Pro tip: mark your stud locations with painter's tape before you start cutting

I used to just eyeball it and mark with a pencil but kept losing the marks when I moved wood around. Started putting a strip of blue painter's tape on the floor right at each stud location before I even unload my tools. Saves me from measuring twice and still getting it wrong. Anyone else do something like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_nina11d ago

I saw a YouTube video where this old timer carpenter said he keeps a roll of tape in his nail pouch specifically for this. He called it his "dummy proof" method because you can literally see the studs through the tape even when your hands are full of tools and wood. It stuck with me because he was right about how easy it is to lose pencil marks when you're moving stuff around. The tape trick works way better for me too, especially on concrete floors where pencil just smears off.

margaret_jackson7310d ago

Painters tape works even better cause it sticks to rough concrete without peeling up. The blue stuff holds your marks through sawdust and foot traffic too. Been using that trick for years and it saves so much time re-measuring everything.

piper91210d ago

Idk it's funny how this kind of stuff applies to everything, not just building stuff. Like I've started doing the same thing with my keys at home - put a bright piece of tape on the counter where I always drop them. Used to lose them for ten minutes every morning, now I just look for the tape. It's like we gotta make things idiot-proof for ourselves, cause our brains just aren't wired to remember where we put things when we're in the middle of something.