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You've reached houseoftools.ca, a small fan site about Western Canadian construction jobs and old shop tools. And by "fan site" I mean none of us worked for the original House of Tools chain that closed down in 2009 or run houseoftools.net... we just liked the old stores, we don't have any social accounts... and blah, blah, blah.

In Honor of House of Tools (1963 to 2009).

I still keep a dog-eared yellow House of Tools catalogue out on my Calgary garage bench. Max and Blanche Bercovich ran her dad Joseph Lipkind's shop in Trochu for 25 years before moving to Calgary in January 1962 and starting House of Tools in 1963.

They mailed out their first catalogue in 1987 and put nine stores online with Axia NetMedia in May 1999 before closing down in June 2009, when Stan Pridham's KMS Tools picked up several BC spots while houseoftools.net stayed up (photos via Wilson Hui, Alberta Archives and Raymond).

Please double check anything you read on here before taking our word for it! No part of this fan website is legally binding, we never post construction or engineering advice, and we never tell anyone how to do a building job.