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Hot take: laser levels seemed like a gimmick until I used one on a retaining wall job
I've been doing fence and deck work for years, always just used a string level and called it good. Last month I was helping a buddy out on a retaining wall in Austin, and he handed me his cheap laser level to check the base course. I was skeptical, figured it would be off by a quarter inch or just a waste of battery. But after setting it up and walking the whole 60 foot wall line, every single block was dead on to the same reference. No re-stretching string, no second guessing if I bumped the line. The time savings was what got me... I finished setting the base in about 45 minutes instead of the usual 2 hours. Has anyone else had a similar experience where a tool you wrote off actually changed how you work?
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eric_carr13d ago
Yeah man, total game changer for me too. I was doing a paver patio and borrowed my neighbor's laser level after fighting with a string line for way too long. Set the grade in half the time and didn't have to recheck a single spot, which sold me on buying my own.
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