Level: Its Importance in Project Construction and Basic Components

Engineers begin a construction project by surveying the site. Basic information like ground elevations, boundaries, and levels are needed before scheduling an excavation or setting up the component foundation. Leveling is a form of surveying performed all throughout the duration of the project. This is different from using transits to measure distances and elevations. Instead, it is performed to pattern the building with the standard horizontal level.

Although leveling can also be performed using a transit, which has its own leveling tool, engineers make use of distinct equipment for this procedure called a level. A level may be identified with different names depending on the element used to measure the true horizon. The procedure’s goal is to pattern the level of the components to be erected with the datum or sea level. Without necessarily creating a prototype elevation with the datum, leveling helps establish a perfect horizontal layout for the structure.

Traditional levels consist of vials with water and a space for air that produces one bubble. The bubble moves inside the vial when the instrument is adjusted at its base and moves towards the center as the instrument reaches the true horizontal level. At this point, the level is already ready for use. It is accompanied by a leveling rod that has the same bubble-containing vial, only with one side graduated.

A surveyor manipulates the level by looking through the telescope built on top of it. Its partner rod is placed on the ground and leveled using the vial in order to determine the elevation. This figure is shown by the graduation captured by the horizontal hair on the lens. This is different from a laser level that uses lasers instead of water.

Unlike a modern laser level, traditional level is less accurate at setting a true horizon since centering the bubble in the vial is based completely on the surveyor’s judgment. The bubble is still big enough to produce minimal errors that may affect the efficiency of results.

The elevations measured through the graduated rod are plotted on a wide sheet on paper in the form of points. These points are connected to show the contour of the site where the structure is to be constructed. This drawing will then display which parts of the contour are to be cut or filled during the site’s preparation. The same procedure is observed using a laser level.