Warning: a job in a 1970s split-level in Akron taught me to never trust a level alone for cabinet runs.

I was setting a 12-foot run of uppers and my 4-foot level said it was perfect, but when I stepped back, the whole thing looked like it was sagging in the middle. I ran a tight string line and found a 3/16 inch dip I would have missed. How do you guys check for flat on long walls before you start hanging?

4 comments

4 Comments

fionam111mo agoMost Upvoted

Lasers are just fancy strings, overkill.

jake74721d agoTop Commenter

@fionam11 I get why you'd say that, but honestly a good laser saves me so much time on longer runs. On a 20 foot wall, trying to keep a string perfectly tight without it sagging in the middle is a pain. You end up checking it three times and still question if it's right. A laser's just always dead on from the start, no fighting with gravity.

evan_harris61mo ago

My old garage wall was off by almost an inch over ten feet. I get what @fionam11 means about strings, but that kind of bow would have been a real pain to spot. I ended up using a chalk line and a long level to find it, took all afternoon. Sometimes the simple tools show you the problem just as well.

emma_baker611mo ago

Been there with a long wall that looked fine until it wasn't. My go-to now is a laser level set up at one end, then I take a long, straight piece of aluminum extrusion or even a known-straight 2x4 and slide it along the wall, checking the gap against the laser line. It shows every little hump and valley. A string line works great too, but the laser and straight edge is just faster for me.