The Lowly $5 Line Level: Is it “Level” Enough?

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Video Equipment and Misc.

[willjosephson]

Also: take any level, place it, and spin it 180 degrees, placing it in exactly the same position. If it reads the same both ways, you know the level itself is reading correctly, within its own tolerance and the ability of your eyeball, anyhow. This is a remarkably useful and quick test to make sure your level is in order before using it.

[jraybye]

My favorite low-cost level is the humble water level. All you need is a garden hose, two short lengths of clear tubing and hose fittings for both. "Dead nuts" accurate, goes around corners and doesn't need batteries! Takes two people to operate efficiently, though.

[handyman]

HGTV needs to have a Construction Series and have this Gentleman host the show. So much wisdom and knowledge from the Essential Craftsman...

[JamesAmos]

I just want to thank you again for all your videos. You're the builder grandpa a lot of us never got.

[lancethefarmdog]

Found an OLD one of these on my grandpas workbench (he passed away). I took it because I thought it was cool and maybe It’ll get me out of a pinch some day. I also like old tools. It has an old leather case, too.

[RobertJLessard]

I have a 6 inch one I've used for all kinds of foundation work on cabins and small buildings. It's definitely been acurate enough for my needs. Also remember to check for a good one by making sure it give the same reading one way and flipped the other way on the string.

[blipco]

When I was a kid my father built an 18x36 foot in ground concrete pool with sand bottom and liner using a line level. (We helped). When we completed the pool and finally filled it with water, the pool, end to end, was out by 1/8 of an inch when measuring off the calm surface. A laser wouldn’t have done better.

[GaryT]

It was state of the art a hundred years ago, countless foundations and buildings built...makes you wonder what tolerances you really need to build to and where craftsmanship and knowledge is more important than "the latest and greatest"

[kendavis]

I'm NOT a professional carpenter by any means, but I have used a line level in only one application that I can recall, and that was years back. I have about 20 feet of fencing in the back yard (of a total of about 250 feet) where the ground was flat enough by eye that I didn't have to account for grade while placing pickets. The line level was indeed good enough to make the tops of the pickets appear just fine by eye (and honestly, I never went back with a better level to check it.) Thanks for all your and your family's content. Always a pleasure to watch.

[onjofilms]

You've got such a good narrators voice and choice of words, I believe you could talk about the flat builder's pencil and make it sound interesting.

[jamesr.strange]

Thank you for this, Scott. I'm an archaeologist who digs in Israel. We do our surveying with a total station but use line levels (the same brand you use in this video) to establish datum lines for producing section drawings. We usually stretch our lines about 4 meters. Assuming that we use our levels as accurately as you do, we can expect an error of .52 cm over that distance, so let's say 1/2 cm. That's about the thickness of the nail shaft we set in the dirt. We draw at 1:25 scale, which means that the lines made by our 0.5 pencil leads represent about a centimeter. Hence, we can't draw 1/2 cm and we are within our 1 cm tolerance for surveying and drawing. I very much enjoy your channel.

[unikornkontroller]

Years ago I built a paver patio. I needed to check for level so I could set my slope. This was before I really knew how to use one of these levels properly. I put the level at the far ends of the string and wondered why it was reading high on the staked side of the string. It finally dawned on me how much sag is in the line...and this line was on 22 feet long. Like he said, ALWAYS place these in the center of the line. Not even the instructions on the box told me this. As with many tools in the trades, there's a lot of assumptions given as to how to use a tool.

[tomw]

As a Civil Engineer and former carpenter helper, I have leveled some home projects that do not require (1/google plex) accuracy. A line level is good enough for my I actually like using a quote from Shrek - "That'll do, Donkey, that'll do."

[kentstringer]

Line levels are useful. I feel that setting the level close to one end is more accurate and easier to use alone. You can check it by moving to opposite end of string. Gets it close enough to follow with a regulars level when you sit your boards. Six inch magnetic level is almost useless for steel pipe or uneven surfaces.

[bwhog]

3:35 To put that in other terms, that represents 1.3 parts per 1, 000.

These things are one of the most underappreciated tools we have. When the first settlers got to the city of what was Lehi and Mesa (the former now incorporated into the latter), they took an interest in digging irrigation canals from the salt river. They were told it wasn't doable because of the depth of the riverbed and so on. They didn't take no for an answer and so they initially did the job with just these tools to establish where the required grade would instruct them to make the canal head. Once they had made a map of where they thought the canal could run and took it to the army surveyor to prove it was doable, he redid their work with proper tools. Their choice for where the head of the canal ought to end up was only 1, 000 feet downstream (over something like eight miles or so of canal run) from where he ultimately concluded it should go. With just a line and a spirit level. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do a great deal of meaningful work with just this and a notebook in your bag.

(What you do there is figure out where you want the water to go, the height it needs to be at above the ground you're on, the grade needed to flow water down to where it is needed, and then work your way back along the river bank to find the spot where the height of the river is sufficiently above the height of the destination ground plus the elevation change over distance in order to provide a sufficient volume of water at the end of the run. You do this by establishing how the bubble ought to look when the string is at the right gradient, mark it or make a notation, and then proceed as outlined. Like taking a level with multiple lines by the bubble according to a given slope and saying, "I need a quarter bubble of slope, " which might be 1/8" per foot.)

[bobbyg]

What you did @ 2:25 to "remove burs" can also be used to "fine tune" a spirit level. Just "remove burs" a bit more on the high side then flip, test and repeat until it reads the same both ways. Most of the time you can save a favorite level or, the "only one you have with you".

[stevedc]

I see masons and landscapers use them around me. In a bind a clear hose with water is a useful substitute although I have never tried.
We once set grade for a footing measuring off the water in the hole.

[edwardvermillion]

the first level i bought, probably 40 years or so ago, was a stanley line level. i've put up a lot of fences, sheds and shelves with that thing, and like you said, it was good enough. that little thing is still in my toolbox, and every once in a while, it's the best thing to use for the job i need it to do.

like einstein said, everything is relative.

[evocarti]

The cheapest and most accurate means by which to establish a perfectly level surface is a water level. True, they're much more cumbersome than a laser level, but they'll establish an equally level surface or datums to work off of. I have a Topcon rotary laser level but for the most part my go-to laser lever is my magnetic horizontal and vertical magnetic laser by DeWalt. Cost me about £200 but you can see the green laser clear as day when the sun is shining its brightest. Steer clear of red lasers. They're cheaper but harder to see on a surface in bright sunlight.

[dalesworld]

I laid my fieldstone patio behind the house and a line level was essential to establish pitch for drainage.