If something is not level, would it drive you nuts?

[matty d]

I have a row of slatwall above my bench which is not level. Over 8 feet of length, there is a difference of 1/2 inch in height. You can hardly tell the difference, and the cabinets will be parallel to the slatwall. Although not level, it actually follows the slope of the garage floor. The workbench feet can be adjusted to be parallel with the whole set up.

I feel like a dope because I used my small, cheap junk level and learned my lesson. I should have used my longer shop level, which revealed this to me after the fact.

Anyway, just wondering, would this drive you guys batty? Part of me wants to re-install. Part of me says no big deal.

 

[mopar66]

No question would drive me crazy.

 

[ADSR]

I would rip it down and start again. You know it's going to bother you everytime you look at it.

Just fix it.

 

[allinon72]

It would drive me nuts, especially if I had to make my bench unlevel because of it.

 

[wornoutoldman]

If I did it it would make me crazy. I would not be able to sleep at night.

If I paid a "pro" to do it I'm sure I wouldn't notice and would glady pay him his fee, thank him for the job and give him referrals.

 

[larry_g]

If it took using a 'good' level to figure out it was off I wouldn't bother with it. It is 100% functional.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Kevin54]

I used a laser level when I hung up my Gladiator cabinets. The level was off. So every time I come into the garage, that's the first thing I see. Bugs me to no end. And to compound that, I always worked in thousandths, so anything that is out just a tad, I notice.

 

[A_Pmech]

Better level the workbench with a piece of plate glass and a 1" ball bearing while you're at it.

 

[bullnerd]

Years ago I had a new furnace installed. Went down to Bs with the guy for a few minutes and noticed right away the furnace was not "square" to the wall! I went back upstairs thiking he'll get to it and I dont want to seem like a jerk,nitpicking. So I waited awhile ,went back down and he was really starting to get something done,like starting to hook up the ductwork! I HAD to say something! It was killing me!

 

[diggler306]

This would haunt me day and night. Can't stand things out of level. And unfortunately I have a great eye for it!

 

[lotsoftools]

I built a 25' workbench that wasn't level. My 4' level wasn't level, and as I was building I kept thinking it looked a little bit off. Some of the legs were slightly longer than others, but I convinced myself that was because the floor wasn't quite level. When it was all finished, it kept bothering me so I checked the level against another one. I had to tear it all out and start over.

 

[Midnight_America]

1/2" over 8' is nothing...but if it's bugging you....you already know what must be done.

 

[ADSR]

1/2" over 8' is nothing...but if it's bugging you....you already know what must be done.

That's huge in a carpenters world. If I had to hang a door in a hole out that much, I'd be pissed.

 

[Fizbin]

My entire house isn't level and completely out of square. It drives me nuts, but the wife never noticed it and absolutely loves the place, so there's not much I can do about it.

 

[jhelrey]

My entire house isn't level and completely out of square. It drives me nuts, but the wife never noticed it and absolutely loves the place, so there's not much I can do about it.

My friends GF had an apartment like that. Nothing and I mean NOTHING was level. Floors were off, walls, ceiling wasn't even parallel with the floor. I cannot believe it did not fall into a giant hole.

 

[bczygan]

It's either that...or jack up the house.

 

[EJM02]

I'd probably go bat sh*t crazy, but define level. Level to the floor, level to the structure, level to the ground or level to all else in comparison..

My house and garage are both so crooked that it has nearly broken my soul.....one quarter inch at a time..... I'm constantly finding the happy medium between level and 'looks like level'.

 

[DIC]

Would drive me nuts.. Would feel like a gravity house

 

[Rust]

As time goes by, you learn to straighten things with alchohol.

 

[rharman]

It would drive me (and my wife) insane.

I'd tear it down and redo in an instant.

 

[MN4x4]

So why did you post the question when you already know the answer?

It doesn't matter what WE think, it matters what YOU think. And you have a problem with it or you wouldn't have posted the question.

Take it down and do it right.

FWIW...I usually get it right on the third try.

 

[matty d]

Hey guys....I finished it off...everything level now! My lazy a-- side took over for a little while...nice to know that others screw up a level once in a while too!

 

[Greatbear]

I like having my workbenches level, keeps stuff from rolling off and can be thought of as a kind of surface plate to work from. Besides, I get kinda OCD about crooked stuff like that.

 

[BFBOB]

I built a 25' workbench that wasn't level. My 4' level wasn't level, and as I was building I kept thinking it looked a little bit off. Some of the legs were slightly longer than others, but I convinced myself that was because the floor wasn't quite level. When it was all finished, it kept bothering me so I checked the level against another one. I had to tear it all out and start over.

NEVER trust a level. Check and recheck by spinning it end for end every time you check something. If the level's off, your work is level when the level is off by the same amount in opposite directions when you spin it. If the level is right but the work is off, it will show off by the same amount in both directions. OK?

 

[Drew_flux]

that would have drove me bonkers.

 

[lilscorpion]

I've started over because of something like that (not kidding)

 

[LX-Markham]

NEVER trust a level. Check and recheck by spinning it end for end every time you check something.

Was taught this trick early on, always flip the level 180 to cancel out any calibration errors.

 

[Kevin54]

On some levels, you can adjust the vials. There is a hole in the ends of most levels and you can hang that odd of a nail or round rod, and adjust the plumb vial that way. And you have to flip end for end to set it correctly. The vial for the horizontal level, you can adjust it by putting a nail in the wall, so your one end is always in the same place with the level resting on the nail. Draw a mark at the end of the level. Now turn it 180 degrees / end for end, and may another mark. If the two are off, split the difference in half, make a mark again in the middle of the two marks, and adjust your vial to that.

 

[Jackfre]

In the short term on an issue like this the correct albeit temporary solution is to get a set of the Dr Schollz foot pads and only use the one that offsets the imbalance.

 

[gjz30075]

Ok, different approach here: are they level with the ceiling? I ask because you said these were cabinets above the workbench. I would think, optically, not being not level with the ceiling would have precedence over not being level with the floor. Optically speaking, of course.

 

[PCMusicGuy]

I would learn to let it go. I've never seen any residential structure that had every line perfectly square and level and every corner at a perfect 90 degree angle. I would recommend hiding it by maybe painting the slatwall so that the slat lines are not obvious.

 

[cburnscrx]

1/2" over 8' is nothing...but if it's bugging you....you already know what must be done.

Haha. I could spot (and did) a piece of 20 cedar siding that was off 1/8 of an inch from ground level on the second story. A 1/2" over 8' is pretty much a cliff in my world. I have a good eye for that stuff and it would drive me absolutely crazy. Then again I wouldn't have been off by that much in the first place because my eye would have caught it.

If you didn't notice before now, don't worry about it

 

[shocksandstrutz]

Out of level bugs me to no end, I would have to fix it.........but my wife would ask why im doing it over and roll her eyes and go back in the house....

 

[PugetDude]

NEVER trust a level. Check and recheck by spinning it end for end every time you check something. If the level's off, your work is level when the level is off by the same amount in opposite directions when you spin it. If the level is right but the work is off, it will show off by the same amount in both directions. OK?

On a cabin build I worked on 30+ years ago in the Tetons, one of the younger guys showed up with a 4' level that wasn't... one old guy who didn't say much watched him use the "good side" (so labeled with a red magic marker) .. lunch conversation went somethig like this:

Q: "What do you call a level that's out of whack?"
A: " A screed "

 

[diggler306]

Out of level bugs me to no end, I would have to fix it.........but my wife would ask why im doing it over and roll her eyes and go back in the house....

My wife is great at adding insult to injury too.

 

[ddawg16]

1/2" over 8' is nothing...but if it's bugging you....you already know what must be done.

1/8" is too much....

That's huge in a carpenters world. If I had to hang a door in a hole out that much, I'd be pissed.

No ****.....

I'm almost done with my addition.....and it's killing me that the center of the house is 1/4" lower than then rest.....best I can figure, the forms in the middle got stepped on too much and dropped a little....and to think of all the effort I went through to make sure it was plumb and straight....

 

[shooting4life]

I would just tell people I designed it that way to counter act the Coriolis effect and then quickly change the subject.

 

[Nick Danger]

I know for certain that your slatboard would drive me nuts.

Last week, Mrs Danger hung a strip of wallpaper above the cabinets in the bathroom. When I got home from work, she told me that it had slipped before it dried, and it was crooked. I wasn't worried, because I figured that it bugged her because the wallpaper was of her own artwork, and she gets protective of that.

The next morning I opened the shower curtain and I realized that the whole thing looked tilted. It was off a quarter inch over four feet. She agreed, and she ripped it down to try again.

By the next day, everything was level.

 

[Kevin54]

When I built my Family Room a number of years ago, I bought a transit and was putting up the forms for the footers. I hired a block layer to do the block work. After the forms were pulled, I snapped chalk lines to where the blocks were to go. I measured corner to corner until I knew I had them right. The day he came to lay the block, he tells me that I'm out of square by 1/2", so he re-snaps the lines. He had snapped the new lines 1/2" off, which screwed me up. It was an easy fix but the thing was....I had prebuilt all of my walls over the weekend in the garage.

And my garage cabinets, I trusted a Bullseye Laser level over my 6' level, which resulted in my cabinets being out of level. I'm slowly learning to live with them though.

 

[TAMPAGT07]

"If something is not level, would it drive you nuts? "

Kinda funny you put "Nuts" and "Not level" in the same sentence... Mine aren't.....