Essential Tools Every New Homeowner Needs

Tier 1: Buy These Immediately

These are the tools you will reach for within the first week of living in your house. A cordless drill and impact driver combo kit is the single most important purchase. DeWalt, Milwaukee, and Ryobi all sell a drill-plus-driver kit in the $150 to $200 range. This is where you pick your battery platform, so choose carefully. Whatever brand you buy now, you will probably keep buying for the next decade.

A tape measure (25-foot Stanley FatMax or Milwaukee Stud are both solid), a set of screwdrivers (Phillips and flat in three sizes each), a hammer (16-ounce claw hammer), a utility knife, a level (at least 24 inches), a pair of pliers, and an adjustable wrench round out the essentials. Budget around $50 to $75 for these hand tools. Don't buy the cheapest ones. A good hand tool lasts 20 years.

A step ladder (6-foot fiberglass) and a flashlight (600+ lumens, magnetic base) are the two things people forget and then need immediately when they're changing smoke detector batteries at 2 AM or swapping a ceiling light fixture.

Tier 2: Add These in Year One

Once you've lived in the house for a few months and know what keeps breaking, add a stud finder (electronic, not magnetic), a socket set (3/8-inch drive, SAE and metric), a caulk gun, a shop vac (6-gallon minimum), and a set of Allen keys. These handle the maintenance tasks that come up quarterly: tightening loose hardware, sealing gaps around tubs and windows, and cleaning up after small projects.

A circular saw opens up the projects you can tackle. Combined with a straightedge clamp guide, a circular saw handles 80 percent of the cuts a homeowner needs to make. Shelving, trim, fence boards, plywood breakdown. Skip the miter saw for now unless you have a specific trim project waiting.

Add safety gear in this tier too: safety glasses, hearing protection, a dust mask, and a pair of leather work gloves. These cost under $40 total and you'll need them for every power tool you use.

Tier 3: Borrow These When You Need Them

Some tools cost real money and get used once or twice a year at most. A pressure washer ($200 to $400), a miter saw ($250 to $600), a table saw ($300 to $3,000), a drywall lift ($150 to $300), and an aerator ($200 to $400) are all perfect candidates for borrowing. These tools spend 360 days a year collecting dust. Your neighbor probably has one sitting in their garage right now.

This is where FriendsWithTools earns its name. Instead of buying a pressure washer you'll use twice a year, check if someone in your group already has one. If nobody does, consider buying one and listing it. You'll get it when you need it, and you'll help five other people who also don't want to store one.

Power augers (for fence posts), tile wet saws, concrete mixers, floor sanders, and paint sprayers are other strong borrow candidates. High purchase price, low usage frequency, and annoying to store is the trifecta that screams 'borrow this.'

What to Skip Entirely

Do not buy a tool set in a blow-molded case from the end cap at a big-box store. Those 150-piece kits for $49 are filled with tools you'll never use and the ones you do use will break. Buy individual quality tools as you need them.

Don't buy specialized tools before you have the project. A pipe threader, a tile nipper, a drywall banjo, and a concrete vibrator are all real tools that real people need — when they're doing a real, specific project. Buying them in advance means they sit in your garage for years.

Don't buy corded versions of tools that have good cordless options in 2026. Cordless drills, impact drivers, circular saws, jigsaws, and reciprocating saws are all mature battery-powered products now. Corded versions are cheaper but the convenience loss is real. Exception: a corded angle grinder and a corded router are still worth buying over cordless for heavy-use applications.

Total Cost Breakdown

Tier 1 runs about $300 to $400 total: $150 to $200 for the drill/driver combo kit, $50 to $75 for hand tools, $60 for the step ladder, and $25 for the flashlight. This gets you functional for 90 percent of homeowner tasks.

Adding Tier 2 in year one runs another $250 to $400: $100 to $150 for the circular saw, $40 to $60 for the socket set and stud finder, $40 for the shop vac, and $40 for safety gear. After this spend, you're equipped for serious DIY.

Tier 3 tools, if you bought them all, would add $1,200 to $2,500. Borrowing them instead saves real money and garage space. Even if you only borrow three of those tools per year, you're saving $500 to $800 annually.

Frequently Asked Questions