Top 10 DIY Renovation Tools

hi I'm Tim welcome to the restoration couple today is a long awaited video that we get numerous requests for but now it's time to go through our top 10 DIY tools for renovations so this is pretty hard one to cool and it is something that we get asked quite a lot in comments and in the emails what sort of tools do you recommend if you're starting a home renovation and I've come at this from the point of view that you probably already have a set of hand tools just cuttings like screwdrivers hammers saws so these are the sort of things you either might not think about or that I would definitely suggest you have to have and this will be open for debate and of course this is just from one dealer wire to another DIY but if you are a professional if you've got any other opinions put them below and I'm sure we can help people out so we're going to kick things off with perhaps not very exciting one but very important which is just all your safety sir for your PPE and whether that's eye protection ear protection and all that jazz you've got to look after yourself and especially if you're working in old homes there's no point taking risks whether it's kind of lead paint and asbestos risks and things like that so there's a bit of a false economy in buying the throwaway dust masks they're never as good and you probably will get through dozens of them during the work you're doing so just get one with replaceable filters it'll seal much much better to your face and kind of also went steam up your goggles so much so that's what we've got for for our safety gear also just remember I couldn't find my boots so I've got Joe's but it's decent sturdy foot Footwear especially if you're doing an instructure work something with safety toe caps and just sensible work gear knee pads that slot into trousers are quite handy as well just basically look after yourself right onto some more exciting stuff so next one's kind of the bread and butter of DIY which is things like the combi drill so a drill driver and nowadays they are super powerful in comparison to what it used to be around so cordless will pretty much get most of the work done and if you've got one with a hammer action on it especially if you've got masonry and stone and brick work around that's going to help you out just something decent a couple of batteries you know three four ampere something's gonna last and you're not chasing around for power all the time that will get you through most of the jobs you can look at things like impact drivers but I've got through mostly this renovation without one and only until the last few weeks and I started using one I see the plus points to that but you can definitely survive without one so that is our number two it next up is another power tool the circular saw it's a pretty staple tool like guess you can probably manage with a handsaw but this will speed things up a huge amount and you can do most things with this that you know you people might think you need a table saw but for general DIY and general house renovation is something like this will really get you 99% of the way whether it's using like a little drug to cut down sheet materials or just kind of cutting down floorboards and things like that it's gonna be a time saver but also just helps you out with any straight cuts and this one's cordless again it uses the same batteries don't worry too much about what brand you go with for the power tools they're really a DIY level providing its reliable it's got a decent warranty and you know it and it looks well-built and it's got good reviews then go for it and just try and keep on the same battery system it's gonna really help you out because yeah otherwise you just got simply charging stations it becomes a bit of a pain so that's the cordless so I do have them a corded Makita but there's actually very little tot amount of times that I need that now I use it if it's you know particularly hardwood or a really thick door or cutting destory some oak sleepers in the garden but a cordless one it's perfect alright moving on okay next up is not a particularly common tool this is one that we get asked about lots we gave it away in our 10,000 subscriber competition and it is just been the best tool for numerous things really but whether it's lifting all the floorboards in the house we use this just gives you so much more of a mechanical advantage pretty strong inexpensive and if you're working on your own or you just need a bit of extra muscle power this you know whether it's prying brickwork or concrete walls down lifting floorboards just kind of if you're hanging your door just popping it under there and it gives it a little bit of leverage just loads of things that you can use this for so that is another great one and one of our favorites a back to power tools again now this one depends it depends on the house you're renovating she's just doing a flat you might not need it but if you've got any amount of masonry you're kind of doing any extensions you're doing much demolition work or you're fixing down as concrete floors and SDS drill or an SDS plus drill is a really good investment hiring one of these is probably not worth it in that I think this sort of store-bought sort of cheapish brand one was maybe 60 pounds and I've mean I've absolutely thrashed it and I would have spent five times over that if I'd been hiring it all the time it's just a really inexpensive tool but one where you get so much power for you bang for your buck really so this is super helpful if you're doing any amount of drilling and you'll notice the difference between the hammer drill function on a normal drill driver and this within seconds because it really does take seconds if you're just drilling in six mil or eight mill holes into concrete to fix the stud you know stud to the wall or something like that we're drilling down into concrete this is just going to speed up time now I can't quite remember what size this woman it is I think it's a three kilo or two point five kilo or something but it's plenty of power and you can use all sorts of bits in it which are great for demolition whether it's just flipping loads of tiles off a bathroom wall you can use a wide bolster type bit on there to chisel everything off or you can use like a pointed breaker if you're just taking down a small garden wall it just really gets in there and just has that hammer action without turning so another multi-purpose tool and another one that we couldn't be without especially in stone or brick property okay next up tape measures you can't really manage without one and you're better off investing and when you do buy them buy them in pairs because so one thing that we tend to lose lots of this probably half a dozen or more around the house and I could only find one and a smaller one to show you today but the better built ones the Stanley or the fat maps or or whatever are gonna last you longer but also the length is is important because there's no point color measure half a room try and put something on the floor and then suck it's just inaccurate and you'll regret it so eight meters is fine for most things around the house but definitely buy them in pairs or more because you just don't want the amount of time you spend looking for yourself can't be recovered so get a couple of those okay next up is the multi-tool you can't get cordless ones of these I've got the corded one and it's absolutely fine for what I need this comes into its own less for the sanding side although that's what I've been using it for this week just kind of really detailed sanding but for the cutter and that's usually what you'd have on one of these and it basically is the ideal tool for cutting out little sections of plaster board if you're fitting a socket or if you're trying to just remove a section of floorboard and if you imagine going through with a circular saw you've got a be risk you know you could be careful how deep you set your blade but also because of the shape of the blade you're always gonna over run into the next plank the next kind of board so if you're gonna have exposed floorboards it looks fitting you know like you've made a bit of a mess if you go for one of these then you can just run that really thin curved blade it's less than a millimeter I think and you can just kind of lift out that board work where you need to and just make nice tiny cuts so that's a really handy one all right let's try and get back on pace right levels is the next one you don't want to build or renovate a wonky house and if you've got a short level like this it might be great for hanging pictures but actually if you're doing any amount of you know putting up said wall or just checking your countertop work tops or anything like you want something that's a little bit longer this came in a set they're very inexpensive ones but they seem pretty accurate and they're definitely nice and straight even just uses straight edge to handy so this one came I think this is six foot there was a four foot a three foot and also a little kind of Torpedo level I think they're cool with magnets on that's also a really handy one I use that a lot but just get a decent couple of levels or even a set like this and that will send you and good said and make sure that everything is nice and straight okay next up this one could have kind of come in with the safety gear at the top get yourself one of these I think they're about eight pounds or something like that it's a voltage detector and if you're doing any work with the electrics you obviously want to check that you're working safely this one doesn't even have a battery in it moment but it's a it's a light and also a audible sort of beeping you don't have to put anywhere near wires or anything you can just hover it over a cable you can pop it by the socket and it will immediately immediately tell you if it's live don't use it as your only method of checking and you know turn everything off before you mess around but it's a really helpful way if you're just trying to work out what circuits are doing what in your house when you start your renovation at one of these is a must okay number ten is the shop-vac it's stuck over in the corner it's covered in dust I won't bring it up here but it's been invaluable as far as keeping the place tidy ish whether it's kind of old plaster or plasterboard us bits of rubble on the floor even and all sorts of manga from your woodworking tools it's just gonna eat it all up there it's just an empty bucket one that I've got you can get bags to them if it's really fine dust and it's just definitely it's gonna save your house vacuum as well which keeps everyone happy so yeah decent and they start I think about fifty pounds for a wet/dry vacuum and it will be worth its weight in gold trust me okay now I've got a few bonus ones I'm just gonna rattle through because they're kind of things I've thought of when I was coming up with the list okay number one for the bonus is just a knife whether it's a standing craft knife or a multi-tool like this something that package arrives you can't get into it use your car keys you break pocket it's just just always have a knife on you also if you're just doing any sort of chiseling or cutting accurate cutting just cut through first with your knife and get much more accurate cuts next up stapler we use a stapler quite a lot because we were living in the house as we did the renovation so to be able to just staple up some plastic over a doorway with a staple gun was perfect for the job next up it kind of came in with our lifting bar when it comes to the demolition tools there are crowbars and wrecking bars and lifting bars but a little one like this is perfect there just prying out any little bits of trim or it might be like just kind of popping out a few nails but something like this or the next size up quite often these come in a set these roughneck ones are great so I'll pop a link to those below as well duct tape everyone needs duct tape it might just be patching some duct sheet or stitching some plastic together to save your floor but have some duct tape on hand dust sheets as well good to have pencils you are going to get through a lot of pencils you'll lose a lot of pencils buy yourself a pack of 20 or 50 or something when he starts out they'll all be gone by the time you finish but have plenty of pencils around next up clamps you can never have enough clamps when it comes to woodwork but if you're doing renovations then also clamps commands have it in handy if you are working on your own a lot or just working the to you and you're struggling for that extra set of hands then a clamp can really help you know it might just be holding up one end over Tim but once you check the other end or if you're leveling something up you can clamp it put your level on it and check it so just have some clamps around and last but not least there has to be your phone when you've finished doing some work or before you start it just pan around the room filming that's alright for me because I'm filming everything but just pan around the room filming it could be a five-second clip but it means that when you come to hang those pictures two years down the line you know what's behind Placer or if you're just kind of trying to remember where you ran the pipes so that when their radiator stopped working on you've got a leak you know roughly where to start chopping into the floorboards but just film it because even if you don't need that you'll be able to look back and reminisce and feel warm and fuzzy when you know what you managed to achieve but film stuff you can look back you can freeze it have a look that's where that tool is it's stuck in that stubble or something like that and there's also a lot of apps around you can check for point of roof angles or I've got a digital spirit level app which is also quite handy so there you go that's our top ten that we managed to come up with and I know there are loads to add to that but be interesting if anyone's got their own little list of top ten you can list them below and just see what other things people come up with you will need more than this you can't get away with just this but I thought it was a good start to were to kick you off if he's starting a renovation as I was doing this I was thinking maybe we go into a little bit more detail into the different aspects of tools like a back-to-basics and that will be preaching to the choir for some of you but also it might be a little bit helpful for those of you who want to think about you know what tools do I need and what really don't I need because there's no point in just having endless tools if you're not gonna use them so their next few videos I'm going to put together are going to be the back-to-basics DIY tools and we'll just look at all the different categories and then we better get making something so the list in the description for majority of the tools i've mentioned if you want to go through and find them for yourself but apart from that remember if you can do it yourself and we'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: The Restoration Couple

Views: 41,838

Rating: 4.8923769 out of 5

Keywords: home, renovation, restoration, diy, DIY, Do it yourself, how to, home improvement, restoration couple, old, reclaimed, projects, woodworking, garden, carpentry, reno, victorian, vlog, DIY TOOLS, best tools, review, advise, top 10, woodwork

Id: -HMWb-YUtqc

Length: 15min 29sec (929 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 22 2017