My uncle told me to use a laser level for tiling and I laughed at him

I was putting up a backsplash in my kitchen last summer and thought my bubble level was good enough. My uncle who's been doing this for 30 years kept telling me to borrow his cheap laser level from Harbor Freight. I said nah I got this. After 3 rows of tiles that slowly drifted downhill by a quarter inch I had to rip them all out and start over. Now I never tile without a laser level, has anyone else fought against using new tools and regretted it?

3 comments

3 Comments

west.henry1mo ago

My uncle's been doing this 35 years now and he still swears by a simple string line for big floors. Says lasers are fine for small stuff but on a 500 square foot floor the beam gets too wide and you lose accuracy at the far end. I tried his method once with a chalk line and a 6 foot level and honestly it worked better than my laser on that big job. Sometimes the old ways win out even when we think we're upgrading.

the_anthony1mo ago

Your uncle's got a point about beam spread on big floors. I've watched guys chase a laser dot around a warehouse for an hour before giving up and pulling a string. Sometimes the simple stuff just works and you don't have to futz with batteries or recalibration.

riverreed1mo ago

You ever notice how the simple stuff always makes you feel like some kind of wizard, but then the laser makes you feel like you're just fighting the floor all day? I've watched guys on job sites spend twenty minutes trying to get a laser to settle down when a chalk line would've had them done in five. But hey, at least the laser looks cooler sitting in the toolbox while you're swearing at it. Your uncle's probably got a level from the 80s thats been dropped off a ladder four times and still out-performs my brand new Bosch. Maybe we all just need to accept that sometimes the best tool is the one that doesn't need a manual to work.