How to Buy Basic Building Tools for a Home Toolkit

You're ready to try your hand at some home construction work--maybe a shed added on to the house or a new bathroom. Here's what you'll need for a basic starter tool kit that covers those types of jobs.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Buy a level. You only need a 16-inch one, but you can get the 24-inch model if you want. This tool will help you to keep things level when hanging pictures, cabinets, or building just about anything. It's a must have for any home toolkit.

2. Get a carpenter's square to use as a straight edge or to draw 90-degree lines. This will help you to keep corners squared such as when hanging doors.

3. You'll use a hacksaw to cut metals and plastic--copper, aluminum, steel and more as well as PVC pipe and other plastics. It's a nice versatile because you can change out the blades and use it for all types of projects.

4. Invest in a good claw hammer in the 16 oz. size. It's pound your nails and pull out the unwanted ones. You can buy a 24 oz. framing hammer with a waffle pattern on it for those mega nails. Know that the pattern leaves its mark on everything it hits so don't use it on anything you need to look good. Keep it for framing and nailing anything that won't show up in the finished project.

5. Every toolkit needs a few clamps. A C-clamp is the most versatile of the clamps. It serves as a makeshift vise, and holds wood together so you can glue but you'll find a thousand uses for this. You may want a few sizes of these for different jobs.

6. These are the bare bones of a good home construction toolkit. You really can go a long ways on just these tools. You may find that you don't need much else for a while.

[jenkinr]

on 1/16/2009 Good tips, but what about the screwdriver? I can't get along without a screwdriver.