The $17 laser level that solved my rebar layout problem

Last month on a job in Columbus, I had to lay out anchor bolts for a 40 by 60 foot slab, and my crew kept arguing about chalk lines being off by half an inch. I was about to rent a total station for the fourth time that year, which runs about $250 a day, when one of the older guys pulled out this cheap green laser level he bought at a big box store. He set it on a tripod, shot the grid from one corner, and we just marked everything off with a tape measure from the projected lines. It took us maybe 45 minutes instead of the usual 3 hours, and everything came out within a quarter inch. I still don't fully trust it for the really tight stuff, but for rough layout it's been a game changer. Has anyone else used a basic laser level for anchor bolt patterns, or do you all stick with the survey equipment?

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gonzalez.phoenix13d ago

Half inch off on chalk lines is still half inch off, and a quarter inch tolerance is exactly what gets you called back to fix a misaligned slab six months later. You traded rental costs for the risk of redoing concrete work, which is way more expensive than any survey equipment. For anchor bolts, I want something that registers to a hundredth of a foot, not whatever a $17 lens projects across 60 feet.