Laser level drift almost cost me a whole retaining wall in Denver

I noticed my courses were coming out slightly off on a long run last month, maybe 3/8 inch over 40 feet. Kept checking my line and it looked fine, so I figured it was just the ground settling. Turns out my laser level was dropping battery power and drifting about an hour into the job. I switched to a fresh set of batteries and re-marked every 10 feet with a chalk line, problem gone instantly. Has anyone else had a cheap laser lie to them like that, or is it just the budget ones that fail? I'm curious if spending more on a self-leveling unit would actually fix this.

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

lucas_price831mo ago

Are you sure it was the batteries, though? I have run cheap lasers until they died and they just shut off rather than quietly giving you bad numbers. Low voltage usually makes them blink or go out completely, not slowly drift like that. Sounds to me like the unit itself took a knock or the pendulum got sticky, which a pricier self-leveling one might handle better but honestly still isn't guaranteed. I would test that same laser with fresh batteries on a known straight line before trusting it again, because chalk lines are great but they will not save you from a tool that is lying on a warm day.

2