abbyf79•5d agoMost Upvoted

Buddy insisted I use a chalk line for my deck framing - I thought I was too good for it

Honestly, I spent 3 hours measuring and re-measuring with a tape and square for my deck in Denver, and the frame still came out crooked by an inch. My buddy Mark who builds fences laughed and said I just needed to snap a chalk line and follow it, so I finally tried it on the second section. Ngl, it was dead straight in 20 minutes - has anyone else fought using a basic tool like that and regretted it?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_laura5d ago

Oh man, I gotta push back on that. @kimr91 I actually think you're underselling how easy it is to mess up a deck frame without a chalk line. Three hours sounds about right if you're doing it "by eye" and rechecking every joist against a level that's not perfectly straight. I've seen decks where the frame was off by 3/8 of an inch over 12 feet because someone skipped the line and just used a tape and square. A chalk line snaps a dead straight reference in seconds, and once you have that, you're not guessing anymore. It's like driving without a map - you might get there, but you'll waste time and gas. So yeah, I think a chalk line is a lifesaver for decks, not just drywall or walls.

kimr915d ago

Three hours? For a deck frame? That seems like a lot for something that's just gonna get covered up anyway. I mean, a chalk line is great for drywall or long walls, but for a deck? Seems like you just needed a straight edge and a couple quick checks. Not really buying that a chalk line saves you that much time unless you were just going too slow to begin with. What were you measuring that took three hours?

craig.parker5d ago

Kim's got a point if you're just slapping down a basic square frame, but my deck was a multi level thing with angles and a curve. Layout for something like that takes way more than a straight edge and two checks. I spent a solid chunk of that time pulling diagonal measurements from the house to make sure every post was perfectly square to the ledger board. A chalk line let me snap all those reference lines in seconds instead of measuring each point one by one.