how to use a water level?

[amyinraleigh]

Leveling stage here - ugh.. My pool is only an 18' Intex, BUT I'm in North Carolina (beyond red clay, we're talking bricks.) and I'm doing it by hand in a yard with a major slope - had to dig 2' at highest level. Prayers of all denominations accepted!!

I have been spending the past few nights outside with my laser level as that's the only time I can see the beam. Are most of them visible during the day? Mine's only about 6 mos. old and wasn't a cheapie either, I'm bummed I can't get it to work outside during the day.

So, after reading some different threads here on leveling, I've come to the conclusion that if I want to work during the day (might be nice ), I will need to use a water level. Someone was kind enough to post a few links explaining their use and I get the idea, I'm just unsure of how to use one to level ground. Do I pound in stakes all around the perimeter, measure off a hatch-mark on one stake and then compare this to a similar hatch-mark on all the other posts?

How do most people actually use a water level for this application?

Thanks,

Amy


PS I have several different lengths of carpenter's levels and a string level, which is what I started out using, but in double-checking my work with the laser I found these to be very inaccurate. Are all string levels as useless as mine appears to be?! I was off by up to 2" (according to my laser) in several areas after my string level told me I was okie-dokie.

[sevver]

The laser level did not come with a reciever? Is it a rotating laser level or the kind you use to hang pictures with?

As far as the water level goes, basically all you need to do is fill the plastic tube with water, and the water will seek its own level in the tube. So if you hold a ruler at one foot on your benchmark and keep the water level there, then when you take the other end to the spot you want to make the same, then one foot down from the water level is the same as the originating point. Good luck, it is not as hard as it seems. I have never used one to put in a pool, but I did use one to keep track of an auger I did once. It was 450 feet long, 37 feet underground, we went under two roads, a parking lot and a set of railroad tracks, and it worked great!

[CarlD]

Wonderful stuff--Mason's line. It comes in colors, is very thin, stretches till it's twangs like a violin string--tensile strength of something like 175lbs before it snaps.

Set the string 3 1/2" inches above where you want the soil--the exact width of a 2x4--and level that. You can use a water lever, a laser level or a string level. So your string is 1 2x4 thickness above your desired level. Then just use the 2x4 to check.

Run a few strings so you always have a place to check.

First saw the Red Clay Ramblers at the Station, in Carrboro, in 1978. I was a carpenter down there then, so that red clay was quite the nemeis--I remember it yanked the sole off my boot! Rain made it splatter and a job site could be spattered up as high as 4 feet...and that red clay is about as hard to get out as a waterproof Sharpie!

[matt4x4]

Hi Amy,
I posted some links yesterday in this thread
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=4099
Read the links, they explain it well.

[amyinraleigh]

Thanks for the replies!

Matt - Yes, you are the kind one I was referring to in my original post I read through/watched those links and got a great grip on the mechanics of the water level, would have no prob using one on a wall (cool that it goes around corners into diff. rooms - I'll have to remember that one, it WILL come in handy some day!), but am just not positive how to best apply it to leveling ground, was curious if there was some "industry standard" method in its use for pool/landscape purposes.

Sevver - No, my level did not come with a receiver, I'll have to look into that. I did a bit of googling on the brand name of my level and they sell several for much less than the one I have that ARE visible outside. I guess I just figured since I paid more, I should be able to do more - what I get for figgerin', eh? Sounds like you got a very important job done with a water level, sometimes you just can't improve on simplicity - I'm sure I can make one work for me and my lil Intex after the story you told!!

Carl - Mason's line and 2x4, this is what I will try today! Great idea. And yes, it's amazing that red clay CAN stain so badly! I would never have believed it until I had to have the builder replace some carpet in our brand-new house that had been stained by muddy sub-contractor feet. Amazing Wouldn't be such a problem if every last bit of meager topsoil that we have here weren't graded away on every building site out there. And everyone wonders why it's so hard to grow grass

Again, thanks for all the help, I'll report back.........

Amy

[matt4x4]

Amy - real easy - pick your starting point - (the grade that you want to make everything else level to), this is where you put the bucket, measure from the ground up to the water level in the bucket - write this number down (reference num).
Take a stake and pound it into the ground at the next point you want to check your elevation at, tape the tube to it, there will be a water line in the tube, measure from the ground up to the water line, this measurement will be either:
1. less than reference num - you have to remove dirt until equal to reference num
2. More than reference num - you have to add and compact dirt until equal to reference num.
3. Equal to reference num - you have to do nothing

Move onto next spot - using same stake or new stake - repeat until everything is checked

[CarlD]

BTW, the water level can EASILY be used to set the mason's lines up. In fact, it should make it easier to set up the lines.

[amyinraleigh]

Matt - Excellent! Exactly the guidance I was looking for. There's always a more efficient, more reliable way of doing whatever I "think" I'm doing correctly - DOH!

Thanks!

[amyinraleigh]

BTW, the water level can EASILY be used to set the mason's lines up. In fact, it should make it easier to set up the lines.

I do believe that's what I'm a-gonna try!!

Thanks!

[hrsdennis]

Matt, I followed your links and did some research on the water level. Looks like it would be easy and accurate. The only variable I see is evaporation. So what if it takes a year or more to level the red clay.

They are not cheap but the only way I have found to use a laser outdoors in the daylight. No matter how expensive the unit. They have really neat beep sounds to tell you when you are level. I silence that of course.

Later, Dennis