
You’re the proud owner of a new home and you’ve gotten yourself settled in as best as you can.
At this point, you’re taking the time to pinpoint how you want to decorate your home, and what you need to buy. Before you start buying your favorite trendy furniture, you need to invest in the tools you need in your tool box. This is vital for anyone who plans to make some DIY adjustment to the home they’ve just purchased, homeowners who have bought a newly-built home, and anyone in-between. Having these essential tools on hand means that manage home maintenance and take care of things around the house without breaking the bank.
Hammers
A hammer is undoubtedly the first tool you’ll need to have for your home. Since you’ll need one for various tasks, it’s advisable to have at least two – one that’s lightweight, and a heavier one.
Curved claw hammers are good for outdoor work and help remove bent nails. Pin hammers drive in tacks and panel pins for detail work. If you can, get ones with custom grip coatings to limit vibrations during usage, and use hammers with smooth head surfaces to limit excessive damage and nail slippage.
Tape Measure
The tape measure is a necessary tool for any project where you need to effectively calculate any project from installing window blinds to gauging room for new appliances. Aim for a model that’s ¾ inches wide and 25’ in length, which is retractable and can lock to start out with.
Utility Knife
A utility knife lets you take care of a number of things besides opening and breaking down heavily taped boxes. A high quality utility knife helps you to remove paint or resin, trim the edges of carpeting, remove old chalk and make precision cuts for other tasks. They can even shave wood. Look for utility knives with their own blade storage and comfortable rubber-covered handles.
Drill and Drill Bits
Having a multi-purpose drill is a must for your tool box, and it’ll go a long way to help you take care of a wide range of tasks around the house. Cordless drills are really convenient, but cordless or not it’s essential that you get a sturdy, good-quality drill that holds up after repeated use. Make sure that you have a variety of drill bits like Phillips-head and slotted bits for different home repairs.
Screwdrivers
Some repair jobs require some more elbow grease than a drill provides. It’s a good idea to have a set of screwdrivers on hand. Look for mixed sets that give you a good range of sizes, or a screwdriver with an accompanying set of interchangeable heads.
Flashlight
You might be tempted to use your smartphone during your repair projects in a pinch, but nothing beats a great top-notch utility LED flashlight. Plan on having at least one large and one small flashlight on hand for different projects. You can even get rechargeable ones that will give you up to eight hours of light at a time for emergency power outages.
Wrenches
Having a wrench in your tool box home improvement projects easier. Aim to have a mix of adjustable and combination wrenches in different sizes help with manual assembly involving bolts and hex nuts. Self-ratcheting wrenches let home improvers keep their grip on a bolt to tighten it. Really handy people should also look to add ratchet and socket sets to their tool boxes.
Pliers
A trusty set of pliers will enable you to get good grips on tiny objects. Look for a set that has needle-nose pliers for craft jobs and channel-lock pliers for plumbing-related tasks. You can also pick up wire-strippers for home improvement jobs with electrical wiring.
Level
A level is one of those tools that you never think about until you’ll need to hang up pictures, or install new cabinets in your kitchen. You can snag smaller models that have a floating bubble that work really well or four-foot levels made of metal.
Every homeowner wants to be prepared for those moments where they’ll have to roll up their sleeves and make adjustments to keep their home in tip-top shape. With these tools, you can take care of your new home
Christopher Smith is a freelance writer when he’s not sampling the best cuisine in his hometown of New York City. Prior to that, he worked in film and television post-production, and counts the honor of working with Eartha Kitt among his milestones.
Jonathan
What? No duck tape?
Perez
Hammers, Drills, Wrenches, Measuring taps, Ladders, Screw Drivers are the most essential tools for homeowners. These tools will help them to small DIY works and essentially the cost for service from mechanics, electricians, plumbers will be reduced a lot.