Building Tools

Cranes, for example, are very large building tools. Tall cranes may tower over a hundred feet from ground to boom tip. Some cranes are actually mobile platforms supported by the very buildings they are used to build; they creep up the sides of the buildings as they are erected, suspending materials over the unfinished top and moving them from place to place as needed.

On the medium-sized scale of building tools are things such as welders, wheelbarrows, portable concrete mixers, and other man-sized tools. Table saws are also mid-sized building tools often found on homebuilding sites. Such tools are usually placed near groups of workers working on specific tasks such as pouring concrete foundations or erecting the framing of an interior or exterior wall.

Every craft that goes into building construction has its specialized building tools. Ironworkers who erect the steel framework of high-rise buildings use welding and cutting torches, riveters and grinders. Electricians who install the wiring of a building use multimeters, wire cutters, crimpers, and other building tools peculiar to their trade. Carpenters may have the widest variety of building tools, ranging from tape measures to saws, screwdrivers, hammers, sanders, pliers, and other building tools. Bricklayers and plasterers have their trowels and tile setters have tile cutters. Every craftsman working on a home or commercial building has tools designed to make his or her job easier and more professional.

Plumbers' tools include pipe cutters, soldering torches, pipe benders, and grinders for adapting one type of connection to another. Tools for working with PVC pipe are quite different in construction and use from those used in working steel or copper pipe. To "weld" PVC pipe, for instance, involves a chemical solvent that dissolves plastic rather than heat and welding rods.

Building tools of ancient history included simple mechanisms such as inclined planes, levers, and rollers. But using such primitive building tools, our ancestors were able to erect awesome monuments such as the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx of Egypt, Stonehenge, and many more monumental buildings. Building tools need not be sophisticated to produce sophisticated results.