Why does nobody talk about using a cheap laser level for hanging tile?

I tried a $25 laser level from Harbor Freight last weekend when I was tiling my backsplash in the kitchen. I figured it would be way off, but honestly it kept everything straight and saved me from drawing a million pencil lines. The trick was clamping it to the counter edge instead of using the suction cup (which fell off twice). Has anyone else had good luck with a budget laser for projects like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

thea8572mo ago

30 seconds after I clamped my cheap laser to the counter it slipped and shot a beam across the kitchen. That thing drifted half an inch over 6 feet by the end of the job. Cheap lasers are fine for marking a rough line, but tile work needs dead accuracy or your grout lines look like crap. You can get a decent self leveling laser for 60 bucks that won't drift. I learned this the hard way when I had to rip out three rows of subway tile.

derek_schmidt62mo ago

Clamp trick is smarter than the guy who designed the suction cup.

clark.robin1mo ago

Yo I actually saw a post on another forum where a guy tested like 6 different cheap lasers side by side and the suction cup mounts were garbage on every single one. Some of them even had that little rubber pad that's supposed to grip but it just slides around after like 15 minutes. The clamp trick sounds janky but if it actually holds steady through a whole tile job then it's literally better engineering than what the manufacturer did. I'd rather have something that looks stupid and works than something that looks sleek and sends my laser flying into the drywall.