My crew burned 3 hours because we trusted a laser level on a sunny day

We were doing crown molding in a house off Maple Street last Tuesday. Pulled out my Bosch GLL, got it leveled, and started marking. By lunchtime nothing was lining up right. Turns out direct sunlight washes out the beam and we were marking off a ghost. Had to redo everything by hand with a bubble level. Has anyone else had this happen with laser levels on bright jobsites?

2 comments

2 Comments

rubyj1113d ago

Wow, that is a rough one. Three hours down the drain because of a ghost beam. I have to ask though, did you check the beam visibility before you started marking, or did you just assume it was good to go? I've been burned by that same thing once or twice, but I've found that on a really bright day, you have to do a quick test where you actually look at the line against your surface from the angle you'll be marking from. The sun can make the laser look way stronger than it actually is, especially on light-colored wood or drywall. How was the line looking when you first set it up, was it crisp or kinda washed out from the start?

parkerb7513d ago

Actually I just read a review in Fine Homebuilding magazine that tested like 12 different laser levels in direct sunlight and only 3 of them could hold a visible line past like 15 feet on a sunny day. @rubyj11 that test really opened my eyes to how much the surface color matters too. They had a chart showing that on white drywall in bright sun, even the expensive green beam units lost visibility way faster than most people expect. I remember one of the reviewers said the best trick was to tape a piece of dark paper right next to your layout line so the laser pops against it. That old ghost beam thing though, man that's brutal. I'd be so ticked if I spent three hours chasing a fake line, lol.