Heard a guy at the supply house say he never uses a chalk line for big storefronts

He was telling his apprentice that eyeballing it with a tape is fine if you're experienced, which honestly made me stop and think about all the callbacks for bowed glass I've seen. I've been in this trade for 15 years and I still snap a line for anything over 4 feet, because even a tiny angle gets bigger across that span. Am I just being too careful, or is skipping the line a bad habit to teach a new guy?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivanl184d ago

But how many callbacks are actually from a bowed line? Most glass issues I've seen come from bad frames or settling, not from being off by an eighth inch over ten feet. If a guy's been doing it for years and his work holds up, maybe his eye is trained well enough.

the_linda4d ago

Oh man, that reminds me of a buddy who skipped the line on a long storefront install. He swore his eye was good enough. A month later, the owner called him back because the reflection in the glass looked wavy from down the street. He had to eat the cost of replacing two huge panels. That tiny error over twenty feet was just so obvious.