Leveling Techniques for Building Walls

Hand-held

• A technique to ensure that a wall stays level as it's built is to use a hand-held tool called a spirit level or a bubble level. Spirit levels consist of a length of metal that contains one or more vials filled with liquid. The liquid does not fill the vial completely, leaving a small bubble. When you place the instrument along a horizontal length of a wall, the bubble with remain between two marked points on the vial if the wall is level.

Mason's Line

• A piece of string tied to stakes can help you ensure that a wall, such as a concrete retaining wall, remains level as it's constructed. The line of string, also called a mason's line, connects one corner of the wall to the other and provides a guide as you lay the blocks. You can also attach a a tool called a line level to the blocks. The line level tells you if the mason's line remains perfectly horizontal.

Builder's Level

• A more complex tool for keeping a wall level is a device that sits on a tripod and has a scope and a spirit level on top. Called a builder's level, it produces more accurate readings over long distances than hand-held levels. The instrument must stay level on the ground to give a true reading. You look through the scope to find the height of your wall at one point and compare it to the height at another point. If the readings match, the wall lies level.

Methods

• When you have determined that a wall is not level, a variety of methods can return it to a true horizontal position. If you're building a retaining wall, for instance, and a level shows the wall is not even, you might simply tamp a block down with a mallet or, if working on the first row, add more of the base material, such as stone dust, to the foundation. Another typical method for making walls level involves placing shims, smaller pieces of the building material, on the uneven spots.