Hot take: 20 years of rolling a string line by hand and I still won't buy a laser level

Jordan Shah · 2026-10-11T06:15:05.464023+00:00

Back in 2004 I was laying block on a church addition in Council Bluffs and my foreman handed me a string line and a torpedo level, said that was all I needed to keep a wall true. Last week a young guy on my crew pulled out a $400 laser and had the corners set in about 10 minutes, and I'll admit it was dead on. But the thing about a string line is you feel the wall as you go, you catch a high block before it snowballs into 3 courses of trouble. We ran 900 block on that job and never once had to tear out. The laser is fast, no knocking it, but I've seen guys trust the beam and never check anything with their hands. Does anyone else still keep a line in the truck even with all the new gear?

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Hot take: 20 years of rolling a string line by hand and I still won't buy a laser level | Bricklayers - Guest Forum