These last few years have us all looking to do more home repairs to save a few bucks. Sometimes you can’t even find some professional to do the job or lack the right home repair tools for other jobs. And there are jobs you should not be tackling at all.
But recently I was doing some repairs and I didn’t have the right tool. So I had to buy it. I debated buying the best one at the home center or some cheap one. They had both in the store. Nonetheless, there are stores like Harbor Freight that sell inexpensive tools.
In my case, this was a tool I would be using for a week or two, then would go into my toolbox and maybe I would use it again in a few years. One was a small pair of plyers and so I opted for cheap. Yet, I ended up using them more than I thought I would. I did notice that the more expensive ones seemed harder to dent. But a few scratches on a pair of plyers isn’t that big a deal. Now some tools being inexpensive may be cheap for a reason, namely because they are junk and won’t perform well. You have to look at what you are paying for, the name or not.
Sometimes with power tools you want the name brand if it’s something you will use in the future. But if you are scraping rust off some old metal parts and you don’t think you will use it again then cheap is the way to go.
There’s another option. Of course, you can rent tools. It makes no sense to buy a $2000 tool to let say crimp metal pipe and you aren’t a plumber. So you could rent them or borrow them if you have a friend who’s a plumber.
Borrowing home repair tools is an option too. I’m not talking about knocking on your neighbor’s door to ask if you could use his ladder. Did you know you can borrow tools from your library? Not all them of course, but mine has this option. And I have seen others across the country who offer this. My library has this policy where all the libraries in the county banded together to order what you need for loan after viewing what is available in the library system.
I don’t know about you, but space to store all these giant tools is difficult if you live in a smaller house or you lack a storage shed. Then again, you might have a storage shed, but already filled it to the max.
Sometimes, the wisest course of action is buying the best tools that you can afford, especially if you’re going to use them more than once for a home repair. For jobs where you are going to need the tool just once are when you should consider budget tools, flea markets, garage sales, rentals or investigating what your library system has available to provide.
If you happen to live in Berkeley, California, then you are in luck with their extensive Berkeley Tool Lending Library. Those people that think a library system couldn’t possibly help them out on a project should check their YouTube video.
Furthermore, if your library doesn’t have a tool lending library, then suggest it and you might help it materialize for your community. Libraries are have so much more than just such books, free books online, DVDs and videos to offer.
