Stumbled on a trick for keeping my laser level accurate on rough walls

I was marking stud locations on a concrete basement wall in my 1920s house and the laser kept shifting. Tried sticking a thin magnet sheet behind the laser mount to the steel stud I found with my detector and it stayed dead solid for the whole run. Anyone else got a weird hack for uneven surfaces?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sarah6d ago

Stick a magnet to a steel stud you already found? You basically made a laser level with one fixed point of contact, not really solving the issue of uneven surfaces. Concrete walls in old houses shift and settle, so that magnet trick only works if the stud is perfectly plumb, which it probably isnt after 100 years. Feels like a temporary patch that could mess with your accuracy more than just using a regular level and a pencil.

mason.anna6d ago

Huh, those aren't concrete walls they're plaster over lath.