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Whether you’re building a book shelf, measuring a wall for a new couch, or trying to hang your photos straight, most of the time you’ll need a tape measure. Most homeowners have at least one of these yellow-godsends somewhere in their toolbox or kitchen drawers.
Even the newest builder can grasp the concept of a tape measure. Your tape measure will tell you inches and feet (and sometimes meters/centimeters). But, there’s one little mark on the tape measure, most people ignore (or chalk up to a manufacturer design).
But, these black diamonds (along with the red boxes and black boxes around numbers) actually make work easier for construction workers (and do-it-your-selfers).
The red boxes on a tape measure indicate the most common distance between studs in homes and traditional buildings (16-inches apart). The black-boxed numbers are similar. Spaced 24-inches apart, these markings are for stud-placements in smaller buildings (like sheds) where the weight load is lighter. These number boxes make quick work of marking lines for stud placements.
What do the black diamonds mean?
