Grandpa's chalk line trick saved my whole kitchen job

Last month in Columbus I was laying out cabinet runs and kept second guessing my marks. My grandpa came by, watched me snap three lines, and said "son, you're measuring the wall, not the floor." He made me pop a line off the highest floor spot instead of the middle. Took me 20 minutes to redo the layout but the cabinets sat dead level on the first try. Also learned to pull the chalk line tight with your thumb off the hook so it doesn't drift. Anyone else got an old timer method that beats the laser every time?

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sethp2616d ago

The thumb off the hook trick is solid but I gotta tweak one thing. If you're snapping off the highest floor spot, you're only right if the floor actually dips there. I ran into a job where the high spot was a tiny hump in the middle and the cabinets looked level but the counter tops had a weird gap at the wall. Better to pop a few reference points and find the average high, not just the single tallest bump. Grandpa's advice works for most homes but that one got me.