Long Measuring Tape (50mx12.5mm)

Name: Long Measuring Tape (50mx12.5mm)
Brand: Harden
SKU: 580105

Item No. 580105

Price on request

Fifty metres of steel tape is a surveying and setting-out instrument rather than a general measuring tool, and it is bought for work where the distance genuinely is that long and the accuracy genuinely matters: plot boundaries, building lines, road and drain runs, large foundations, land measurement and site layout.

At this distance the case for steel over fibreglass becomes decisive. Every tape stretches a little under the tension you pull it with, and fibreglass stretches noticeably more than steel. Over five metres that is invisible; over fifty it is a real and cumulative error, and it is worst precisely where it matters most — a boundary being marked, a building line being set, a diagonal being checked for square. Steel barely moves, so what you read is what is there.

The costs of steel are proportionately larger at this length too, and they are worth being blunt about. Fifty metres of steel tape conducts electricity along its whole length, and extending one under overhead power lines is a well-documented cause of fatalities on construction and survey work. If there are live overheads anywhere near the line you are measuring, use a fibreglass tape — there is a 50m fibreglass tape in this range, and on that job it is not the cheaper option, it is the correct one. Steel also rusts if it is wound in wet, and fifty metres of blade dragged over a kerb or trodden on takes a permanent kink that reads short from then on.

The blade is nickel plated for corrosion resistance and crisp graduations. The 3:1 gear ratio is close to essential at this length — the reel turns three times per handle turn, so winding fifty metres back in is a third of the work it would otherwise be. Metric and inch, high impact ABS case.

The buyers are surveyors and setting-out engineers, civil and road contractors, land measurement and boundary work, large building contractors, drainage and utilities crews, and hardware dealers supplying construction and survey.

Practical discipline. Two people, both keeping the tape off the ground and taut but not overstrained. Wipe it dry as it winds in. Keep it away from traffic. Check it against a known length occasionally, because a kinked or repaired tape reads short and quietly puts every subsequent measurement out. And look up before you pull it out. Message us on WhatsApp for a price.