leveling

[badutahboy]

Can someone explain to me how to use a water level to level for a pool?

I understand the concept of using a WL, but I'm not quite understanding how it'll make leveling for a pool easier. It seems to me that I'd have to put the stake in the ground a million times, and measure over and over and over again to make sure things were right.

In my mind, it seems easier to use a 2x4 and a normal level....

Am I missing something totally obvious?

[sevver]

I have to agree with you here. I would feel more comfortable using a 2x4 and level too. The way I did mine though is I borrowed a rotating laser level from work and used it to get it right.

But a water leve is pretty basic. you need a clear tube, and you would pound a stake in someplace and tie the tube to the stake, fill it with water (probably with a garden hose I would imagine). Then you should probably hold the ends together and measure down to wherever you want the finished grade to be. What ever it is, you would have to walk around and just measure down, say if it is 12 inches at the stake, then no matter what it would always be 12 inches down from the water level, so you would just check it as you walk around.

My whole problem with it is that if you set the tube down, it is obviously going to drain out, so someone would have to do that for you, which would mean that someone would be doing all of the work and someone would be the bearer of bad news.

I always see the water level pushed on here, but in this day and age, there are WAY better solutions, rotating laser levels are pretty commonplace now, although the one I used had a transciever that beeps at you when you are dead on. The cheap ones you actually have to see the beem, I am sure you can rent them though.

Site Levels are also good just for getting the perimeter level. The kind you set on a tripod and look through. When I did mine, I predug everything to within about 1.5 inches tolerance, then I set all my blocks dead on, and made things work from there, you could sweep a 2x4 from each block in an arc and have a center benchmark too.

Get this right, once the water is in it, you will see whether or not it is good. And if you are like me, it will bother you if it is not.

steve

[hrsdennis]

Well said Sevver, the water level is accurate but there are easier ways. You can rent a transit or laser lever for a small daily fee and they are so much easier to use. I set my laser up and within an hour or two it is packed up and put away. I level the ground and each individual post, and I can do it alone when needed. I love my laser.

Best of luck with the install, Dennis

[badutahboy]

Well said Sevver, the water level is accurate but there are easier ways. You can rent a transit or laser lever for a small daily fee and they are so much easier to use. I set my laser up and within an hour or two it is packed up and put away. I level the ground and each individual post, and I can do it alone when needed. I love my laser.

Best of luck with the install, Dennis

Presumably, a laser level works only with the receiver, right? So you set up your level in the "control" spot (the poing you're grading to), and then move your receiver from one spot to another, getting it level, then moving on...correct?


Any chance there's a laser level that you set up at ground level, and it'll show you the high and low spots without having to move a receiver around constantly?

I'd love to know there's a solution that makes this process as easy as hanging pictures with the laser levels that'll project a line across the entire wall...

[CarlD]

A laser level MUST be level at its source. If it's even a fraction of a degree off, that will multiply into a noticeable discrepancy. So lots of time is spent setting it up. The, the laser beam breaks up over distance--it shouldn't but I found mind did. The dot would be tiny at 2', but 1/4" across at 30' (roughly).

Another thing about lasers: the pictures always show a line...that's false. The laser is INVISIBLE in the air until it touches something You don't see a line, you see a dot.

OTOH, a water level doesn't have that problem. You can have a 50' tube to lay out a 40' pool, and it will be perfectly level at both ends--it's simply the nature of the beast. It may be difficult and require two people working slowly and carefully, but you won't get an increasing deviation as you move further away...(unless, like Chem_Geek, you start analyzing the physics of Gravity in terms of Einstein's Theory of Relativity! ).

A water level is also cheap...just clear plastic tubing.

You have to get a fairly expensive laser level to be as accurate. Saying that, once the laser is set up properly, it's much easier...But keep checking it!

[sevver]

A laser level MUST be level at its source. If it's even a fraction of a degree off, that will multiply into a noticeable discrepancy. So lots of time is spent setting it up. The, the laser beam breaks up over distance--it shouldn't but I found mind did. The dot would be tiny at 2', but 1/4" across at 30' (roughly).

Another thing about lasers: the pictures always show a line...that's false. The laser is INVISIBLE in the air until it touches something You don't see a line, you see a dot.

OTOH, a water level doesn't have that problem. You can have a 50' tube to lay out a 40' pool, and it will be perfectly level at both ends--it's simply the nature of the beast. It may be difficult and require two people working slowly and carefully, but you won't get an increasing deviation as you move further away...(unless, like Chem_Geek, you start analyzing the physics of Gravity in terms of Einstein's Theory of Relativity! ).

A water level is also cheap...just clear plastic tubing.

You have to get a fairly expensive laser level to be as accurate. Saying that, once the laser is set up properly, it's much easier...But keep checking it!

The laser level that I use actually will self level after you get it close. Once it starts spinning it does that, if you get it spinning, and hit the transit legs it returns to where it was. Not sure how the cheaper ones are though, I am tempted to get one as they are very useful to me. You can even use them vertically for building walls. But I digress...

Yes that is totally true, the beam does get larger that farther away you get, but not really anything to throw the pool build off with. not sure, but I don't see tubing being cheap either, I could see renting a laser for cheaper somehow. Or a transit.

Presumably, a laser level works only with the receiver, right? So you set up your level in the "control" spot (the poing you're grading to), and then move your receiver from one spot to another, getting it level, then moving on...correct?


Any chance there's a laser level that you set up at ground level, and it'll show you the high and low spots without having to move a receiver around constantly?

I'd love to know there's a solution that makes this process as easy as hanging pictures with the laser levels that'll project a line across the entire wall...

There is, you can mount the tranciever onto a bull dozer and just drive it around until you get it right. But really, if you were to say set it on a block, you could crawl around with a ruler and you would see it on there. It is just not very bright on a sunny day. You will not get anything like the line on the wall with a picture level (isn't that thing awesome!?). The water level is a very accurate method no doubt about it, but personally I would never do it, especially knowing that there are easier ways.

On a side note, I once was in an auger pit that was 37 feet down in the ground, we were augering a 36" pipe under a couple of roads and a set of railroad tracks for a sewer line that had to go through there. The length of the auger was 450 feet. We welded a 1/2" pipe to the outside top of the casing, and it became our water level. When we came out the other side, we were right on where we thought we were going to be. They have their place, that was the only way for us to have checked our change in elevation in that instance, and it worked great.

Good luck
Steve