I am in the market for a laser measurer I have a whole house of baseboard to do and I want to measure all of my cuts with the laser measure, because I’m using the copemaster to cut all my copes. I am also a one-man band, so I can’t accurately hold the tape measure on one wall to another wall without some assistance. I am looking for one that is accurate to within 1/32 of an inch or better.

Anyone have any recommendations? Links, model numbers? Thank you

Anything by Leica is great the Bosch GLM Series at Lowes work great too.

What should I expect to pay for a high-quality laser measure?

1/32 over what distance? Personally, when working over drywall I would not trust a laser. If the laser is thicker than the trim, and the corner drywall work is not great, an 1/8" of difference will happen very easily.

I agree with Rich. I was GC 25+ years in ground up residential/light commercial before the shop and ran miles of multipart case, base, crown, and even the best of lasers are just not going to get you close a lot of the time. You can come up with a routine where you overcut to be safe and test fit but thats a lot of wasted time back and forth. I have the bosch blaze pro that I use now for measuring jobs and their stated accuracy is 1/16" and though Ive never checked it I know it would likely only hit that accuracy a slim percentage of the time. Not due to the laser but due to cosine error, steadiness while measuring, etc..

If your truly working alone hanging crown and the like you will surely have incorporated any one of the myriad of hanging tricks for supporting your crown over long runs solo while your getting it aligned and nailed so setting those up first supports your tape.

In the end I would imagine you will find that hiring a work-a-day for the days you need to hang long runs that you cant quickly measure alone will be far far faster than a high dollar laser that will still only get you there 1 in 10 times if your lucky.

P.S.
Just saw you said base. Thats gravy, the floor holds your tape. Way faster and far more accurate than any laser.

Ive run miles of base with a laser, I run Leica they go about 300 bucks to start, had mine prolly 5-6 years, you can pay up to $1500 if you like, but who needs wifi and all that other nonsense. I measure several rooms and cut them in packs ( My leica can log 10 measurements), if your running MDF even better, you can bend them in, if a skotch long. After awhile you get a feel for how it shoots. I still mark O/S corners in place, miters fit or they dont.

I bought a Leica. Paid under $200 on Amazon.

When the day is done, I didn’t per se buy it for complete accuracy, as I am coping all of my moldings in for the base. If I end up being short a 32nd or a 1/16th on the straight cut, it will all be hidden anyways with caulk on the top side. I plan to put my coped side into the straight and then mark the outside corner with a pencil and do it that way.

Thanks for everyone’s advice.

I’ve used a laser for every job I’ve done for 10 years, over 120 houses. I never use a tape measure for anything I can use my laser for. The only job I ever messed up was one that I forgot to switch the reference. Lesson learned, I’ll never go back to a tape to measure a job.

"It will all be hidden with caulk"

Well for paint grade work where caulk is king (no offense to insinuate that anyone is one of these 300 gallon pump-trailer on the back of the "finish carpentry" truck with 350' of hose into the house type caulk-kings) but thats a different game.

I was more referring to natural finish either installed raw or fully pre-finished where you dont have the luxury of the caulk parachute. I can run base/crown with a pruning saw and it can be caulked in. Was more speaking to one and done (especially prefinished) but then I guess you can always buy putty by the gallon if it passes.

(chill out, :-) ... all in jest)

WTF, all of you are overthinking this! BASEBOARD! Put your kneepads on and cut it an 1/8'' long bend it in, crack the drywall a bit and just DO IT!

Oh lord. We're going down the rabbit hole of finish trim installation, cracked corners, caulking, paint vs. natural, pre-fin vs. stain/clear in-place.

Death spiral.

Markb…

If you don’t have anything nice to say, practice what your parents should have taught you.

Mike,
What I said "was" nice. And accurate. As a ground up residential GC for 25+ years I was tasked with a single responsibility, respect the clients budget. That means caulk to make up for speed/fit=bad. Means springing in trim cracking drywall corners that the painters then pile full of,... um.. caulk... Bad. All trim gets some caulk to the wall, thats a given. A pump trailer (good analogy for cases and cases of caulk).. not so much at any level right down to slum lord specials of which we did plenty.

What my parents taught me was to take pride in my work at any level and to respect the dollars your customer has entrusted you with. I can run clean/tight trim with no cracked corners, no miters to be caulked/filled due to fit, just as fast in a slum lord special as I can in a million dollar natural/clear coat installed raw (no room for filler) home all day long. They are one in the same.

I have installed miles and miles of base and crown with Bosch lasers, I usually get the ones in the $100 range and they have worked flawlessly for me. I always get 2-3 measurements in quick succession to reduce my margin for error. I would really hate to go back to a tape measure for certain applications and I’ll never understand the guys who resist the new technology 🤣