My mate has just bought a house and is constantly borrowing tools as he has nothing.
As a housewarming gift I’ve decided to buy him some.
The basics like hammer, saw, screwdrivers etc.
Does anyone know of a good deal somewhere for a toolbox filled with the basic essential home maintenance tools included? I don’t want to spend any more than £150.

Something like this from Halfords may be aimed more at working on a car but has most of the things the diyer needs

That looks like a handy set. Just need to add a saw and maybe some hammers and chisels and they’ll be away. They can then buy additional hand tools as they need them.

Buy him good stuff and it will last a very long time, he will thank you when he’s realized it really it quality over quantity.

a good hammer (estwing, Vaughan)
screwdrivers (wiha, wera) in PZ. PH and torx.
adjustable spanner (bahco)
Stanley/Irwin knife and spare blades
Tape measure. 5m Stanley fatmax

You will get change from £150 easily, enough to get him a good toolbox to put them in.

Aldi are selling a pretty decent big tool box for a tenner by the way mate.

Buy the bits rather than a kit. 10 mins on the screwfix website will give you a basket full of good stuff.

I agree with mj27 but maybe don’t need to go full high-end like e.g estwing. Middle of the road stuff should suffice and much better than most ‘collection packs’ you’d get.

I’d spend a wee bit of time on screwfix selecting stuff individually and make up a tool box from there. Then you get vicarious tool buying fun out of it too 🙂

Good call OP. My BIL has just bought a house and, in spite of his (apparently genetic) DIY ineptitude, I’m going to buy him some tools for Christmas.

Will be nothing high end, but enough to get him by as he assembles flat pack furniture, attaches the odd plug and hangs some pictures.

Buying individually is definitely better but unfortunately, I’m not in the uk and will be there for a total of 3 days over christmas. I think the Halfords box linked to above is perfect and I can clic and collect it as I drive from the airport, Thanks.

You can do click and collect at screwfix, it will be bagged up ready at the store of your choice plus its a lot better quality than halfrauds.

You can do click and collect at screwfix, it will be bagged up ready at the store of your choice plus its a lot better quality than halfrauds.

I beg to differ, the halfords tools are very good, especially the pro/advanced ranges. Might struggle to do house jobs though, not much use having a socket set or a bazillion spanners around the house when what you need is a back saw and a screwdriver.

Screwfix on the other hand are owned by the same company as B&Q, so there’s a lot of crossover between the own-brand tool ranges. If you buy anything from Screwfix, look at the range and buy the not-the-cheapest one. Avoid anything from the ‘titan’, and a lot of the ‘forge steel’ ranges, utter crap.

I’d get him a half decent combi drill (they’ve got a 18v de-walt one for £99 + 2 1.3ah batteries), a set of bits (drill and screwdriver) for £20. I think screwfix actualy have an offer on a tool bag with loads of stuff in it at the moment, £50, which seems a bargain, no idea what the quality is like, but it’s a start and he can replace stuff if it wears out.

What jobs does he actually need to do though? No point getting him a wood saw if what he needs is a 3 mode SDS drill to chase wires into the wall.