ᐅ How to check if exterior walls are out of plumb, and by how much?

We are currently in the middle of construction, fairly advanced. Due to negative experiences within our circle of friends, we want to check if the exterior walls are correct. At least by eye, it looks like the south wall is no longer perfectly vertical/straight after the plaster was applied. We have reported this to the construction company, and someone will take a look next week.

However, we would also like to check it ourselves. A 2-meter (6.5-foot) spirit level from the hardware store helps us with the interior walls but not with the tall exterior walls. A Bosch laser level seemed like a good idea and cost about 30 euros, but the laser beam is not strong enough to be clearly visible outside.

How can we measure this ourselves before possibly having it checked by a surveyor or building inspector, if necessary?

Have you ever tried using the laser level in the dark? Otherwise, you could make a simple plumb line by hanging a long string with a weight from one of the upper windows. At the top, you could leave about 10cm (4 inches) distance from the wall, and then measure at the bottom accordingly.

The laser beam is more visible in the dark, but then the house wall and corners become less clear. You’d basically have to try it out and catch the right time in the late afternoon. Using a plumb line is also a good idea :-)

To check if something is plumb, you measure it with a plumb line, just as Maria describes. When you choose your wall colors later, you wouldn’t use a spectrometer for that either.

So, we took some measurements on Friday. We dropped a plumb line from the upper floor window on the exterior wall, the distance between the plumb line and the wall was 4cm (1.6 inches) at the top near the window, and 3.6cm (1.4 inches) near the bottom close to the floor, resulting in a difference of 4mm (0.16 inches). For verification, we did the same measurement on the inside, with a difference of 3mm (0.12 inches). This should mean the exterior wall is within the tolerance limits (according to DIN 18201 and DIN 18202), right? We also tested with a laser beam at the adjacent corners, which seemed to run parallel to the corner of the wall in question.

Blankenhuter schrieb:
So, we took some measurements on Friday. We dropped a plumb line from the window on the upper floor along the exterior wall; the distance between the plumb line and the house wall was 4cm (1.6 inches) at the top by the window, and 3.6cm (1.4 inches) near the floor, so a difference of 4mm (0.16 inches). For verification, we measured the same on the inside, with a difference of 3mm (0.12 inches). This should be within the tolerances defined by DIN 18201 and DIN 18202, right? We also tested with a laser beam on the adjacent corners, and it appeared to run parallel to the corner of the wall in question.

Give your builder a gift. He is very precise. If the rest also has such tolerances, everything is great.