Heads up: That "quick measure" laser app on your phone will cost you a redo

I got lazy last week on a kitchen cabinet layout and used one of those AR measuring apps instead of pulling out my tape. Thought I had the wall lengths perfect, but the app drifted by almost 2 inches across a 12 foot run. Ended up cutting all the face frames wrong and had to eat $300 in extra material. Anyone else had this happen or is it just me being dumb with tech?

3 comments

3 Comments

patricia_hill602d ago

Well don't you think that's just a built-in feature to keep us humble? I mean here we are trusting a phone that can barely keep a charge to measure something we'd cut wood to. I tried one of those apps for a shelf project and it gave me a reading that was off by a solid 4 inches on a short wall, so at least you only lost 2. I swear these apps are designed by someone who never actually had to build anything with their hands. Next time just grab the tape measure and save yourself the headache and the money.

carr.luna2d ago

Oh man, you nailed it @patricia_hill60! My buddy Marcus tried one of those apps to measure his living room for new blinds and ended up ordering stuff that was like 6 inches too short on one side. He spent more time returning them than he would have just using a regular tape measure from the start. Seriously, nothing beats a simple measuring tape even if it means a little more work.

shane_wilson1d ago

That's a fair point. There's something about using a physical tool that forces you to slow down and actually double-check things. These apps give you a false sense of precision, like the phone knows better than you do. A tape measure won't lie to you unless you pull it wrong, which is still on you. Save the phone for scrolling, not sawing.