Hey people.
Am a bit of a trainee tiler and been told to buy a laser level.

Would it be a good buy and wats a desent make??

Cheers

I've just used a cheapie from B&Q to great effect.

IIRC it cost me around £20. It comes with tripod and charger. It has a rechargable battery inside.

My only complaint is that I couldn't use the tripod. I am fixing 335mm high tiles at the moment and the line I wanted was too low for the tripod. I put it on an upside down bucket and levelled it off, turned it on, marked where the laser was hitting the walls, then double checked the marks with the mormal level.

Time saved marking up, was more than the purchase price

A decent laser level in a biggish room is fine,I use staff and spirit level in your 20m2 size bathrooms

I have a Stabila LAX 50 (I think). It's great for keping your line all the way around a room and saves loads of time faffing around drawing lines with spirit levels. I still use my spirit levels to check results vertically and horizontally, though!

I've got use of a de walt self levelling all singing all dancing jobby, about £900 worth, but to be honest I think the dot/line is too thick imo

Originally Posted by doug boardley

I've got use of a de walt self levelling all singing all dancing jobby, about £900 worth, but to be honest I think the dot/line is too thick imo

That is a really good laser Doug, esp for the bigger jobs
I use a De-Walt DW087K .....great bit of kit - got it for £130 with the tripod ...perfect for all sorts of smaller jobs .....some really good things about this one -

1) As far as I know - it is the only self leveller in this price range that will strike a vertical line behind itself -clever stuff

2) It's designed to be fixed temporarily with a screw if you need to hold it lower than the minimum tripod height (I do that a lot)

3) The self levelling has a really good level of tolerance and The line flashes if it's out of tolerance

I started out with a couple of cheap ones and quickley found out how crap they were !! ....promptly sold on Ebay and got the De-Walt ....I'd say it's like anything else mate - you really do get what you pay for - buy De-Walt or Stabila IMO

I got a cheapy rotary from B&Q some time ago to help line up kitchen work surfaces in a kitchen over two seperate areas. Complete waste of time, it wouldn't rotate properly and you could barely see the line. I ended up doing it with a water level.

A while after that I had to tile a bathroom with hand made glass tiles which were all odd sizes so it was impractical to use a batten and every row needed to be spaced about a level line. I bought a black and decker self levelling laser which hung on a nail or screw. The bathroom was an odd shape and no room for a tripod so a much better solution in that instance. I'd have thought that unless your into tiling commercial areas this sort of thing would be more use. How many bathrooms in this country could you work round a tripod without knocking it?

Mike

Hi,
I really recommend lasers, i dont use levels at all now.
For walls I have a stanley, see link below.
STANLEY CLL CROSS LINE LASER LEVEL WITH POLE SUPPORT on eBay, also Laser Measurers, Measuring Tools, Hand Tools, Business, Office Industrial (end time 28-Dec-08 2221 GMT)

Its on a pole so can be really quickly adjusted to any height for battons, above windows, doors or checking a groutline quickly around a room. The pole is a quick adjust for moving about and covers a range of heights. The pole collapses together to fit into any boot.
The reason i bought it was had to tile around a rather large vanity unit once. Complete pain to tile up one side (floor wasnt level) across, down then nail on another batton. Use the laset and tuen it round, 2 second job.

For floors i use a Dewalt 90 deg laser. Cant find it on eaby just now, but the wall one is more important for starters.

I spent a £100 quid on one when i started out used it once very hard to see line in the daylight i just use good quality spirit level the time you set it up ive the datum done in a bathroom!

I'v never felt the need to use a laser level, just use batons and spirit levels. But i'd imagine the ones on tri-pods are difficult to work around

hi there nothing wrong with a good old regular level as long as it's one you trust i've got a little ryobi laser level which you can either fix to a tripod or it will suck itself to the wall, to be honest i rarely use it i stick with my stabilas

Originally Posted by Mike jackson

I got a cheapy rotary from B&Q some time ago to help line up kitchen work surfaces in a kitchen over two seperate areas. Complete waste of time, it wouldn't rotate properly and you could barely see the line. I ended up doing it with a water level.

A while after that I had to tile a bathroom with hand made glass tiles which were all odd sizes so it was impractical to use a batten and every row needed to be spaced about a level line. I bought a black and decker self levelling laser which hung on a nail or screw. The bathroom was an odd shape and no room for a tripod so a much better solution in that instance. I'd have thought that unless your into tiling commercial areas this sort of thing would be more use. How many bathrooms in this country could you work round a tripod without knocking it?

Mike

Yeah the cheap rotary's don't rotate properly and the cheap "self levellers" are a bit of a misnomer ....you also don't know when they are out of their (small) tolerance !!!

I don't find much need to "Work" around it ??? ....I use it for setting out, then put it away !!! .....sometimes get it back out for the odd check without the tripod during the job

As the guys say ....you really don't NEED one, but personally I find it really helpful ....if you are gonna use one - get a decent one mate

Tradetiler.com Home does them doesn't he? You'd get a forum discount from him too don't forget.

In the second instance above I had to individually level each row so I would have needed the thing set up all the time.

Originally Posted by AllurePTS

That is a really good laser Doug, esp for the bigger jobs
I use a De-Walt DW087K .....great bit of kit - got it for £130 with the tripod ...perfect for all sorts of smaller jobs .....some really good things about this one -

1) As far as I know - it is the only self leveller in this price range that will strike a vertical line behind itself -clever stuff

2) It's designed to be fixed temporarily with a screw if you need to hold it lower than the minimum tripod height (I do that a lot)

3) The self levelling has a really good level of tolerance and The line flashes if it's out of tolerance

I started out with a couple of cheap ones and quickley found out how crap they were !! ....promptly sold on Ebay and got the De-Walt ....I'd say it's like anything else mate - you really do get what you pay for - buy De-Walt or Stabila IMO

Me too, don't waste ya money if ya thinking of buying one. I have the dw087k also, its the business, self levels in 2-3 seconds, tolerence is +/-0 1/3rd mm at 1m. I used to have the rotating one with the vials on, once set up on a wooden floor it was ok, So Long As You Don't Move, Move and it goes out of level. Useless....