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

[larry_g]

Level, parallel and flat are three different things. I see in some of the posts the wrong terms are being used.

As far as calibrating a level or a laser one should know how to do it or at least check it. In a previous life I traveled with bubble levels and optical levels. Knowing how to check them and adjust them was basic to my job as shipping could knock them out of cal. For a bubble level you need a surface that is flat and level enough to float the bubble. Once the bubble is floatingreverse the level and if it indicates that the surface is the same then your good. If the bubble does not indicate the same inclination then it needs adjustment.

For an optical or laser level set it in the middle of the room and level it up. Mark the two opposite walls or posts where the level hits. Once the marks are made, move the level near one of the marks and reset the height so that the close mark is hit indicating that the level is at the same height it was at in the middle of the floor. Now look at the mark on the far wall. If it is right on then you are good. If it is high or low then the machine is off and needs cal.

Then once you get all the precision leveling done, smack it about till it looks right . If it looks right it is right.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[djjsr]

My workshop is a very old building and parts of the floor are not level. I bought the place 8 years ago and it has been driving me nuts ever since. I've seen a shrink and been through years of therapy, but no help. I have nightmares about sliding off the deck of a ship in the middle of the ocean. I tried putting a lift in one of my shoes but it only helps when I walk in one direction. If I turn around I get dizzy and fall over.

That floor is ruining my life.

You were smart to fix your wall.

 

[Midnight_America]

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

I guess it depends what one is used to. It's not huge in a typical Cook County Illinois Carpenters World.

 

[James_B]

I put up a full wall of cabinets in the kitchen of a house I was refreshing before I put it on the market. The cabinets were perfectly level, but it looked wrong. Turned out the ceiling wasn't level by 1/2" over the 8 foot span of the wall. I'd been living in the house for 2 decades and had never noticed the problem, but the gap between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling made the error stand out, and I couldn't ignore it or leave it like it was. As all the new kitchen cabinets were securely bolted to each other, I put a car jack under one end, removed all the screws securing the cabinet to the wall except for one at the other end, and adjusted the jack until it looked level by eye from the kitchen door on the other side of the room, and put the screws back in. I knew it was wrong, but it looked right, and never again went near the cabinets with a level.

The slight slope on the kitchen ceiling was one of the lesser examples of bad work by the builder. Some were far worse, and the previous owners had camouflaged those with "OP Art" wallpaper. When I eventually stripped the wallpaper and repainted the walls, the problems were obvious.

 

[taumac]

I have a sinkhole home that's been fixed and trust me getting anything level or plump is a pain in the ***. Floor off, ceiling off, walls off. Hell other day rehanging shelf and it was 1/2 off in a 8 foot span off of ceiling but put a level on it and its level. I would just find one spot and level it from that point and work off that.

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[Daniel Dudley]

I knew a carpenter who was always right. He built a pergola on a house, and the owner was pissed and said your pergola isn't level. No, says my friend, YOUR HOUSE isn't level, and proceeds to show him how his house was out, but the pergola was dead level.

Owner says, well, I want it to line up with the siding. Well says the carpenter, YOUR SIDING IS WRONG, AND I WON'T DO IT.

He didn't get paid. I've worked on a lot of houses, and sometimes a good lie is better than the bald truth. Sometimes it's not. The trick is to know the difference.

 

[coljar]

If I do something and I don't get it level, it drives me crazy. If someone else does work for me that I paid for, it drives me crazy. If I go in someone else's house or shop and I notice something not level, it doesn't bother me at all, lol.

 

[olds34dude]

things rolling off the bench would really bug me! D

 

[wdrumheller]

I had a nice bathroom addition done for the house and there is a walk-in shower with nice tiles, and the floor of the shower is little 1" (or so) square tiles.

When they put the tiles in the floor of the shower, it was late in the evening, and there was limited lighting for the tile guys. The next morning I noticed that the tiles were out of square by over 1 tile over 4 feet of shower floor.

I fretted about it and fretted about it for a day, and then asked the GC to come and look at the floor, and told him that I was going to be upset about it for years, and he looked at it for 10 seconds and said "You're right, this *****, and we'll fix it"

They did.

I rarely complain about people's work because WORK IS HARD TO DO! But, this couldn't stay that way.

NOW every time I get in the shower I look at the nice square lines and think "wow, that's awesome".

So, long story short, I would find a way to make things look as level as possible, and I would also CHEAT and put up boards, or creative ways to hide the difference, because it would bother me a lot.

But it's not worth tearing things out to fix it. Just an opinion.

 

[thdewey]

This is why I had to have a level garage floor. There is no slope to the door. All my benches are level enough for me. I used a laser level. I was using it for building a fountain and forgot to loosen its pendulum weight. I had to redo the whole base course. That sucked. I knew it'd drive me nuts.


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[shannonw]

if i did it myself...considering the number of beers, i'm damn happy with 1/2"..that's my cutoff of what i'd probably notice, depends on the linear feet. I'm so sick of house stuff when i'd rather be doing other things i don't care if it's hanging by a nail and facing downhill..

Anyways you won't notice the slat to cabinet interface...unless your 3 feet tall, you'll have a light there probably anyhow and you can't really see where the 2 meet back in the corner..just straighten out the cab.

Now what you need to get dead level is the cabinets, you don't want doors closing when you're trying to get stuff out. And pay attention to the direction they open.

But no, i wouldn't care much about 1/2 inch after the fact..during maybe if the beer didn't make it look level enough.

 

[bcoke]

YES but is not a long drive.......bobbycoke

 

[harley jim]

O.C.D. I got it too, no cure for it either. only short term relief, usually by drinking! I am so glad to finally find a support group!

 

[Gary S]

It all depends on if I want it level or not. My entire garage is out of level. The floor slopes to the doors for drainage. But, I installed the windows level, the workbench, and my shelving. If shelves aren't level, things tend to roll off. I didn't want that. Also, I shimmed my air compressor and refrigerator so they sit level. They might work better that way.