The Basic Hand Tools

For a new homeowner, the tasks of maintenance and repair can be daunting. Especially if you have little or no experience in those areas. However, given a little thought and the right tools, there's very little you need to be afraid to tackle on your own.

For myself, I've found the five tools listed below are enough to take care of a surprising variety of maintenance and repair issues.

•Utility/Razor Knife;
•Small Wire Cutters;
•Small Channel Locks;
•Variable Bit Screwdriver;
•Small Adjustable Wrench.

With just these items, you'll be able to take care of many of the chores a homeowner faces. I've done minor plumbing, electrical and mechanical jobs with just these small, inexpensive tools.

Other items that simply are "must-haves" would be:

•16 oz. Smooth Faced Hammer;
•Tape Measure;
•3" Paint Brush;
•1" to 1-1/2" Putty Knife;
•Torpedo Level, and;
•Stud Finder or Strong Magnet.

Notes on These Tools:

The channell locks serve the same function as regular pliars. They also have the ability open much wider and grip thicker objects securely, which adds greatly to their versatility.

The wire cutters cut much more than just wire.

Many variable bit screwdrivers will come with not only flat and Philips head bits, but also hex head, and star bits as well. Each in three to five different sizes. I recommend having the hex and star bits because more manufacturers are useing those screw types these days. This is a good thing because hex and star bits are much less prone to stripping screw heads than either flat or phillips heads.

Avoid getting a hammer with cross-hatching on the head. They are made for rough carpentry and will leave ugly cross-hatch marks on whatever you're hammering on or into.

A steel tape is preferred simply because one person can take measurements easily. The hook on the end of the tape and the rigidity the concave tape provides allows one person to do what would take two people if a cloth tape was used.

The putty knife is used to apply spackle to dings or dents in walls. Most of what a homeowner will repair will be fairly small, so a 1 to 1-1/2" wide knife blade will work fine. However, for smooth (non-textured) walls, a wider knife gives a smoother, flatter finished surface.

The torpedo level will mostly be used for hanging pictures or other objects on walls. If you need to level or plumb over a greater distance, you can span that distance with something straigtht (like a yard stick for instance) and place the torpedo level on it. However, the final result will only be as level as the spanning device is straight.

A stud finder is useful when you need to hang a heavy object on a wall. Drywall won't support much weight for very long, so you need to find a stud to screw into. They're easy to use, just follow the directions they come with. If you don't want to buy a stud finder, a strong magnet will work too. Just move the magnet over the wall until it finds a screw head. The screw will be in a stud. Most houses are built with studs placed 2 feet apart, so once you've found the first stud, the others should be easy to locate.

I highly recommend getting a utility knife with a retractable blade. It's too easy to slip one of these into a pocket ("just for a second"), forget it's there and find youself with a razor sharp blade pushing into your leg.