Now, I'm not sure about you but I just love tools. I love buying them, owning them, using them. I'm like the proverbial kid in a candy shop when I'm searching online for a new tool. My better half has raised her eyebrows on numerous occasions, quietly questioning whether I really needed to buy that thingamijig, so one of the big reasons I wanted to build my own garden room was to justify buying all the tools I wanted needed.
Of course, you don't need a whole new set of tools to build your garden room. It's highly likely that you own quite a few useful ones already. But, having the right tool for the job is going to make the process a lot smoother, quicker and - importantly - a whole lot more enjoyable.
Below I'll try and list what I believe are the essentials, as well as making clear any alternative. I've given an indication of base price, though it's worth remembering the old adage of "buy cheap, buy twice" and that a tool costing £100 is often better than the same type of tool costing £50, though twice the price doesn't always mean twice as good.
Let me know if you agree or disagree or if you think I've missed something. I'd love to hear what tool has been a game-changer for you and what tool or tools you couldn't do without.
Of course, you don't need a whole new set of tools to build your garden room. It's highly likely that you own quite a few useful ones already. But, having the right tool for the job is going to make the process a lot smoother, quicker and - importantly - a whole lot more enjoyable.
Below I'll try and list what I believe are the essentials, as well as making clear any alternative. I've given an indication of base price, though it's worth remembering the old adage of "buy cheap, buy twice" and that a tool costing £100 is often better than the same type of tool costing £50, though twice the price doesn't always mean twice as good.
| Tool | Cost (approx) | Use | Comments | Alternative |
| Tape measure | £5-£10 | You'll need this almost every step of the way. | Get a decent one that's long enough to accomodate the size of your build. | |
| Pen / pencil | £1 | Marking out | I like to use a fairly standard biro, but there are all sorts of fancy pens and pencils available. | |
| Mitre saw | £74+ | Cutting your framing timber, battens, internal wood flooring and skirting (if applicable to your build) | Framing a building requires a lot of cutting and while you could do it all with a hand saw it would be so much harder and far less accurate and consistent. I picked up the cheapest one I could find at Screwfix. | Hand saw. |
| Hand saw | £10+ | Cutting timber, odd bits and pieces, cutting PIR insulation boards. | I like a fairly long, coarse one, such as 8 teeth per inch. Cuts quicker than a fine toothed one and you're not using it for anything fancy. | |
| Claw Hammer | £9 | Banging in nails, pulling out nails, 'persuading' timber into alignment | While I'd recommend a nail gun for tha majority of nailing needed on your project, a claw hammer is absolutely essential for banging in nails that the gun messes up, retrieving nails you put in the wrong place and (with a carefully positioned screw to provide leverage) for pulling awkward pieces of timber into alignment. | |
| Impact driver | £40+ | Driving screws that are typically 60mm to 100mm into timber frames, fitting door and window frames. | A decent impact driver really is a wonderful tool. Makes screws go in and out so much more easily. Because of where you'll be working it is best to go for a cordless 18v model. | A decent power drill might work, but I doubt it would have the oomph required. |
| Framing nailer | £120+ (air, though you'd need to add a £150+ air compressor) £360+ (gas) £400+ (electric) | Nailing your frame! | Framing nailers aren't cheap. There are different types (air compressor, gas, electric) and they're all quite costly. However, they do maintain their value quite well so you can always sell it once you've finished your build and get back most of your outlay. Additionally you may find many going second hand on eBay and Facebook marketplace, etc., for a decent price, though you obviously need to be more careful than buying new. | A hammer. But there are a lot of nails to bang in. Of course you could just use screws instead and stick to the impact driver. But nails do have some advantages over screws. |
| A circular saw or track saw | £40+ (circular) £85+ (track saw) | Cutting or trimming your sheet material | Track saws are great but it is very easy to make a plywood track for a circular saw too. Cordless is useful when you're trimming a piece of OSB you've just fixed on your roof, but a plug-in one with a long extension cable will also suffice. | A handsaw, but getting properly straight cuts would be challenging. |
| Clamps | £20 for two quick clamps | Holding things together | I don't think you can have enough clamps, but I'd recommend a minimum of two. I like the 'quick-clamps' you can operate one-handed, but also used smaller G-clamps for clamping in tighter spaces. | |
| Spirit level | £20+ | Checking things are level | Another absolutely essential tool. For framing it's good to have a really long one (1.8m or 2.1m), though they often come as great value in sets of multiple sizes which can also be useful for other jobs in tighter spaces. |
Let me know if you agree or disagree or if you think I've missed something. I'd love to hear what tool has been a game-changer for you and what tool or tools you couldn't do without.
