Most people would be delighted to see that their homes appear clean and appealing. They would like to make the best use of their living space and are motivated to do all the home improvement jobs by themselves in view of considerable cost savings.

However, high costs of Do It Yourself (DIY) tools these days deter them to undertake these jobs by themselves. Nevertheless, in order to make costs of home improvement jobs affordable, numerous varieties of inexpensive tools are available in the market.

Here are some of the most useful tools that make home improvement jobs ‘cost effective’.

The Hammer

Hammer is available in different shapes and sizes and is an important hand tool useful for variety of jobs. It is a multipurpose and an inexpensive tool and most suitable for driving nails into the wall for hanging pictures, for keeping furniture together and many other jobs like fixing carpets on the floor.

It is always better to purchase a couple of hammers in two different sizes, such as mid-size and large-size, instead of a single piece. While mid-size hammer is useful where the item to be nailed is of lower or medium height, the large size is meant for bigger objects and for areas on large items that are difficult to reach.

Laser Levelers

Laser levelers are portable tools useful for adjustment of measurements and alignments and are inexpensive. For example, a laser leveler can be used to adjust measurements for objects like pictures hanging on walls and adjust heights in alignment with furniture and long distance accuracy.

Laser levelers are also useful to position shelves in line with the rest of the room. The laser targeted level can help in measuring the room properly in order to ensure that art work and wall picture frames are fixed in such a way that they are perfectly in line with furniture and other objects in the room. Level levelers can make a room appear elegant and appealing.

Hand Pliers

Pliers are very useful for securely holding several different articles together and can be adjusted depending upon the work requirements. There is wide-range of pliers in the market useful for holding metal and electric wires. One can get a set of pliers for less than $10.

Measuring Tape

Measuring tape is also a very low-priced item and is useful to take correct measurement of an area or for measuring distance between 2 objects.

For example, if a bookcase is to be placed in the corner of a room for which the place has already been allocated, one can use measuring tape to measure the area correctly matching the dimensions of the bookcase.

While laser levelers are complex set of hand tools, a measuring tape is a very handy tool that facilitates the calculation of the size of the object and the size of the area in relation to the other items in the room.

Screwdrivers

Screwdrivers are not costly and if a screwdriver kit set is bought, you can attach different heads instead of purchasing various types and sizes of screwdrivers.

A screwdriver is such an important tool that no job can be completed without it. Screwdrivers are useful for tightening and loosening of any type of screws.

Power Drills

The jobs of tightening and loosening screws can be made much simpler with an electric powered drill. With a cordless power drill, you can accomplish the job of drilling multiple size holes anywhere with the power source from Li-ion battery pack.

Hand Saw

There are different types and sizes of hand saws in the market. However, the hand saw is a very useful tool for many home improvement jobs that require the use of wood. A small saw is useful for cutting shelving, roof support members, edges of wooden doors window panels etc. They are also not very costly.

Goggles & Safety Accessories

Goggles offer protection to your eyes from rubble and dust and should be put on as a safety measure when working with power tools. There are other small accessories like particle mask, protective gloves and foam ear plugs that can protect your hand, ear and nose.

A particle mask offers protection against inhalation of dust and fumes coming out from power tools at the time of cutting wood. Protective gloves are used while working with various cutting tools and prevent fingers from getting severed or slashed. Working with power tools is very noisy and the excessive noise may affect your ears. For this, foam ear plugs are very useful.

All these safety accessories are as important as other tools and are inexpensive as well. Although many conventional hand tools and power tools used for home improvement works are not costly, it is still worthwhile to shop around to compare the prices of the tools to getting the best deal.

If you are planning a home improvement project, for example, adding a solar power generation system, you cannot undertake the project without the required tools otherwise the whole exercise will be futile and will end up with unsatisfactory results. Tools are the most important part of any job apart from the project design plan but they are often left out during the preliminary stages.

People are always confused about the tools to be used when they want to do any Do It Yourself (DIY) work. Whenever any such program is undertaken, the first and foremost is “safety”.

When doing home improvement, always wear a proper eyewear such as goggles to safeguard your eyes. Also do not forget to use safety hat, ear protector and breathing masks to have a total protection for your face and head.

When you remodel or repair walls, you need to have simple basic tools available, but if you are working on walls which are located at the basement, you will need to use brushes with stiff bristles, wire brushes, and paint brushes.

Other materials required are masonry sealers, large containers, sponges and household cleaners. In case the repairs are undertaken outside your home such as grades around the foundation, you will require tools like grading rake, wheel barrow, rake, hand temp, and a fine leveler.

For homemade solar power system where the Photovoltaic (PV) panels will be located on the roof, you will require items such as a cordless hand drill, hammer, screwdrivers, scrapers, paint brushes, glue gun, awl, pliers, knives, rollers, tile pliers, stud finder, syringes and wallboard knives. To repair the damage to the plaster, you will require paint brush and wallboard knives.

Walls made of panels can be repaired by using tools like chisels, hammers, wallboard knives, caulk gun, framing square, putty knife, carpentry knife, nails, rubber mallet and pry bar. The replacement of ceramic tiles is quite difficult, for this you will require tile cutters, a pair of nippers, utility knife, compass, hammer, awl, wood tile and a grout afloat.

To improve the aesthetic in your house, wallpapered walls can be repaired by using an utility knife, sponge, edge roller, a pair and a syringe.

For repairing ceiling, sometimes you may need only a cordless drill, hammer and wallboard knife. For patching work on ceiling, additional tools like chisel, utility knife and framing square are required.

Repainting job is very easy, especially when you are painting your door or window frames, you may need tools such as a paint roller, paint, brush, pad sander and a putty knife. Hopefully, by now you have gotten a fair idea about the various types of tools required in any home improvement programs.

Many of the tools are very common which can be used for multiple purposes, this means you can stock up your DIY tool kit in your garage in a relatively short time.

If you cannot afford to buy all the tools, you have a choice of renting them and return it quickly after the DIY job has been completed. However, for generic working tools such as a cordless drill, hammer, screwdriver etc, I would suggest you get your own set.

Many home owners, due to the excitement of starting a DIY project, rushes into the job without proper planning and making sure all the required tools as available. It may seem insignificant, but do get all the tools ready because it will determine the success or failure of the project.