[agla]

I use the same one that you have. It does not replace the tape, but I love it.

I use a tape on the building for the most part, but where it gets really handy is locating existing trees and other things on a site. It saves a lot of time and wear and tear on my platform soled pimp shoes that will be back in style after my wife throws them away.

I have located trees by laying a tape out in line with the end of the building or big jog and then measuring over from the tree to the tape with a second tape and writing down the coordinates. Now I can line myself up with the end of the building and the tree, shoot the building then the tree, and I have my coordinates in about thesame time that it took me to explain it.

It can be difficult to see the laser spot when it is bright out and some surfaces don't work as well as others. I find that it works very well up to 50', but have taken shots over 80'. It is very accurate, but it just does not make the read at the longer distances - you get an error message. It works best measuring to a building surface.

I bought mine after I spent three hours taping locations of trees for a landscape redo in a section of a condo development. I measured existing around only three of 11 buildings in that three hours. The next day I went back with the laser and measured the rest and redid some of the others in a total of two hours. It owed me nothing after that.

Cost: $94 at HD

It is a hand held thing about the size of a pack of cigarettes that shines a red laser beam at whatever. You push a button and it gives you the distance to that object on a little LCD screen.