Who we are
We're Matt and Joel Brennan, brothers from Gippsland in Victoria. Matt's the older one. He spent about a year planning the build before the slab went down, and he still has the spreadsheet. Joel did the bits that involved the nail gun, plus a couple of the bits that involved the first-aid kit.
Matt runs Makita gear and will explain why for as long as you let him. Joel's shed is full of Ryobi and he regrets none of it. Neither of us has talked the other around in ten years of trying, which is roughly how this website happened.
The build
A few years back Matt bought a block and decided to owner-build rather than pay someone else to have all the fun. Joel thought that was a terrible idea and said so, then turned up every weekend anyway. Licensed trades did the work the law reserves for licensed trades. We did a lot of the rest — framing, cladding, decking, fit-off, painting, a retaining wall that Joel still brings up at Christmas.
It took about two and a half years of weekends. By the end of it the shed had more tools than the house had furniture, and we'd bought, returned, replaced and worn out enough gear to have opinions about most of what's on the shelf at a hardware store. Some of those purchases were great. A few were expensive lessons. Both kinds ended up being useful for this site.
Why we started this
Every time someone we know buys a house, the messages start. Which drill. Whether the Bunnings one is fine. Whether brushless is worth it. Joel was typing the same answers into group chats every couple of weeks, and Matt already had half of it in a spreadsheet anyway, so we figured we'd write it all down once and do it properly.
That's Toolnerd. The thing we wish we'd had standing in the tool aisle, trying to work out if the $109 one was a bargain or a mistake.
What you'll find here
Reviews cover one tool at a time — scored out of 10, specs translated into plain English, and a straight answer on who it suits. Versus pieces put two or three options head to head, because that's usually the actual decision you're standing there making. Guides are for the background stuff — how to choose a circular saw, what drill bits to buy, what brushless means — written for someone who's never owned the tool and would like to stop pretending otherwise.
Everything is written for Australia. Australian prices, Australian warranty terms, gear you can buy here.
How we score
Out of 10, against what the tool is for and what it costs. A $109 impact driver gets judged as a $109 impact driver, not held up next to a $400 trade unit. The scores come from doing the homework — manuals, spec sheets, what the warranty actually covers, what batteries cost once the kit deal wears off. Building a house leaves you with a long list of real jobs to think about while you're reading a spec sheet, and we lean on that list constantly.
We use the proper terms and explain them as we go. If we say torque, we'll tell you what torque is. That's half the point of the site.
How we make money
When you buy through a link here, the retailer pays us a small commission. It doesn't change the price you pay, and it doesn't change the scores. When the cheap one is the right call, we say so — that's most of what Joel is for.