The first thing you’ll need add to your toolkit is adequate protective gear – at the very least, you should wear safety glasses and gloves when tackling demolition tasks. With that sorted, you can starting getting to grips with the hard hitters!

For rough work, a wrecking bar is vital. These usually come with forged hook and claw ends, and allow you to pry apart unwanted fixtures and building materials, as well as pull nails. Stanley’s new FatMax spring steel wrecking bars are worth a look – as well as all the typical features, they have a flat striking face. Made from spring steel, they’re strong, durable yet lightweight enough to ensure good accuracy. Precision ground edges give better access when you’re ripping up decking, flooring and other timbers. And you can also use a claw hammer to lever out smaller nails or where you can’t quite get the wrecking bar in.

For chipping out masonry, a set of suitable cold chisels and brick bolsters won’t go amiss. Large bolsters are ideal for brick and stone, and will come in handy on a renovation project in circumstances where powertools can’t reach. Be careful when dealing with natural stone flooring, though, especially if you want to re-use it – the stone’s grain structure means that a simple smack to the centre will cause shattering.

Smaller chisels of this type can be used to make light work of removing ceramic tiles from walls and floors. Rather than smashing the tile, it’s best to position the chisel edge at the grount line on an angle between the tile and solid surface, then strike a sharp blow with a club hammer to break the adhesive.

If you value your fingers, be sure to always use a hammer with a striking face twice the diameter of the chisel head to minimise slipping – and don’t take your eyes off the work!

Nick Jones, product manager, Stanley Tools www.stanleytools.com