so
lock down scott brown here i renovate houses for a living and there's obvious tools that you need to
renovate houses but this video is seven must-have tools that you might have missed so they're the
kind of tools that are maybe overlooked or unexpected but i think are very important
so we're back in level four here in new zealand which means you can only go out for essential
items and exercise now what is essential to me is that this van still works so i'm taking the
van for a little drive just to make sure it isn't all seized up by the time i can go back to work
and uh speaking of work squarespace is paying my bills right now so this
video is brought to you by squarespace they have a platform that helps you
build your website and we'll talk more about that in the middle of the episode
so number one on my list of renovation tools that i use all the time and i think everyone should
have if they're going to renovate a house there's a right angle drill bit so by any chance you do
not know what this is it's basically a bit that allows you to get into areas that you otherwise
couldn't get into you put it into your drill like so and then when you pull the trigger that spins
so if i wanted to put a screw under here for some ungodly reason
you know i wouldn't be able to do it even with an impact driver which is
pretty small but as soon as i pop on the right angle drill bit put that in there like that wow
so also has this little handle here you press the button pull it out
gives you something to hold on to so it won't go like that but i just tend to hold it by the drill
bit itself and that kind of works i don't even know what brand this tool is um i honestly can't
even find a logo i will just pick a generic one and put that in the link below i'll put a link for
all these tools it's one of those tools that even if you only use once on your renovation project
you'll be thankful that you got it because it solves those problems that only a tool like
this can solve one thing to point out though i don't think this is impact rated if you put in
the impact drill the impact drill could damage the mechanism inside here i think that's what
happened to my my old one it lasted three years before that happened but just a little warning
the second tool on the seven tool list gives me a chance to show off my new draw
wow so my second tool on my list of tools for home renovations is this paint scraper
now i know it doesn't sound very exciting but trust me this thing will save your life on a
home renovation especially when you've got a sharp razor blade on it on the last couple of villas and
bungalows that we've renovated we had to reuse a lot of weather boards floorboards skirtings
and jobs like that they tend to have like seven layers of paint on all the timbers and rather
than sitting there and sanding all day and creating fine particle dust that you could
then breathe in do the bulk of it with this sometimes do all of it with this and then you
just finish it off with the sander to smooth it out this thing surprised me it takes off paint
surprisingly well and if you use it correctly you don't even damage the timber when you do so
so trust me when i say this is a critical tool for doing home renovations
if you've got an old timber house you should have one of these
now this next tool i don't have with me because it's in my storage container my storage container
isn't accessible because of level four so i've drawn the next tool tool number three
moisture reader basically all timber has a bit of moisture in it after you've framed up the house
and before you put the wall lining on the inside that moisture level needs to be a certain
percentage it needs to be dried out somewhat those two things there are prongs and they stab into the
timber and then on that screen there's a moisture percentage when council do pre-line inspections
one of the key areas they fail you is in moisture moisture levels in your timber so it pays to have
a good idea of the moisture content before the inspector comes and i'll delay inspections if my
reader's telling me that it's over 18 percent that heat has been on that dehumidifier has been on
and we've got a bigger heater that's been on all weekend based on my preliminary readings
at a surface level we're at 16. so this afternoon we'll see whether
the inspector's reading is similar to our reading
so if you own a house or if you're renovating a house um that'll apply to you when you're
putting in new framing your old timber is probably dry as anything it's probably like 14
moisture content but that new timber you need to give it a chance to dry before you close it all up
now the fourth tool is another one that i don't have it's either had that job i was doing before
lockdown started or at the container again it is the end nippers the cannipex n nippers in
particular or nippex canopics it's german right so that's kinepics canipix ca nip x canifex they're
in cutters and they're made for tying steel when you're doing concrete steel reinforcing
but what i use it for on renovations is pulling out nails when the crowbar won't do the job they
can grab the nail even if the nail doesn't have a head and leave lever the nail out of the timber
and it's also good for pulling out staples as well that's pretty much what i use it for exclusively
every now and then i tie steel but mostly i use it for pulling out those hard to reach nails
anyway i should probably take this uh
take this old boy home and talk about the sponsor of this video
all right the next tool is the multi-tool but before we look at that let's talk about
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the description below now this multi-tool and that dog have something in common the noise can
be very disruptive but of course the noise isn't the reason that i'm recommending a multi-tool as
a under-appreciated tool for renovation or maybe a misunderstood tool for renovations
i think most people use the reciprocating saw or at least they think of the reciprocating
saw when they think of renovations because it cuts through walls quickly you know you can
knock stuff down quite easily but it's for those delicate cars that's where the multi-tool comes in
and all the different blades that you get with the multi-tool
we always have a blade like this in particular this sort of half circle looking thing is great
for cutting plasterboard let's say you're going to take down half a wall maybe you're going to put a
door in maybe you're you know creating an opening where you're going to extend the building out
we use this to get a nice clean vertical line and then when you go to chuck in your plasterboard
later on you're butting up to a nice straight line rather than a ripped off jaggedy line
and of course the reciprocating saw this is great too
for the more rough stuff this will get you through walls and and cut
out big sections a lot quicker than the multi-tool multi-tool is for accuracy
and one of the all-important tools to renovations that i think too many people overlook is the
vacuum cleaner we use a vacuum cleaner all day every day for many different things
including the multi-tool so obviously vacuum cleaner clean up the mess that you've made after
a long day of work but the other way of looking at the vacuum cleaner is it's a great way to get
dust at the source hook this up to it so you don't have dust everywhere in the first place
even if you're a homeowner renovating your own house this will just make your life easier and
also another way of looking at it is it's about dust suppression the classic thing to do on a
building site at the end of the day is sweep with a big broom and we still do that but the
problem with doing that in confined spaces is all you're doing is kicking up the dust into the air
and that's all stuff you're breathing in so if you can vacuum it up so yeah vacuums hugely important
now the last tool the last two on this list is the pumpy wedgie pump thing these the air wedges
inflatable air wedges you put that into a gap and you do what i'm doing right now and it can lift up
to 140 kgs but let's say you're putting a window in and you want to straighten that window up
put your level on the window have a look at the bubble put that on the side pump it up once you're
happy with it put a wedge in and i mainly use it for hanging doors it's great where you have
a pre-hung door where you need to lift the door leaf up in order to straighten and make it plump
you slide that under the door you put your foot on the pump you push it up and down
once you're happy with it you can screw the door in place
they work great so if you're looking for a particular brand i can vouch for this one
and um yeah i think these are great for renovations seven tools that i think are a little
bit underrated when it comes to renovations one of the tools that i was gonna put on this list but i
just put outside of it was a table saw i actually went years without having a table saw strangely
enough even though i'm a carpenter but as soon as i did and while i was using it for renovations i
realized how critical it was gonna be right it looks pretty good yeah that'll work sweet
i'll check a link in the description for my diy tools video where i go into like you know where
you start like get a handsaw get a drill and table saw's on that list but it kind of gives it context
of where it is on the list if you will i was going to put respirator on the list but again
i've done a video about safety stuff i'll put that below as well respirator is hugely important
especially if you're scraping off that lead paint and things like that or if you're cutting fine
particle dust like you've got to plasterboard the necessary safety equipment but yeah
locked down scott brown continues uh it's probably another couple weeks by the time you watch this
and then maybe i can go back to work we'll see but uh thanks for watching
thanks for supporting me in the meantime i'll see you on the next exciting episode
one more thing before you go merchandise is available smoker time merch and but can you
hang a door merch which you would have seen me wearing throughout this video there's
a few different designs that jess has done um i'll put a link in the description below
and if you don't know the story of bikini hangar door it's basically my uncle sandy in edinburgh
and we'd drive around you know hanging doors and driving around in his van
and there's a lot of flash cars in edinburgh so we'll be driving down the road and you'd look at
people and be like all right scott he might have a bentley but can he hang a door that's where
that comes from so if you want to check that out link in the description below thanks for watching