One piece of advice that we would give any aspiring renovator is to invest in a set of tools that will meet the needs of day in day out repair and renovation work Examples of this would include:

  1. have the right range of drill bits. this would include having masonry drill bits, wood drill bits and an assortment of metal drill bits. you cannot drill into brickwork with a wood drill!
  2. carry a decent range of abrasive papers. We carry a great range of abrasive papers including aluminium oxide paper, sandpaper and always ensure that we carry grades and grits from very rough, which are useful for sanding down rusty metal work, to the finest of sandpapers for lightly sanding top coats of new paint and shellac work
  3. have a good range of power tools. We think that useful power tools include a good quality hammer drill, an electric sander, an electric plane, a jig saw, a heat gun and an electric screwdriver
  4. screwdrivers. Sounds obvious? Well in reality screw fasteners come in a huge array of devices these days. it therefore means that you need a wide range of quality screwdrivers with the heads to match this vast range of screws. Also, because you are often working with old eastern suburbs houses and apartments, many of the old doors and cupboards still need a good range of flat bladed screwdrivers to remove them.

Part 2 April 29 2016

One of the most unusual but useful tools we have is a range of tools with different sized hooks on hook toolsthem. They are absolutely invaluable when working on ‘mechanical’ projects such as installing hose clamps, fishing small washers out from tight areas, grabbing a string or wire that is hard to reach or threading a wire over a small picture hook at the back of a print where access is difficult. Typically a set of these ‘hook drivers’ as we like to call them can cost as little as $10 a set – they do not need to be expensive as they generally are placed under minimal load. The driver shown on the left of the image shows a straight pointed device. These are absolutely fantastic for creating a small ‘pilot’ hole in gyprock, or making a small hole to start a screw in a piece of wood. They literally have a hundred uses and a tool that should be in everyones tool kit!