Everyone knows about the basic levels: two-foot, four-foot, 6-foot, and torpedo levels, for example. But when it comes to working in large spaces outdoors, these levels aren’t nearly as handy as they are when installing a door or hanging a picture. General contractor Tom Silva has some better options to offer, teaching host Kevin O’Connor how to choose the right leveler for the right job.
Types of Levels
Bubble or Spirit Levels
The most common types of levels that homeowners and DIYers are familiar with include bubble or spirit levels. These levels are essentially straight pieces of metal or fiberglass with liquid vials installed. Inside each vial is a bubble, and when the bubble is centered in the vial, the level is either level or plumb.
There are several sizes of bubble levels, including two-foot, four-foot, and six-foot, as well as shorter levels known as torpedoes. Torpedo levels are great for hanging pictures and checking the slope of straight objects like plumbing pipes. Two-foot levels are best for general-purpose work and hanging cabinets. Four-foot levels are great for leveling boards and large objects. Six-foot levels are best for installing door jambs.
Pro Tip: This Old House general contractor Tom Silva stresses the importance of checking for level at every stage of a project: “If a house slants, it will be unlivable—nothing will look or sit right. So at every step of a renovation, we check for level and plumb.”
Spirit levels get their name from the alcohol inside their vials—a tradition dating back to the 1660s, when Frenchman Melchisédec Thévenot filled a glass tube with wine and lashed it to a flat stone ruler. Today’s vials still contain alcohol because it doesn’t freeze, making them reliable in cold-weather conditions. Vials are made from glass, bored-out blocks of solid acrylic, or injection-molded plastic, but acrylic block vials are generally the most accurate and durable.
Laser Levels
Laser levels project a laser beam on a wall or surface, and as the laser settles, it creates a perfectly level line to follow. These they’re great for a lot of projects including installing ledger boards outside, laying out cabinets and moldings inside, or even for landscaping when grading or leveling.
When shopping for a laser level, know that there are four basic types of self-leveling lasers to choose from: dot lasers, cross-line lasers, 3-plane lasers, and rotary lasers. Cross-line lasers project level and plumb beams and are handy for tiling walls or floors. Rotary lasers create a spinning 360-degree level line, making them ideal for projects spanning multiple walls, such as kitchen cabinet installation. A 3-plane laser can simultaneously project three perpendicular beams on walls, ceiling, and floor—useful for squaring up an entire room at once.
Water Levels
Water levels are the old-school option. These levels feature a reservoir of water connected to a flexible tube. The user puts the water reservoir in one location leaves it there, and then uses the flexible tube to mark the work surface.
Since water seeks its own level, anywhere the water line sits in the tube will be exactly the same height as the water in the reservoir. Water levels can be extremely long and particularly useful when installing a ledger board around a corner or working from one end of a house to the other.
Pro Tip: For precision leveling over long distances or even around a corner—such as when determining foundation heights or driveway grading—nothing beats a water level for accuracy and economy. With 50 feet of plastic tubing and a jug reservoir, a single person can level across a 100-foot span.
Atmospheric Levels
Atmospheric levels are similar to water levels, but they use atmospheric pressure instead of water. They have a base unit that sits in one location, and a meter that the user walks around with. Since the atmosphere has specific weights at specific elevations, these levels measure the atmosphere at the meter and compare it to the base. If they match, the two are level.
