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Changed my mind about using a laser level for every plank

I was laying a wide plank oak floor in a big living room in Springfield last month, about 800 square feet. I started each row with my laser level, thinking it was the only way to keep things perfect. Halfway through, I hit a wall that was out of square by almost an inch over 20 feet. The laser line was now making the planks run into the wall at a bad angle. I shut the laser off, snapped a chalk line off the longest straight wall instead, and just followed that. The floor went in way faster and the gap at the problem wall looked planned. Anyone else run into a wall that just won't cooperate and have to ditch their usual setup?

2 comments

2 Comments

leo_lopez6d ago

That whole "perfect line" thing gets you every time. My buddy was tiling his kitchen backsplash with one of those fancy laser grids, the kind that shows all the crosses. He spent an hour getting it just right on the wall. Then he realized his upper cabinets were off by like half an inch from one end to the other. The laser was perfectly level, sure, but it made the top row of tiles look totally crooked against the cabinet bottom. He ended up just marking a pencil line that looked right to the eye from the countertop and went with that. Sometimes the house just wins, you know?

hugo_moore6d ago

Honestly @leo_lopez, did he check if the counter was level first? Tbh that's usually the real problem.