There is a library where you can check out just about anything. Except a weed whacker.
”If you needed a Weed Eater today, you`d be out of luck,” says tool lending specialist Pete McElligott. All five were broken for a while. He has just fixed four, but the waiting list is backed up.
You could, however, check out a cement mixer, a crowbar or a power carpet stretcher.
Mary Ann Desmond borrowed a dolly to move an old refrigerator downstairs. Dave Guthrie borrowed a giant ladder to patch up his roof before it rained. Warren Chong took out some giant carpet-cutting scissors.
They got it all at the Berkeley Public Library, south branch, which has about 2,500 tools in its Tool Lending Library. It is perhaps the most complete tool library in the country, of the half-dozen or so there are.
You can borrow everything from a 50-cent drill bit to a $1,200 electric sewer cleaning machine, as long as you are a Berkeley resident or property owner, and have ID to prove it.
”It`s extremely popular,” says Regina Minudri, Berkeley Public Library director. More than 100 people come through on a busy day, and the library lends more than 2,000 home and garden tools a month.
They especially want the drain-cleaning machines, electric jack hammers, electric rotary hammers for bolting concrete to earthquake-strengthen buildings, power saws, sanders and ladders, says McElligott, a former library maintenance man, who runs the place.
But don`t expect anything with a gas engine. ”Just electric,”
McElligott says. ”We`re not zoned to store flammable liquids.”
McElligott has so many tools, he doesn`t know precisely how many. A count has begun to put into a computer one day. ”But you never know,” he says.
”Because you never know if it`s coming back.”
More Top Picks Best Patio String Lights
A tool library in Las Vegas went bust apparently for just that reason, he says. This library works it out with strict identification and proof-of-address rules.
The place is a jungle of hanging hardware and neighbor-talk.
Dave Guthrie has been borrowing tools here every month for about 10 years. Must have been 100 times at least. Tools that Guthrie, an artist, says he`d never be able to afford to buy.
”Saved me $1,000, easy,” he says, looping a rope around the big ladder on the roof of his comparatively shrimpy car. ”And Pete`s real good.”
Borrowing is free. Most tools you can check out for three days, no more than 10 at a time, and no phone renewals.
Just don`t wreck the tools. A big sign next to the checkout counter advises that if you return garden tools stuck with mud or animal excrement, you will be fined $1. Tangled extension cord: $1. Pipe threader with broken teeth: $5.
Late fines are from 50 cents a day for drywall mud pans to $15 for the popular demolition hammers.