A self builders tool kit.

A true self-builder will be motivated to get many small tasks complete, that will otherwise cause delay and or additional cost. We already have a good household tool kit, but beyond the ratchet spanners and hammers, there are other tools worth considering.

Don’t feel the need to skimp on cheap tools that will prove inadequate, instead take care of their appearance, as the second hand value for good tools will fetch up to 80%. As we came to the end of our last build we traded a few tools no longer required for labour at close to 100% of their purchase price, and sold others we’d never use for day to day for 80-90%.

This is my list of ideal tools, it’s most certainly not inclusive, and I’ll keep on updating. Do tell of your ideal tools in the comments.

Pick up or van. We owned a two seat roadster during the last build and for the duration of the build, it sat on the drive of our rented property. The daily drive was a beat up 5 year old 4×4 with a trailer, which I used carry tools and would collect urgent materials, a van would have been far more practical. This time around with kids and the likelihood of school drop off’s coinciding with site visits and collecting materials, possibly a double cab pickup could be more useful. My key decider will be ability to sell close to buy price, so the target will be to buy a runner that a year later may have the same value, with only ~5k miles added.

Battery powered kit bag, typically from Makita or Dwalt, to include; Combi Drill, Impact Driver, Circular Saw, Jigsaw, Multi Tool, SDS+ Rotary Hammer, Reciprocating Saw, Angle Grinder. Sticking with one brand brings the advantage of all tools using the same batteries. We have most of these tools, many are mains powered and a frugal choice, except most have brought failure, not so easy to use, and with a low residual a much higher cost of ownership vs buying the better tools for the job.

Table tile cutter, have you ever made do with the small tile cutters that need to stand on a work bench, or kneel down to use? Even the pro’s use them. With a lot of natural stone to tile, the table cutters cut longer, deeper, quicker, and the water reservoirs need emptying and cleaning less. It’s an obvious choice. It’s also a big item so when you’re done you’ll want to sell this on. I traded this for labour, when I eventually got around to the second large bathroom, the only tiled room in the house I didn’t tile myself.

Paint sprayer. Quotes for painting our plastered out 3300sq ft build varied from £1200 to £3000. Each painter told it would take 1-2weeks, using a brush. I bought a commercial paint sprayer and did the whole house 3x in a weekend. I then sold the practically new sprayer for the same price I bought it.

Site clothes. Turning up to site in your best jeans? There’s always and it’s much more comfortable clambering over rubble with toe ‘tectors, getting down and dirty with built in knee pads and brushing past dust in clothes designed for manual work. It’s surprising to a first-time self builder how good value, hardwearing and stylish some workwear is, compared to regular clothes.

Camera. The ability on a daily bases to be able to return to the office and see catalogue of images really helps efficiency. A phone camera is a great start, but I’d suggest a 360 camera for 360 Spheres. There’s great software to create walk throughs and digital twins brilliant for records at various stages and quickly stripping back walls and floors to see exact cable and pipe runs.

Site CCTV, I’ll cover this multiple time through the blog, suffice to say it has multiple uses, capturing images as the build goes through stages, security should something go wrong, keeping an eye on the project from afar, and checking back what happened on what day. We repurposed our site camera as a home CCTV camera.

Drone. Both fun and a serious tool, as previously covered on the blog. Simply no hand held camera can manoeuvre or get to where a drone can, nor take the same video and photos from the same heights time over during the build.

Plotter, I wonder if any self builder has ever counted the cost of printing architectural drawings, purposed for trades on-site, and reprints when lost or damaged, each at a cost and requiring postage or trips to the architect? Just buy a plotter, they can be found and resold at 50% of the new price, enabling prints on demand. Personally we learnt CAD so we could make small modifications and overlay details for each trade, and bought a little used HP Design Jet for £250.