Plain-English Tool Guides for UK DIY Beginners
Your guide to the best power tools for DIY and home improvement in the UK. From drills and saws to grinders and sanders, we review, compare, and explain the tools you need for every project.
Have you ever tried to drive a screw inside a tight kitchen cabinet, underneath a staircase, or right in the corner of a built-in wardrobe, only to find that the body of your combi drill is too fat and long to fit straight into the space? It is one of the most frustrating roadblocks in … Read more
When you start shopping for your first combi drill, or any power tool, you will quickly notice two distinct ways tools are sold: as a Complete Kit or as a “Bare Unit” (Tool Only). At first glance, buying a bare unit looks like an incredible bargain. You might see a professional grade Makita or DeWalt … Read more
If you are a UK DIY beginner trying to hang a heavy mirror, fit a curtain pole, or put up a shelf, you will almost certainly need to use plastic wall plugs (often called Rawlplugs in the UK). The biggest mistake beginners make isn’t using the wrong drill setting. It is picking the wrong drill … Read more
When choosing your first combi drill, you will quickly notice a price difference between models that look almost identical. For example, a brushed drill might cost £90, while a brushless model from the same brand could cost £150. For a UK DIY beginner, it is easy to wonder: Is “brushless” just clever marketing jargon, or … Read more
When you start browsing online or walk into a tool shop like Screwfix or B&Q, you will notice that almost every cordless combi drill falls into one of two voltage categories: 12V or 18V. For a UK DIY beginner, choosing between them can feel confusing. Do you need the heavy-duty power of an 18V tool, … Read more
When you take a brand new combi drill out of its case, you will notice switches and various controls. Between the numbered ring, the gear switch on top, and the mode icons on the side, it’s easy to wonder why all of those are there. Most beginners default to leaving their drill on a random … Read more
If you are a UK DIY beginner choosing your first power tool, you should buy a combi drill. While a standard drill driver is great for putting together flat-pack furniture, it cannot drill into brick or concrete. And while an impact driver is brilliant for driving huge screws into decking, it lacks the delicacy and … Read more
If you are starting out on your UK home improvement journey, there is one power tool that almost every experienced DIY enthusiast will tell you to buy first: the cordless combi drill. Often called the “Swiss Army Knife” of power tools, a combi drill can handle 90% of the drilling and driving tasks you’ll ever … Read more
I own a DeWalt 18V combi drill and an impact driver myself. I’ve used them for ages, love them to bits, and yet for the longest time, I had absolutely no idea what the confusing string of letters stamped on the side actually meant. I did guess that the “D” stood for DeWalt. If you … Read more
An impact driver is supposed to make driving screws effortless. But if you keep chewing up screw heads, snapping bit tips, or leaving mangled, half-driven fixings stuck in your timber, it can feel like your new power tool is doing more damage than good. When a bit slips out of a screw head under rotational … Read more