Originally Posted by
Jack Feldmann
I have used a water level when I was building a long retaining wall in my yard. Not a fancy one, just a long plastic tube with water in it. Now way for me to measure any diff.
There IS a way to measure elevation difference with a water level. Use a tape measure. Set up your water level and measure from the water level to your reference point on one end and from the water level to the target point.
Example: Set up your water level with the water level (the surface of the water) above both points. Measure the height of water level above the reference point (e.g., 12" at the left-front corner) and above the target point (e.g., 14" at the right-rear corner). Subtracting the second measurement from the first gives you the elevation differential. In this example it would be 12" - 14" = -2". The right-rear corner is 2" lower than the left-front corner (a negative dimension indicates the point is lower than the reference point).
I used water levels when I built houses. They are good for rough measurements for things like Jack's retaining wall.
The water level I used was nothing more than clear tubes that screwed on each end of a garden hose. That meant that I could measure elevation between two points that were quite a ways apart by using two or three garden hoses.