My grandpa's 'waste of time' level trick saved me a weekend of work

My dad always told me to spend 20 minutes laser leveling my deck posts before pouring concrete. I figured I could just eyeball it like he did on his old deck back in the 80s. Took me three tries across two Saturdays to get the string lines even on my first solo build last spring. That little level from Harbor Freight turned a whole sweating afternoon into a 45-minute setup. Has anyone else learned the hard way that the slow prep work is actually the fast way?

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robert_jones2mo ago

Tbh that laser level is the kind of tool that feels like cheating until you use it once and never go back. I did the same thing on a fence line a few years back, spent a whole Saturday pulling string and re-setting posts because I trusted my eyeballs over the bubble. Next day I borrowed a buddy's laser, had everything marked and level in under an hour, and the fence still stands straight today. Slow prep always wins, but nobody believes it until they've wasted a weekend proving the opposite. Now I tell every helper the same thing your grandpa told you, and they all nod then try to skip it anyway. Some lessons just have to be learned with sore muscles and a concrete saw.

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theaw652mo ago

Skip the level for a second and think about the deck's post holes themselves. Even with the laser, if you don't check that the concrete is mixed and poured at the right slump, your posts will still shift when you set them. Most guys I know focus on the string line and forget the ground underneath is soft or wet in spots. That cheap laser only tells you where the top should be, not whether the base is stable. So yeah, prep matters, but so does checking the soil and the mix before you commit.

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