PSA: don't trust those fancy laser measuring tools on stairs

I dropped $180 on a laser measuring gadget thinking it would speed up my stair runs. Big mistake. It kept giving me readings off by 2 to 3 inches on the landing because of the angles. I had to re-cut three separate pieces of carpet and wasted half a Saturday fixing the mess. My old tape measure and a straight edge have never let me down like that. Maybe the tool works fine on flat rooms, but on stairs it's just not built for real world conditions. Has anyone else had a laser tool fail them on tricky layouts, or do I just have a dud model?

2 comments

2 Comments

phoenixb343d ago

and honestly I read somewhere that those laser tools have trouble with reflective surfaces too, which is basically what happens on stairs when the beam hits the landing at a weird angle. The specs on the box never mention that stuff, they just show a guy zipping through a living room in like two seconds. I borrowed my neighbor's Bosch unit once for a similar job and it did the same thing, gave me a reading that was close but not close enough, which with carpet is a killer because you can't just fudge it. Tape measures don't lie, they're dumb and simple and that's exactly what you need when you're dealing with angles and transitions on steps. Sounds like you learned the same lesson a bunch of us have, which is that fancy tech is great until it meets a real wall or a stair tread.

grace893d ago

Honestly though, @phoenixb34, I gotta push back a little here. That Bosch you borrowed might've just been a dud or not set up right, because the good ones handle reflections way better than people give them credit for. My dad's Leica has gotten me within a millimeter on some pretty tricky stair landings, and I've had tape measures slip or sag on me more times than I can count, especially when I'm reaching across a gap. Yeah, the cheap lasers on the box are overhyped, but that's like blaming all screwdrivers because you bought a dollar store one. Carpet's tricky for any tool, but if you take three readings and average them out, the laser's been way faster for me than crawling around with a tape.