Know the materials

Working with wood is probably my favorite material to use, and one that most beginners feel most comfortable to try. Take your time, research tool usage and how to use them safely. There was one time I was cutting a small 2x4 when I didn’t fully stop the miter saw before pulling the wood away from it. This caused the wood to jolt out of my hand, damn near took my hand off and if someone else was nearby, or had it shot in the direction of my gut that would have been catastrophic and someone, or I might’ve been seriously hurt.  I make sure I wear steel toe boots (or significant boots with bulk, and this is mainly because if a piece of wood you’re working with drops, you’re going to be more focused on your saw then the wood. You can setup a saw horse to hold the wood in place, but there’s still that risk of it falling once cut. A 2x4 may just hurt, but a 4x4, 6x4 or larger will likely break your foot or toes; I’ve seen it. My husband’s toe is still pretty sad from that ordeal. 

When working with wood I typically use tools such as:

o Circular saws– these are great for when you need mobility, or don’t have a lot of space to store a larger saw. I think these are great if you have a straight edge guide and work horses for long boards, but I wouldn’t try to rip wood (the term for cutting a wood board the long way) without a guide. I would also use a circular saw for stair stringers, thick ledger boards, large 2x10s or 2x8’s because more than likely you may not have a miter saw that could cut deeper the 10 inches or longer, if it’s a miter cut. What’s a miter cut? It’s when you join two pieces of wood (or other material) together where each piece is cut at45-degreesforming 90-degrees when joined together. A picture frame or a door frame has a miter cut in the top left and right corners. 

o Miter saws – these are great for when you need angle cuts for your wood. It is much more accurate than trying to free hand it using a circular saw. A miter saw can cut angles or compound cuts (where you need multiple angle cuts like on crown molding there may be a 45-degree angle up and down, but you may also require a 45-degree left and right).

o Table saws – these are larger saws that have a blade at the bottom and that blade can be raised or lowered to cut through varying thicknesses of wood. We typically use table saws for plywood, OSB (oriented strand board), MDF (medium density fiberboard) or Particle board. The reason being is that these pieces of wood come in longer sizes and are also wide, like 4x8(4 foot wide by 8 foot long) standard sizing.  

o Jigsaws– these are great for making more detailed cuts, like circles, freehand cuts or cuts in the middle of a larger piece of wood. Typically, the jigsaw requires you drill a hole in the middle of the wood to start the cut, then once done use the jigsaw to finish the cut.  

o Rotary Saws – these have the same uses as a jigsaw, but because they use a drill bit don’t necessarily need the pilot hole.

o Drills/Hammer Drills –The drill is probably the most common tool I’ve used. Every drill is not the same. You’ll find the regular drills which can be used to drill holes can be changed out to a bit for use to drive in or remove screws. If your project entails more force and torque to apply (say for instance you need to drill through cement, or stone), then you’ll need a hammer drill. The hammer drill add torque (pressure) needed to push the screw or drill the hole through that hefty material. A regular drill cannot manage such a job; it’ll likely to lose power, strip the screw and will be frustrating even trying. This also applies if you’re trying to just drill a hole.  If you’re going to plan to do more projects in the future, it might be a good idea to have one of each, or a really good hammer drill to start.  

o Hammer, Palm Nailer, and Chisel- are small tools that also go hand-in-hand when working with wood. They are typically small enough to store and cheap enough to buy multiple since you will likely use them multiple times and they will eventually wear out if you have plans for other future wood projects.  The hammer is probably the most common household tool out there, intended for small jobs when you need to nail just a few things. If you need repetition, or have a large job, I’d recommend going with a palm nailer. The palm nailer is a tool that can hammer in nails much quicker than a hammer and easily fits in the palm of your hand for ease of handling. The palm nailer can be an attachment to use with a small compressor (see compressor info in Trim section). The chisel is a tool intended to chip away small pieces of wood, or to pry wood apart without much damage. 

Don’t attempt to grout prior to letting the thinset set for 24 hours. Let it set, clean off any tiles that have leftover thinset because if you wait to remove it later then it will be much harder to remove because it has dried and it will become unsightly. When you are cutting small tile or glass mosaics, not only can it be cumbersome, but dangerous with the amount of shards you may encounter from the cuts. Also, I hadn’t considered such things as how do I cut a tile in the middle without breaking it to accommodate for an outlet, light switch, or window corner. Smaller mosaic tile can be very tedious, whereas large 12x24 tiles require skill to make it happen.  It reminds me of a time we were adding a backsplash to our new beautifully designed kitchen, when I took the task to do the tiling alone and without my husband. I thought it would be straight-forward, these were some 4x12subway tiles in a fairly smaller space. Fast forward to cutting around the outlets, and I had a total freak out moment when I realized that I needed to cut halfway into the tile and only remove about a 3x2-inch section forming a U-shape on the tile. I had to pull in the big guns, that is my husband, to complete the task. The vertical cuts were pretty cut and dry, it was “how in the heck are you going to cut horizontally without damaging the rest of the tile.”  The answer is “very carefully.”  He cut the 2-inch sides with the wet tile saw, but when he needed to cut the 3-inch length of the tile he used the wet tile saw placing the tile very steadily and slowly over the top of the blade while slowly lowering his hand making the tile go down onto the blade just so slightly as to connect the two cut sides. This skill was not something I would have felt comfortable trying for myself. For one, I’m scared to death of these blades and two, my hands aren’t that steady.  There may be other methods to try, but research before you begin your project so you’re comfortable with how you’ll implement it.  When I’ve applied tile here are the tools I used most: 

o Wet Tile Saw – This saw uses a diamond blade and sprays water over the blade to keep the blade from breaking the tile, overheating and the water also controls the debris. The tile saw typically is used to cut through materials such as ceramic, glass, porcelain, cement, and stone. You do not use a wet tile saw for wood tiles or vinyl. The wet tile saw can be extremely messy so I’ve learned to make sure to use this tool outside; that water and all of the tile sentiment will soak you and your clothes and the grass that you’re sitting on. You’ll also fill up the water reservoir often, so access to a water hose is also very handy.  

o Tile Cutter – This tool is handy when you don’t need to cut a whole lot of tiles, but maybe just a few. The lines this tool cuts are normally just straight lines, and typically they have a small arm for leverage on the tool that with pressure allow you to make a clean break. I’ve had trouble using a tile cutter for smaller tiles and mosaics. If you need to cut these, I’d recommend using the wet tile saw or research another method.

o Mixing Paddle – This tool connects to your drill and is used to mix your thinset, or grout without doing it by hand. The paddle ensures you can mix your dry and wet together evenly. That material can get quite thick and mixing by hand may give you cramps if you’re bones don’t like too much work like mine. Typically, grout and thinset should have the texture of creamy peanut butter. Too loose, especially with thinset, you’ll find that it won’t hold the tile in place properly and may move the tile around too much. If you have it too thick, depending on the material, the moisture in the thinset may be soaked up by the tile leaving mostly dry thinset. This makes the tile less prone to adhere to the cement or backerboard. The mixing paddle can also be used for mixing cement and evenly mixing 5-gallon paint containers; so it can be a diverse tool too.

o Mixing buckets – This really isn’t a tool, but a necessity when working with tile, cement, paint, stone or just for carrying your tools to and from a location. You can find them at any of the big box store and they are generally very cheap (normally in the $5 - $10 range). I tended to keep about 4-5 on hand at any given time because if I used them for one project I may not be able to use it again. This is because the material may dry and make it difficult to remove. They’re also good for quick organization. You can keep common tools in the same bucket for the next project when you need them.

o Tile Nippers – This tool allows you to make very small chunk cuts into the tile, either that be on a corner edge or if you need it to make round cuts. If your cut is a round cut there are other methods you could use without nippers, but you’ll need to find one you’ll feel more comfortable with.  I used them for smaller cuts around the toilet, or say, I just needed a ½ inch piece of my corner cut. This tool made it easy to do.

o Tile Smoothing Stone – This tool is intended to smooth out the rough edges of cut tile. After you use a tile nipper, or a tile cutter the edge may be sharp. If the cut edge is somewhat jagged, will be exposed, or you’d like a more professional look then use it smooth out the jagged edges. If your tile will be exposed, I’d recommend turning the exposed edge towards the inside so that the professional edge of the tile is exposed instead. This tool will smooth it all out with less likelihood of breaking the tile.

o Tile Scraper – This tool is handy when removing old tile and adhesive. When the tile job was done right this tool makes removal of a tile a piece of cake. When the job was done poorly, the tool can still be helpful, however, the adhesives from the previous job may make the job more sticky than it should have been. I say this because I removed some tile once where the previous installer used a tacky glue instead of a thinset which made my tool scraper cake up and stick. I eventually needed to buy another one because the old one became unusable.  That poor previous job also extended the time I needed to remove the tile by at least double, if not triple the time.

Working with drywall seemed quite simple and straightforward. You have a hole in the wall that you need to repair, no problem, cut it out and add in a small piece of drywall to patch it up. In reality, it seems simple until you complete the job and then you realize there’s some finishing work that needs to be done. My husband and I swapped out some recessed lighting for some pendent lights over our newly created island. We also move the location of two of them so that they were symmetrical with two of the other lights. We cut out the drywall and replaced it, compounded it up and then realized we needed to match the application of texture to the rest of the ceiling. In theory, it should work fine, we found the orange peel finishing cans at the big box store, applied it to match as much as we could, then we needed to find the paint to match the rest of the ceiling.  This is where we had the most problems. Not every house is painted with the same color ceiling and trying to find the right match could be cumbersome. Eggshell is very common in California, and normally a flat is used for ceiling applications. When we painted up our newly changed drywall application, the ceiling difference was quite noticeable, so every time we walked in the kitchen you could see that nice big square cutout we made. Yes, we did what we thought we needed to do to make it seamless, but at the end of the day it wasn’t seamless at all. To the normal person not looking out for these flaws probably wasn’t a big deal, but for someone who works in the construction field like my husband does or who has done these types of projects before it was quite noticeable. I told my husband, “you can barely notice.”  When I started watching those home shows on HGTV like “Property Brothers” or “Love It or List It” and the more important one like “Holmes Inspection” it was so easy to think I could do anything. But now, after actually doing a lot of projects I walk into homes and can spot out bad DIY disasters from the start. Back then, I thought good is enough then I realized you need to get it perfect, otherwise, you’ll look like an amateur. Although that won’t matter while you’re living in the house, it does matter when you sell the home. If I had a redo on that project, I would have simply hired someone to come repaint and finish my ceiling and it probably would have cost me just a couple of hundred dollars. Lesson learned; it might’ve cost me a little bit but it would’ve been a very professional application. 

When working with drywall I’ve used the following:

o Utility Knife – This tool looks like a box cutter. It’s a pretty simple tool and a primary tool when cutting drywall. You don’t want to use any other tool to cut drywall as it’s very fragile and easy to cut, plus attempting to do so with a saw you’ll create a storm of white dust that really is unnecessary – I say that cause I’ve tried it. The typical uses are to mark your straight edge side, score it multiple times with your utility knife and break it down the line. Some people like using a drywall saw. That’s a good option too. For those who want the quick cuts, you could use a rotary saw, but know that it’ll make some dust that may irritate some people. You should use whatever tool you feel most comfortable with. Another use for the utility knife is cutting backerboard and cement board.

o Straight edge – This tool is used to make straight lines down your drywall. I personally have used a leveler for the straight edge, but this is also down to your own preference. Not everyone has unlimited space to collect tools. Figure out the tools that help get your jobs done most efficiently and rent out or borrow the others.

o Drill – The drill is necessary for drywall to adhere it to the studs. Avoid electric and plumbing lines (this is when understanding how your house is configured will help you on your project). I point this out because I had a professional closet installed on a brand new home and the closet designer pulled out the shelving that was installed by the home builder. About a day later we noticed water on the flooring and parts of the drywall. The home builder had nailed the shelving thru a water pipe and thank God the home was still under warranty, they came out dried out the water and replaced the damaged pipe. I would have had to do that myself. The wall was also NOT on a bathroom or laundry wall but was the main artery to get water to the third floor. Had I been a second or subsequent owner I would only had guessed that nothing was going thru that wall.

o Putty knife – A putty knife can be used to apply the drywall compound to your seams. Use wider knives for larger seams and holes, and smaller knives for smaller holes and applications. There are some cheaper versions that are plastic but those can cake up easily and may not last as long. On the flip side, the metal scrapers/knives may rust with multiple wet applications.

So although paint seems the easiest, there is still much complexity to it. One of my biggest pet peeves is when you see something painted that the DIYer thought looks great, but after a few months the paint is rubbing off because they didn’t research the right paint type to use, or they didn’t properly strip the paint before the new application, or they didn’t prime it. This is a rookie mistake so do your research.

o Sprayer – A paint sprayer is an absolute must when you want your paint job to look clean and professional. This is because even strokes of paint on your project and using the right amount of pressure means the material will have very few flaws(contingent you’re not around a bunch of sawdust, dusty particles or bugs). Any professional furniture-maker will use a sprayer and the difference when not using one, no matter how hard I’ve tried, has always been very obvious on the method I used to apply that paint (brush marks, foam marks or rollers are very obvious). There’s still some skill needed to apply the paint with a sprayer and you may want to use a sample piece(s) to practice with before you’re ready to apply your final application. This is because using even strokes back and forth will give you the best results, opposed to having too much paint in one section or too little paint in another section will make your project look tacky or homemade. If homemade is the planned look, then have at it. You might also want to apply the paint with a brush or a roller to get your desired homemade results.

o Brushes – This tool is needed for corners and hard-to-reach areas within your project. On a wall, this may be the corners, and the baseboards or ceilings. I always use tape to avoid as many mistakes as I can, but even when doing so, paint will run or bleed. I’ve found not having too much paint on the brush helps, as well as dabbing itlightly when painting the corners does too. Even though paint seems to be a piece of cake to people, it really can be very difficult to do.

o Rollers–This tool is best when you need to paint a large wide section, like walls and ceilings. There are different types of roller naps (the length of the material on the roller) that have different uses. Smaller naps may be great for smoother surfaces, whereas, thick woolly naps are great for painting high textured areas like stucco and brick.

o Paint Tape – This is more of a consumable and not really a tool, but paint tape will help you with your paint project to protect an area without damaging it with paint. Not all paint tapes are the same, and depending on your project you may want a less adhesive tape than a sticky one or vice versa, so you may want to try different brands, and types to play around. Don’t go buy a tape just because it’s cheaper. You may need to spend the extra money on a good quality tape to avoid making mistakes during your paint job. I remember a time, we bought a very cheap tape, applied it to our new homes ceiling, but after the painting was done found that we had bits of our new paint for the walls also on the ceiling and unless you know the paint brand and color of your ceiling you may need to repaint the entire ceiling when you’re ready just to cover up the mistakes you made by not choosing the right tape. I did hear one good pro tip when using tapes, was to buy a few cans of clear spray paint, apply your tape and then spray the clear paint over the tape. Doing so will create a layer of invisible paint that can be dried before you’re ready to apply your final paint.  Just make sure your paint type (flat, satin, glossy, etc) is the same as what you’ll have on the walls. What I understand is that this will help to prevent leakage and bleed.

For me, this was the most difficult material I had ever worked with. Because stone is much thicker than tile, the conventional tools for tile don’t necessarily work for all types of stone. I’ve cut things like stacked stone, but cutting 3-inch-thick pavers, travertine steppingstones, or cinder blocks require a diamond blade saw. We’ve already established that I am scared of working with blades, so free handing a cut with a grinder blade was not my cup of tea. I think at one point my husband was so tired of all the repetition and constant dust from doing all the cuts that he was ready to quit the project and hire someone to finish it. You really need patience for handling masonry work; so I do applaud the guys that go out there and do that on the daily. We hired a designer to design our backyard project and we requested three contractor quotes that all ranged upwards of $75k. We thought we could get it done for less than half that price. Two years and almost $40k later it was all done (some work had less than desired results), but we realized it was NOT worth saving the money. Had we paid someone it would’ve been done in just a few months, if not weeks, and we would’ve had 2 years of our lives back and 2 years with our children on the weekends. We had built the water feature using cinder blocks and Portland cement, bought adhesive that was supposed to prevent leaks (I think we even bought some of those “as seen on tv” rubber compound too). We found that it soaked up a lot of the moisture, and even with that rubber compound, and backerboard we couldn’t block the water from finding a way out of the water feature. It’s like the Jurassic Park movie line, “life finds a way,” well, so does water.  Do some serious research if you’re going to tackle a DIY home water project, because it may not be as straight forward as you may think. We ended up tearing down the first application and doing it again, and we still had issues with losing water.

Below are some regularly used tools we used when we worked with stone and masonry:

o Wet Tile Saw– We found that using a wet tile saw worked well with smaller stones (those that were smaller than the thickness of our blade (say for a 7 inch saw blade stone that was less than 2.5-3 inches thick was ideal). (see Tile section for some other suggestions)

o Grinder– This tool is a hand tool that can have a side handle and uses a small blade to cut or grind or polish. It is very versatile. The grinder blade can be changed out from a diamond blade to a wire mesh to a grinder wheel.  We used the grinder to cut larger stones using a diamond blade. This made cutting the 3-inch retaining wall travertine toppers, our large Belgard paver stone, and cinder blocks we used for our water feature much easier to cut and install. Using a grinder will create a LOT of dust, and I mean a lot. That dust tends to be everywhere, so I would recommend cutting them in a space that is well ventilated or outside. You really shouldn’t be inhaling those particles either, so wear a mask.

o Cement Mixer–This large drum typically sits on two wheels with wheelbarrow handles and in my experience was great when it came to pouring lots of cement. We were building an extended front porch that would be covered in travertine. That total project required something like 120 bags of cement. Instead of pouring and mixing each bag by hand, we were able to use the mixer to mix 3-5 bags at a time (don’t quote me on those numbers, we ended up selling the mixer after that project and I happily and quickly forgot how hard it was). This tool can be rented in your big box store, especially if you’re not going to use it but once or twice. It takes up a lot of space for those that don’t have a large yard to store it.

o Mixing Paddle – this tool is talked about more in the tile section, but for cement it’s great to use when you only need to mix a few bags of cement or mortar. Mortar or thinset can be mixed easiest with a drill and the mixing paddle attached. My advice is to clean it right after use, otherwise you’ll have build-up that may rust and buildup on the paddle.

o Trowels–There are different types of trowels, but in all honesty, I don’t know the uses for all of them. I know that thinset has a much smoother grain than mortar and both can be used as the adhesive for setting tile and stone. I used mortar for adhering the cinder blocks. The thickness of it made it easier to adhere together. As I understand it mortar uses Portland cement as part of its makeup. When working with cement, the higher the rock content (aggregate) the more rough the surface. Portland cement is cement without the rock aggregate. Using Portland cement gives the user a much smoother surface. In my own DIY projects, we used Portland cement as a skim coat. Whether or not that was the right application is debatable. I did find some very good descriptions on the difference between mortar, thinset and grout, which are all compounds used for tile, stone and masonry. The trowels I’ve used are v-notch – mostly used for smaller tile like glass and mosaics, to a notched trowel (looks like square teeth) that we used for setting larger tile (like those over 10x10s). When we adhered large two-foot stone travertine, we used a standard trowel (flat with no teeth) to adhere the stone to cement, or the cinder block to one another.

o Rubber Mallet – This tool is useful as you’re able to hit in place your stone without damage. Mind you, using a rubber mallet (which is basically a hammer made of rubber) can still do damage if using thinner materials, or delicate applications, so use it with caution. We found that the rubber mallet was also useful for wood flooring applications.

o Mixing buckets–For stone and masonry, they’re used for your compound mixtures and adhesives. With much larger applications use the cement mixer, if you have the space to store it or can rent it.

1. Is it Structural?

2. Does it require Demolition?

3. Know the Materials

4. Preparing Your Space

5. How Much Will It Cost?

6. How Many People Do You Need?

7. How Much Experience Should You Have?

8. Does the Weather Matter?

9. How Much Time Can I Commit?

10. Should You Delegate?