Despite what you might think, DIY doesn’t mean you have to do it all by yourself.
No; there’s an app for that.
Because there is no need to go into a home improvement project totally blind, we’ve created a list of essential smart phone apps for the DIYer in you – some digital tools that will help you with many of your home improvement projects and ensure that they run smoother.
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1. Home Improvement Glossary
image: MacWorld
2. Handy Man DIY
Whether you need some very basic assistance with calculations or more robust step-by-step video tutorials for the bigger projects, Handy Man DIY is an app that very well may be considered man’s new best friend. For just around 2 bucks, this multi-purpose tool can help you with adding measurements from multiple rooms, managing tasks, creating shopping lists and much, much more.
image: mytoolshed.co.uk
3. HomeLogic Mobile Control
While most home improvement projects are accomplished with the hammer and nails of old, the HomeLogic Mobile Control app is a cutting edge tool that welcomes handymen to the future. This program integrates with your various home systems and appliances and gives you total remote control over your home’s heating, cooling, lights, alarm systems … and the list goes on.
What DIYer wouldn’t take great pride in the fact that their home systems were under their constant control?
4. Drywall Calculator
Calculating the surface area of a wall isn’t rocket science but when you factor in the missing space from the windows and doors and, heaven forbid, a sloped ceiling, you might as well be launching a rocket. Cue the Drywall Calculator. This snazzy app removes the complicated calculations previously chicken-scratched with pencil and paper and provides highly accurate drywall measurements for even your trickiest rooms.
5. iScrew
As much as the invention of the screw has helped DIYers across history, it has also wasted countless hours – going to the hardware store and buying screws based on what you think is the proper fit, only to return to your project and find that it’s the wrong size. Well, with the iScrew app, you can remove the guessing and waste no more!
This is an extremely useful tool for carpenters, helping you identify the right screws, bolts and fasteners for your home improvement jobs and the materials that you’re working with.
6. BalusterPro
Much like calculating drywall, figuring the spacing on balusters and fence posts can be one of the trickiest tasks in home improvement – of course, you want them to be equidistant but actually figuring the proper measurements for each and every piece is beyond rocket science. Problem solved.
With the BalusterPro app, calculating the increments for each baluster or fence post is a snap as it tells you on-center measurements, as well as, lead-face mark points, to give you precision spacing like never before.
7. Dream Home
If you have the basic nuts and bolts know-how of home improvement but lack the creative vision to be able to scheme the end design itself, the Dream Home app is a great way for DIYers with limited vision to get world-class design inspirations. Stocked with a plethora of full color photos in a variety of categories, this app puts the ideas of professional designers in your hand so you can build the room or home of your dreams, even if your dreams are a bit hazy.
8. Home Sizer
The worst mistake you can make as a DIYer is having eyes that are bigger than your stomach – err, having a project that is bigger than your budget – there’s nothing more disheartening than starting a project but not having the funds to finish it. That said, the Home Sizer app is a great way to price your project; calculating the square footage of a space and comparing the costs of materials that it will require to finish it.
9. Home Maintenance
Owning a home is certainly the American Dream but it’s also a maintenance nightmare. Between keeping your yard up to par and balancing the maintenance cycles of your home’s systems, it’s all enough to keep you up at night – unless you have the Home Maintenance app, that is.
This handy little tool is like having a personal assistant for your home improvement projects in your pocket, helping you set reminders, manage your maintenance schedules, email yourself your repair records and even storing an archive of pictures to help you better track the history of your home’s repairs.
10. inchCALC
It’s a common phrase in the world of home improvement; Measure twice, cut once. Although this is a great way to ensure that you made the proper measurements and won’t waste any materials due to inaccurate cuts, if your conversions were off to begin with, you can measure a hundred times and still be no better off.
That said, the inchCALC app is helpful tool that does the math for you, allowing you to add fractions, convert them into decimals and ultimately spend your time improving your DIY skills, instead of worrying about your math skills.
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Technology has brought us a long way. But, the old adage still remains to be true; for every job, there is the right tool. This certainly has been an idea to live by for the home improvement DIYer. And now in the 21st century, it has a whole new and useful meaning too.
Cheers!
Rob.
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About Rob Jones
This is excellent! I’m sure some of these apps will come in handy for many DIYers. I never even knew they existed. I’d definitely like to make use of the glossary one – that’ll definitely be helpful. Thanks!
You missed one…Tapeulator: http://itunes.apple.com/app/tapeulator/id475112331?mt=8
Mobile technology is at the forefront of most of our lives. The fact the you can view your house internaly via cameras is amazing let alone turn on your heating…Move over James Bond.