Watched a guy lay 500 brick on a church wall in Nashville without a laser level

Stopped by a job site last Tuesday to grab some mortar mix for a small patio job. This older fella was doing a veneer wall on the side of a church, maybe 40 feet long. He had a string line, a trowel, and a level he checked maybe twice the whole time I watched. I asked him about using a laser or a transit and he just said, "Son, the sun and my thumb tell me more than that red dot ever will." He was dead on too, I checked the coursing after he left. Made me think about all the times I set up a laser for a 10 foot planter box. Has anyone else found that some jobs get the full layout treatment when they really just need a string and a sharp eye?

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dakota_murphy901mo ago

That string line and thumb thing reminds me of my buddy Carl. He told me once he was helping his uncle build a retaining wall out in Franklin, and the uncle made him toss the laser level in the truck. Said the ground was too bumpy for that nonsense anyway. Carl watched him set the whole thing by eye using nothing but a piece of rebar and a brick string, and it came out so true that the inspector didn't even pull out his own level. Carl still brings that up every time we get into a debate about tools. I guess some guys just got that old school feel, and it's hard to argue with results like that.