Quote Originally Posted by matt4x4 View Post
The bucket is supposed to give more accuracy if you change the length of your tube and also make getting your accurate starting point a lot easier without removing/adding a couple of drops of water to get to the right height in the tube.

The way I do it is:

Set up one permanent post to which you mount your bucket with the water level at the same height as what your top of the wall will be - this is your reference/starting point and will be the the exact height of the top of the wall, so make sure it's correct. Tape/fasten the far end of the open ended tube to a second post at least 6" taller than your wall - you can give this post a 1.5x1.5 foot plywood board base or a tripod style base so it's self standing to make life easy on yourself. If you have a tall enough camera tripod, it will work too, but get dirty in the process.
This saves you from pounding it that post you were complaining about over and over...
Set it immediately beside the bucket post and mark off the bucket level on teh tube or the post (water in tube should also be at this mark).
This mark is what your level point will be, as you move your tripod post around the site, the water in the tube will be either:
at the mark - meaning you're exactly at grade
Below the mark - meaning grade is too high by the difference
Above the mark - meaning grade is too low by the difference and you'll need to backfill some dirt.

Hope this makes your water levelling a littel easier.


Got postponed for a few days by rain.... so I haven't started yet.. which is good, your idea to elevate the bucket to the level of the top of the rail is brilliant.

I have 2 questions though...

1. is there anything wrong with cutting a 2x4 to, say, 60" (my rails are 54" high... attaching the tubing to the 2x4, and then must moving it plac to place, and leaning it against a wall while I work? That'll achieve the same thing as the tripod... just wanting ot make sure I'm not missing some obvious reason why that'd be stupid (other than the possibility that the 2x4 will get kicked, losing water and forcing me to refill/adjust the level for accuracy).

2. Everyone agrees that the pool needs to be within 1" of level everywhere... Does that mean that as long as my reading is within 1" or level, I should move on to the next location? I had planned on getting it damn near level everywhere, but it doesn't make a difference, as long as it's within 1", that'd save me a TON of time.

Does my 2nd question make sense? I feel like it's vague but not sure how to phrase it correctly.