Handyman’s Essentials: The Most Important Tools And Techniques

When it comes to any sort of work involving construction, building, renovation, augmentation, or physical labor, there’s a general principle which should always inform professionals on the site. That principle is one you’ve likely heard before, and which applies to more than simply architecture: measure twice, cut once. Basically, you want to check everything first, then double-check once you think you’ve acquired an answer. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are, there are going to be situations where distraction or anomaly end up making previous measurements incorrect. This won’t happen all the time, but the one time you don’t double-check, that’s the mistake that’ll cost you—almost without fail.

Essentially, as a handyman, your best technique will be a conscientious quality of careful consideration which consistently enables you to do the job right the first time. You need to know the totality of the job, push through to its completion, and when errors happen, you’ve got to totally fix them; not put together a slipshod solution that falls apart. Accordingly, several additional tools and practices of the general variety will be briefly explored to help get you on the right page as pertains to construction, or at the very least help confirm you’ve been doing things the right way all along!

General Tools

Basic and compact tools can be key. Certainly a solid hammer and bevel—or screwdriver—will be core to your toolset. You’ll want Phillips and flathead screwdrivers, but there are many things built using screw-heads that are neither Phillips nor flathead. For these, it’s advisable to have a screwdriver with a head you can switch out.

Better yet is a drill that can be fitted with different heads, but this is going to be a bit pricier. Still, drills can help you work smarter, not harder, and have better results. For example, the Strong Arm 5 is a drill-press that gives you a 5-to-1 power leverage advantage over similar jobs done with a drill that doesn’t use a press to stabilize and expand potential.

Also, keep a pencil on you at all times—preferably the flat type designed for carpentry. You’ll additionally want a good tape measure and a level. An adjustable wrench can be helpful, but a socket wrench with all the different sizes you’ll need can be even better; just be sure and store the heads right so they don’t get mixed up.

Plugging Yourself Into A Professional Community

A professional community of builders, architects, repairmen, and other “handy” individuals will represent your greatest repository of tips, tricks, and time-saving techniques. Make friends with these men, and learn from them.

This will help you help others, and save you a lot of time. You don’t know what you don’t know, as the saying goes. A community helps you avoid issues you didn’t even know were about to impact you.

Stay Up-To-Date On Latest Trends, And The Best Old Ones

This one is a mixed advisory. On the one hand, new means of building are developing all the time. Did you know 3D printers can essentially build a house? Staying up-to-date here can be essential in terms of competitiveness.

However, many building techniques are thousands of years old, and as effective today as they ever were. So keep up to date on new trends, but don’t throw out old ideals simply because they’re not trendy. They can save you time and resources.

Being Handy All The Time

Stay up to date, don’t neglect effective legacy techniques, plug yourself into a professional community of similar architectural types, and ensure at baseline you’ve always got the best general tools for the jobs you do. These things will help you be the best handyman you can be.