Architectural Technologist – The basics of leveling a site

I asked a student the other day if he could help me survey a site, and hold the staff, whilst I used y dumpy level to measure the heights at certain points, he saw my little dumpy level, which I might add I have had for years and has served me well, and asked where the electronic machine was, I had to explain that I did not use such a beast and we would go through the site with my little dumpy level, it suddenly occurred to me ,that he knew little of the basics of leveling, and relied upon the electronic devise for everything, Now I’m the first to appreciate these new hand-held measuring devices that beam a laser light on an object and it will tell you the distance and level, but unless you understand the basics, then the machine is in control and you have no way of even visually checking the accuracy of the information. So where do you start, well this site at the University of Portsmouth has a very good set of slides to help, He had no idea how to set a ceiling to get it level, so how can you check a job if you can not do the simple basics of using , a Spirit level, a water level, or my faithful optic dumpy level.

So in future issue or updates to this subject I will endeavor to show sample of all the above, not the modern methods, good that they are, but the time honored methods of simple maths, and an optic or water level.

Tagged as: Architectural Technologist, Architectural Technology, Architecture, BIAT, Collaborative Professional Development, construction, Continuing professional development, CPD, Design, MSAAT, RIBA, Technologist, technology