trust the old timers on?

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rileyl675d ago

How'd the old timers figure this stuff out before lasers even existed? Buddy of mine does concrete work and he had a similar thing happen last spring. He was using a rotary laser to set forms on a slope and the thing kept reading different every time he moved it. His uncle came out with a string line and a line level and showed him the laser was drifting almost an inch over 40 feet because of the heat coming off the slab. Turns out the beam was bending in the hot air. Now he checks everything with a string first and only uses the laser as a backup. Old guys earned those tricks the hard way.

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