Equipment for solo fieldwork

In the 25+ years of my career, I have used a laser level one time, and that was only because our regular level got backed over by a dump truck and we did not want to drive an hour back to the office to grab another one.....

I do not know of any surveyors that use a laser level.  You may have better luck asking your question on a construction forum.

Something like a LaserLine Direct ELEVATION Cut/Fill LENKER Grade Rod For Laser Level? I think that would be a good idea. There's something I think you'd like better. I can't think of the brand and name right now, but it's a box with a very long hose, and it uses water to measure changes in elevation. I'll ask my friend, who once suggested that we buy one to get lake elevations here at the county. I think it was similar to https://pavetool.com/products/smart-level.

I hope you regularly check the adjustment of the laser level. I suppose the procedure would be to set it up at two points separated by at least your normal working distance and measure points on the ground/concrete near each end to see if the difference in elevation matches in both directions.

The rotary laser and Lenker rod are more the tools of construction. Not a lot of us have first hand experience with them. They have precision and range limitations - which shouldn't be a problem for your application. So that is why you are not getting a lot of response here.  

 If you want to up your game you might look into scanning these pools with the Lidar included on the top model iphones.

In my 40 years, I have never used a laser level.  Nor a digital level in fact.  Sometimes I think I'm missing out, but that goes away after a few minutes.  Also, I'm not a solo guy.

Zeiss Ni2 for the win! 

After watching the second video my recommendation is to check the elevation differences obtained using the cell phone Lidar with a good handle level.  They more accurate and you can even check the peg.  2x magnification should be fine at 50 feet.  You can even run a loop if desired.

Zeiss Ni2 for the win! 

So, I will never complain about a Zeiss, but this would get me out of the sun sooner, I would think...

https://www.tigersupplies.com/products/blk360-3d-construction-imaging-laser-scanner-lei6012763?_pos=2&_sid=2aaec8975&_ss=r&invsrc ="adwords_ts&gclid=CjwKCAjw8symBhAqEiwAaTA__B353iKUFiT2_ais8WxYIDN4l5tVkKa5zPu-uDo5BIgkAMJ15BP_dhoCsGAQAvD_BwE"

Or maybe https://www.allenprecision.com/shop/1-450086-leica-blk3d-5403?gclid=CjwKCAjw8symBhAqEiwAaTA__GcgzC6kbdjKyhsxM69r2MfQ3qlgXg3AngtiFmszSc5Qs5wszNcSqBoCxxQQAvD_BwE#attr=

Commercial swimming pools?

Are these pools empty?

Cause if they aren't empty then the scanners won't help.

We did a bit of that for local pools, it was done with the robot, there are some really tight tolerances associated with competitive pools. I can't imagine a laser level being able to meet the requirements they gave us. 

Thank you, everyone. Please keep the suggestions coming.

To clarify,  I am not a licensed surveyor, so I am not certifying any measurements, so crazy precision is not required. I am a one-man business, so fieldwork is done solo. I am a lot like Columbo, so I can never find anything in my pockets the first time, and doing so holding a grade rod is worst; this makes note-taking difficult. (and reading the notes later is worst)

The picture shows the three milestones where I am called for a visit. For the steel inspection, I rough measure the pool's interior length, width, and height(depth), typically with a measuring tape or laser measurer. Most everything else I look at doesn't involve measurements.

Middle Picture is the pre-plaster inspection, where I measure the following:

• The interior length, width, and height(depth) again.
• Step riser heights at the bullnose step edge tile.
• The levelness of the surface gutter tile is within a 1/4" tolerance.
• Rise and run of the pool floor slope.
• % slope of the 4' wet deck around the pool with a digital level.

The bottom picture is the "ready for DOH final inspection inspection." I'll set the water level to the high point of the gutter and use the water surface as my level.

Simple measurements with cumbersome equipment for a single-person operation.

The LiDAR/3D laser scanner options give me the new toy drools. Comp pools are usually engineered with prefabricated stainless steel shells, and I do not do any FINA comp pool certifications, so it doesn't need that fine detail.

Thanks again,

-August

P.S. As a Leica binocular owner, I say, "Zeiss is nice, but I like-a my Leicas."

I have used laser levels from Leica, and Spectra Precision.

All make fine tools that when properly maintained and used are capable of much tighter work than the average surveyor appreciates.

Having some dirtworker who has never even read the manual much less checked the adjustment of their laser question your hubs and be wrong does not actually constitute much expertise with the tech.

The Lecia Rugby is a fine tool and you will not find one more ready to take abuse

https://leica-geosystems.com/en-us/products/lasers/rotating-lasers

But for ease of use I prefer Spectra Precision (Trimble and by extension Zeiss, if you care about the coorporate lineage), and I say that as a general fan of Leica gear.

https://www.spectraprecision.com/rotating-lasers

For something cheap, easy and super handy I always like the PLS for certain aplicaitons.

https://www.theplsstore.com/

I really liked using Lenker rods for optical work and know they make them for laser but do not see one off hand in the browsing I did putting this post together. I think it would be a fine addition but there may be some other cheaper and easier way to accomplish the task. A dealer should be able to help and I would for sure want to buy in person from a dealer with input. Both Leica and Spectra have shops in major cities with people that should, in general, really know their stuff.

For note taking get a bipod for your rod so it can stand up while you write. 

Personally I had to put some real effort into not taking discipline for some tasks. In general I park out my note taking table or sketch before measuring, take the measure and say the value out loud while taking out my field book (even while working alone) book the value and maybe say it out loud again to check. At the close of works I review my product and walk the work area again to make sure the world still makes sense.

Pet peeve is people putting a laser on a tripod when there is a solid surface that will suffice, there is no need to take the risk of a higher fall when not needed. There is also a lot of clamping type brackets and options that are faster and more secure than a tripod.

There used to be a user here who did heavy duty pool certifications, like for the olympics or whatever. English dude I think, too bad he has not chimed in I would @ him but no idea user name.

*edit to add, if you want to play with the big boys you can browse the selection here:

https://geo-laser.de/

I don’t know your budget but and not a dealer but I would think a basic robot and data collector the Trimble sales on the construction side. There data collection software was set up for contractors at various levels like building layout up to full blown sites. It has the ability or use to to set up and reference yourself to almost anything. Even has or had the ability to do the computations you are looking at checking in the same verbiage that someone would use thats not a surveyor.  I actually back in early 2006 helped a ranch owner with one as he built his own ponds and fences. Etc units of measurements could display in inches and fractions and rise to run run to rise % slopes etc.  I would get a demo or contact them spectra was the old name for construction side I believe. Also reach out to Topcons version as well. This software was so intuitive in the field that it was easy to measure two fence post and compute the dist along that line and do some things that would take a surveyor a few minutes to compute but they really did a great job for that sort of thing. They have the whole upper end stuff like machine control but you want the specific area that you only need. They have laser levels and all as well. Just remember a salesman is a salesman so do your homework and be prepared and such. A good salesman will do his/her best to get you what you need. Not up sale you. Explain to them exactly what you are doing maybe schedule an appointment on a job you have all the information on and get them to demo it to you to see if it’s worth the cost etc.  

I looked at surveying robots, which seems right, but please excuse my ignorance, but 'Robot' is a very nebulas term (especially when Googleing) is there a more specific name for the type of robots you are referring to?

is there a more specific name for the type of robots you are referring to?

Try "Robotic Total Station".

@ursinaa robotic total stations.  Googling is not very friendly always for us land surveyors. Robot total station is a transit with a edm electronic distance meter built in all digital. The robot portion means it turns and is controlled remotely at your rod and prism. Your data collector basically will record all the horizontal and vertical angles along with the distance from the robot and the software in a basic way can relate these in a XYZ Cartesian coordinate system just like we all learned in middle and high-school with the cross and learning x and y. Become north east and elevation. But you don’t have to do all the math software does most for you including slopes or rise to run ratios between any two points. If you need extremely precise measurements a laser tracker for anything and its all xyz orthogonal. Coordinates and you can in 50 ft radiius do a lot in a short time. Those usually start around 100k minus software. Yeah the term robot has a lot of meanings. Google YouTube trimble robotic total station. It will show you different ones. Many manufacturers and many different accuracy and software specific for what users need. In your case the contractor or construction side. If you need hz measurements slope and height differences that would serve your purpose probably. Might be over kill. You could get a total station and shoot reflective shots to items but would require a good set up to see everything from one spot. Or hire a surveyor to come scan everything and supply you a true 3d drawing that you with rebars and all inspections need to get it into something like solidworks to re engineer or inspect from the comfort of your chair. If i can remember what its called i will post back. But i can’t was a 360 camera we used and tested you just run around and send the data off and it was good to a half inch but very expensive. I did this for preliminary studies for mechanical engineers so they could build assumptions in a very quick turnaround while i did all the other high end measurements that took days and hours to get to a deliverable. But my mind is blank on what that system was called.