Awesome Tips And Tricks For Home Improvement Hacks

When it’s time to get some renovation done, things can get difficult in a hurry. Thankfully, there are some easy home improvement hacks to make your next job easier.

Read on. We’ve assembled some of the best hacks around and there’s sure to be something here to make your life a lot easier the next time you need to get something done around the home.

 Home Improvement Hacks

1. Cut Your Own Veneers

Making your own veneers is a great way to add a remarkable aesthetic to your home. Whether it’s African Gaboon or Purpleheart exotic woods can be found easily online these days but the veneers are often prohibitively expensive.

The easiest way to make your own veneers for home use is to use a bandsaw. Great bandsaws are relatively cheap these days and you’ll often end up being able to save money even if you have to buy one new.

Try it out with some scraps first but it’s easy to get the hang of. You just need to make a long, thin cut.

You can use turning blanks of exotic woods or buy small logs of more common timber like oak and mahogany.

The thin kerf and incredible accuracy of a bandsaw will allow you to make the precise cuts needed for a veneer. Aim for slices in the 2-3mm range. Commercial veneers can be thinner than this but without the industrial machinery used it’s nearly impossible to make slices much smaller than 2mm with any real accuracy.

2. Prevent Nut Damage By Softening Pliers

There’s nothing worse than stripping off a nut or a bolt head when you’re using pliers to get them off. It’s a common task in most plumbing jobs and they’re usually made of soft materials like brass or even plastic.

That usually means the nut is only able to be used once or twice.

Of course, if you’re a DIYer it usually doesn’t make sense to use a latex tool dip since you’ll need all the grip you can get on other tasks where the materials involved are harder.

Rubber tubing or cut off chunks of an old garden hose can save the day. Slip them over the jaws of the plier, grab the nut like normal, and enjoy the ability to remove soft nuts from under sinks and other plumbing tasks without worrying about the damage caused.

3. Stripped Screws? Not a Problem

Look, we’ve all stripped a screw or two during normal renovation work. Whether it was too much force applied or just cheap metal making up the screw’s head the result is the same: a screw that won’t come out with your impact gun or screwdriver.

If you’re staring at a busted up screw head then you’ll be pleased to know there’s an easy fix.

Cut a large rubber band and place it over the head of the screw before you hit it with the screwdriver. The driver will grip much better and let you get the pesky screw out.

For the best results, pay attention when you’re putting screws in and pull any that are severely damaged to replace them. It’ll make your life much easier if you ever need to remove them in the future.

4. The Power of Rollers

During home renovation or landscaping projects, there’s always something heavy that needs to be moved.

Most people use a hand truck but it’s not always possible with awkwardly shaped objects. Round or rough, they can be hard to move through muscle power.

That’s where a quick set of improvised rollers can come in handy.

3-4” PVC pipe cut into 36”-48” lengths will let you roll most things quite easily. Even large rocks become able to be easily moved, just keep switching out the back roller to the front.

If you have trouble getting the object onto the rollers then you may want to make sure you have a large prybar around. Force the corner of the object up, get it on the rollers, and start pushing.

It’s a bit involved, but it’s a lot better than trying a more complex solution like a winch and it’s enough to let you move hundreds of pounds with very little effort.

5. PVC Organization

Speaking of PVC pipe, you’d be surprised at how handy it can be around the garage.

You can use short lengths of ½” to ¾” PVC to hold screwdrivers, for instance, simply screw the pipe into a piece of 2x4 and mount it on the wall. It’ll allow easy access.

Short lengths and end caps can be used to store different sizes of screws. Most DIYers know that the boxes most screws and nails come in are going to fall apart long before you’ve used the majority of the contents. That just leads to messy drawers and a few dollars worth of PVC will give you a more durable storage system.

6. Magnetize Your Screw and Nut Drivers

Magnetizing the ends of your tools can save a lot of effort within tight spaces. It’s super easy as well.

The best magnets to use are neodymium magnets, such as those in old hard drives, but any decent magnet will do the trick.

All you need to do is stroke the driver along the length of the shaft with your magnet. Repeat the process ten times or so, turn the tool 90°, and do it again until you’ve gone all the way around. The stronger the magnet you’re using the quicker the process will be.

Don’t bring the magnet back, you should only stroke towards the end of the tool. On nut drivers run the magnet all the way to the very end, going along the curve and down the outside of the tool’s head.

Afterward, test the tool on a steel fastener and see if it’s strong enough for your own needs. If not, repeat the process until you’ve got enough magnetic hold for your tastes.

This isn’t really a permanent process, so you may need to do it a few times a year, but it’s free and doesn’t take long so there’s no need to shell out for factory magnetic tools.

Enjoy These Tips?

There are a ton of ways to get things done that are a bit off-label. We’re confident that at least one of the above hacks will end up helping out on your next project.

The DIY process often takes a bit of ingenuity. Did we leave out one of your favorite hacks? Drop us a line in the comments below.

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