Pencil; an ordinary HB pencil is just right for the job. If you break the point, you can sharpen it with a razor knife. You might prefer a carpenters' pencil, which is rectangular in section, and so is the lead. This means you can use it for thick and thin lines. With the lead trimmed to two points, you can do parallel lines, or follow a wall contour. If all else fails, in conjunction with a piece of paper, or even an offcut, it doubles as a primitive calculating device. A piece of chalk may also come in handy.
Tape measure; I suggest at least 3 metres, 5 if you can afford it. Second in usefulness only to the pencil. When you go off to buy materials for a project, you will need to know how much to buy. When you buy it, snap off the belt clip. Only poseurs wear tape measures on their belts. You can also check large items and rooms for squareness (what?) by checking that the diagonals are equal.
Square; I prefer a combination square, and mine has a spirit level built in. It can be used to mark right angles, 45 degrees, as a depth gauge, and as a ruler.
Plumb line; you can improvise with (e.g.) a nut and a piece of string, but if you buy one of the self-chalking ones, you will be glad when it comes to wallpapering and tiling. They can also be used for marking straight lines on floors and ceilings.
Spirit level; in a pinch, you can
use a torpedo level, or the level on your square. Ideally a 1 metre level
is very useful, but quite often you cannot use one in a confined space,
so you still really need the torpedo type as well.
Eye protection; a pair of goggles is a good idea if you are using striking or power tools (anything which throws up dust or particles).
Gloves; gardening gloves will protect you against splinters and raw edges of metal. It is a good idea to have a current tetanus immunisation. This is available on the National Health, and indeed if you go to hospital with any sort of cut, the injection will be given to you as a matter of routine.
Ear defenders; if you are going to use a Kango hammer, or tackle a lot of hammer drilling or a lot of heavy hammering.
Steel toed boots; a good idea if you are going to be handling (e.g.) paving slabs.
Dust mask; good for nuisance dust, (brick, cement) but for asbestos it is probably better to find a professional contractor to do the job. Some councils do free asbestos removal.
Boiler suit; if you do not have tatty workclothes one of these is a good investment. There are plastic semi-disposable ones available from the usual DIY outlets, or you could get one from an army surplus shop. Charity shops are a good source of cheap clothing for do-it-yourselfing clothes, and if you have a sense of humour, you can buy something really hideous, say in lime green velour. Of Course the neighbors may think you are mad, but then some of the DIY activities you embark upon will probably give them that impression.
Hat; useful if you are doing overhead
work, or something really dusty. In any case after DIY, you will probably
want a good bath or shower. You may want a safety helmet if
perhaps you are holding a ladder for someone working above you, or you
are working on a big project.
Torch; doesn't need to be a particularly expensive one, but if the lights go out, or you are trying to see what is going on in a confined space, it will be invaluable. If you are feeling rich, a Cyalume lightstick is an alternative.
Cricket (disposable) lighter; always handy, especially in conjunction with the next item.
Candle; besides providing light in emergency, it can be used to lubricate woodscrews and drawer runners. Also good on woodsaws if the cut starts to bind. Rub the candle onto the sides of the blade.
WD 40; all sorts of uses, including stopping your tools going rusty.
Insulating tape; again all sorts of uses, limited only by your imagination.
Cable ties; another DIY panacea. When pulled tight with pliers they come close to the holding power of Jubilee clips. You may find these discarded in all sorts of places. If you get the blade of a razor knife under the pawl of the ratchet end, you can back them off and reuse them.
Extension lead; again, a very useful bit of kit. If you are working up a ladder, you may want to fix the end of it to the ladder at a suitable height, using either the tape or the cable ties, so that the end of the extension lead does not keep bashing you in the shins, and the power tool is easier (and safer) to use. If you intend to use power tools externally an RCD protector is a good idea. At the slightest sign of any risk to the user of the power tool, these interrupt the electrical supply to the tool.
Picture hooks; sooner or later, you will want to hang something decorative on the wall.
PVA wood glue; for making sure that the flatpack furniture you put together stays that way. All sorts of other uses, of course. Best used in conjunction with the next two items.
Nails; a bag of assorted nails and pins can be useful, particularly to hold a workpiece together while the wood glue sets.
Dowels; short lengths of (usually
) beechwood, the best ones are grooved, as this allows the glue to form
a really good bond. The best way to buy your first dowels is as a kit with
the drill and markers. You set the depth collar to just more than half
the length of the dowels, (or as needed) drill holes in one of the pieces
to join, put the markers in the holes, offer up the pieces in exactly the
position you want and knock them together firmly. The markers will have
left indentations in the other piece of wood, which you drill into to match
up. put glue in both sets of holes, drive dowels into one side and assemble.
If it is not going to show, you can simply drill one deep hole, an dowel
the assembled joint from outside. If you are trying to screw into the endgrain
of a softwood, you can install a dowel at right angles to the screw in
the end of the appropriate piece of wood.
Razor knife; also called a Stanley knife in a generic way. Plasplugs do a quite reasonable disposable one with snap-off blades. When it wears out or if you lose it, a replacement is not expensive. Useful for trimming, cutting and much more. Do not apply too much force with one of these knives as if it slips you could cut yourself very badly. For cutting rubber, use dilute fairy liquid as a lubricant to make the job easy.
Spatula; for scraping off old decor, and applying filler, among other things.
Pliers; Engineers' pliers. Grip, twist and cut, but beware if the pliers' grip fails suddenly, you can nip yourself very painfully.
Screwdrivers; One medium pozidriv,
one medium slot type, and an engineers screwdriver are the bare minimum.
larger posidriv and slot types are useful, or you may wish to get one of
those drivers with the 6mm hexagonal bits stored on the handle. An engineers
screwdriver has an 8" blade, and a narrow tip. It is excellent for work
on electrical jobs. You may wish to get one with an insulated shaft, but
if you are that cack-handed, perhaps
you ought to stay away from the electrics. The
very cheapest screwdrivers are made of inferior steel and will not give
good service. You may want to buy a power driver, but if you do a big job,
it may go flat before you finish. You
may also want a mains testing screwdriver, but check that it does light
up when on a live wire. Otherwise you may think that a circuit which is
live is safe to work on, with potentially lethal results.
Hammer; avoid the cheapest, as
the head may splinter. A claw hammer is probably the best for general DIY.
Adjustable spanner; the purists will insist that only the right spanner should be used on any nut, but for general DIY, the main tasks for these will be plumbing tasks, notably changing tap washers. For this sort of task, bearing in mind how rarely it gets done, an adjustable will be adequate. Ideally you would want a 6" and a 12" adjustable to cover the domestic plumbing. If you intend to do car maintenance, then yes, buy a full set of spanners.
Wood saw; probably the best bet is to buy the cheap hardpoint type, and be prepared to ditch it when it goes blunt. My local ironminger charges more than the price of one of these cheapos to resharpen a saw.
Hacksaw; one of the "junior" size will probably cope with most of the jobs you will be tackling.
File; a flat medium-cut file will be useful for (particularly) cleaning up the edges of the metal you have cut with the hacksaw. Don't forget to do both edges as the jagged finish a hacksaw leaves behind can cause a nasty laceration.
Surform; a useful all-purpose wood tool. The blades wear out rapidly, so when the tool starts feeling like hard work, it is time for a new blade.
Chisel; a wood chisel is likely to be bought for a specific project, so initially at least, you could leave this out.
Pump pliers; Enourmous pliers, which again will probably be bought for a specific job. Alternatively a pair of stillsons for heavy work.
Shave hook; specially for stripping
paint from complex mouldings. Beware, however that if they are left lying
around, they almost always have a point facing upwards waiting to ambush
the unwary.
Rawlplugs; No. 8 size, if these are genuine Rawlplug articles they are colour-coded red. They come in a "block" of 100.
Supascrews; recognised by the following details;
A hammer drill; the subject of another FAQ I have written.
Drill bit; a masonry drill bit with a tungsten carbide bit. These do wear out, so when your progress into the walls slows down, it is time to get a new one. It is possible to resharpen them, but no one I know bothers.
Masonry nails; an alternative to
rawlplugs, but they appear to be falling out of favour these days.
Steamer; for stripping wallpaper. Not everything the television adverts would have you believe. Better to pierce the wallpaper with a rowel, paint it with dilute wallpaper paste, and keep damping it down for a couple of hours, when it will come off easily. Plasplugs make a scraper which looks not unlike a jackplane, and I found this to be brilliant.
Hoover; if you have just acquired a place, and will be doing some serious DIY, the dust will be bad for your normal domestic vacuum cleaner. Sacrifice your old one, (and buy a shiny new one) or buy one from a second hand shop. If you are feeling rich, buy a shop vac with water capability. You'll wonder how you coped without one before.
Jigsaw; nice, but probably not for the beginner.
Router; if you really like working with wood, and pride forbids you buying flatpacks.
Angle grinder; a very capable, but
potentially very dangerous tool. Make sure you use the right sort of disc.
Stone for stone, metal for metal. My neighbour tried cutting metal with
a stone disc, and most of the neighbourhood got a piece of the disc in
their garden. The large 9" size have a quite intimidating torque-kick when
they start up, but as long as you are careful, they are superb. ALWAYS
wear eye protection when you use one. In the first instance, hire one.
The 4.5" size are increasingly affordable.
Copyright notice: With the growth of the net, copyright law has become very complicated. You may reproduce this FAQ in any form from stone tablets to putting it on your homepage. You may distribute it to absolutely anyone. You may even add your own bits to it. However, if you remove my name from it, or try to pass it off as your own work, I will be very, very angry with you.
John Schmitt john49@mdx.ac.uk
Last updated 19/12/00