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How can you tell if a level is level?

9K views 42 replies 28 participants last post by  WarnerConstInc. 
#1 ·
I recently was on a job where I was checking the soffit to install a long run of cabinets on. The soffit was one inch out of level in about ten feet.

When I mentioned it to the contractor, he was very upset, even to the point of threatening to fire someone.

He later told me that someones level was not right.

This brought me to wonder about mine.

"Have I been installing cupboards for the past five years uneven?"

So how can you test to see if your level is level?
 
#4 ·
I don't mean to sound harsh, but that's a pretty significant error to be a cabinet installer and admitting you don't know if your level is true or how to check it for level. Have you noticed your base cabinets being shimmed an inch on every job?

I would think that a lack of someone contacting you about unlevel cabinets means your level should be close. Otherwise the countertop guys would be complaining.

Just like stated by Sparky and T-man, make a mark and flip your level. You can do plumb also.

I'd be spending your next check on a Stabila.
 
#7 ·
i've forever been amazed at the fact that no one ever checks their levels, let alone on a routine basis as it should be. all my levels are Stabila and i still give'm a ck whenever can. and don't get me started on the "landscape masons" that run 40'/60'/80' walls with home depot torpedo and two footers that they have no problem tossing, dropping, and standing on all day:eek:
 
#15 ·
I thought testing the level on surface and then turning was something everyone would have known. Reminds be back when I worked with this carpenter in the UK and he was so anal but very good at his job but he always used to do his Copes by scribing around an off cut! He got it perfect every time but I showed him how to do it by cutting a 45 and then cutting to the edge of that cut and he looked at me and said WTF that's new to me lol. He been in the trade over 40 years and he knows his **** but didnt know that. :laughing:
 
#19 ·
I have two 8' Stabilas, a 6', two 2's and a torpedo. I stack them up from time to time to check them out, then I flip them over. I also have a True Blue 6', 4' and 2' that get set on the Stabilas. The TBs are very close, but not 100% accurate. They get used for rough work.:whistling

For plumb, I clamp one of the 8' Stabilas so it's dead bubble and set the others to it to check them.

When buying a new level, I flip it seven ways to sundown after I find something in the store that reads dead bubble.
 
#24 ·
I recently was on a job where I was checking the soffit to install a long run of cabinets on. The soffit was one inch out of level in about ten feet.

When I mentioned it to the contractor, he was very upset, even to the point of threatening to fire someone.

He later told me that someones level was not right.

This brought me to wonder about mine.

"Have I been installing cupboards for the past five years uneven?"

So how can you test to see if your level is level?
How could him or his guys not see it was that far out of level?

I can look at steel framing in my commercial job and tell if it is 1/8" out in 10'.
 
#25 ·
Maverick,

I'd say that is an inculcated skill that probably 90% of us just take for granted. But I know some pretty experienced contractors, as well as tradesmen, who honestly can't see those things without relying on mechanical aids. Strange, but true.
 
#27 ·
Who says your laser is level?
 
#29 ·
ALways check your levels, especially before you buy one.

I was in the store buying a cheap level for one time use as I was away from home and needed one and did not want to spend a lot. Grabbed one and checked it out using the flip it over method. Way out:eek:
Needless to say I bought a different one.
 
#31 ·
A laser level is a delicate pc of electromechanical hardware. One good whack could make it a laser unlevel.

How do you check a laser level?
 
#38 ·
OK, everyone ante up. We need to buy Bass a good time, lets call her Samantha.....
 
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