Essential vocabulary for talking about DIY in Sweden

Local Sweden

3 days ago

Until you've engaged a Swede in a discussion about, say, how best to sand a parquet floor, you haven't really understood them. They really come into their own when doing or talking about practical things. Here are some of the words you need to know to join them.
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It's difficult to overestimate just how central practical projects like building, chopping wood and painting, known collectively as hemmafix (literally "home fix") or gör det själv (DIY), are to Swedish culture.
One of the first things a young couple does when they move in together is often calling over their respective parents to paint and renovate.
When they get a little older and buy a summer house or kolonistuga, they're likely to spend at least as much time beavering away at some useful project or other, like installing a new wooden deck (utedäck) as they are swimming or socialising.
There's a reason why the fringes of each and every Swedish town are crammed with branches of building supply stores and DIY chains like Byggmax, Bauhaus, Hornbach, and Jem & Fix.
Swedes can be reserved, but if you engage them in a discussion on a practical subject, such as how best to drain a boggy lawn, you will often find them willing to continue chatting almost indefinitely.
The only problem is that as soon as the talk strays into this territory, many foreigners find themselves needing vocabulary they've never previously encountered.
So here's a list of some of the words you need to know to join them in the conversation.
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In every building shop you'll find a section for järnvaror, which literally means "iron goods", and covers all sorts of screws (skruvar), nails (spikar), nuts (muttrar), bolts (bultar), hooks (krokar) and much else besides. There are also still ironmongers (järnhandel or järnaffär), particularly in towns too small for an out of town retail park, which mainly sell these goods.
Most jobs will require tools, such as a screwdriver (skruvmejsel), saw (såg), or an adjustable spanner (skiftnyckel), which was invented, incidentally, by the inventor Johan Petter Johansson in the Swedish city of Eskilstuna back in 1891.
You'll need an electric drill or borrmaskin, which will often be a träborr (wood drill). If you live in an apartment with hard concrete walls then you'll need a heavier slagborr. A hammer (hammare) will come in useful. During a building project, Swedes often have a utility knife stuck permanently in their belt, which is often called a morakniv, after the leading brand.
You'll also need a vattenpass (spirit level) to keep your angles straight, and a tum- or meterstock (a folding ruler) or måttband (measuring tape), to measure everything out. You'll need to keep all this in a verktygslåda (toolbox).
If you're engaged in a more ambitious DIY project, you will probably need wooden building materials. Wood as a material is trä, but if you're burning it, it become ved, and if you're building with it, it becomes virke. Studs, the long, load-bearing pieces of wood used to build the frames for walls are reglar, planks are brädor, but when used to cover the inside and outside of walls they are called paneller, and can be either innerpanel or ytterpanel.
Often it's easiest when covering a wall or roof to use råspont, tongue and groove panels that slot together. When you're putting on the finishing touches to a wall you'll need lister, or skirting boards.
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Once you've made the frame, you're most likely to cover the wall with plasterboard (gipsskiva) or possibly chipboard (OSB or spånskiva). You might stick in some insulation or isolering first, usually mineral wool (stenull).
If you're painting a wall you will need färg ("paint", literally "colour"), although to put it on you'll need to måla (paint). You might want to lay on some plaster (noun spackel or verb spackla).
And if you want to sand (slipa) the wall to make it smooth, you will need use sandpaper (sandpapper), or perhaps a sanding machine (slipmaskin).
Swedes don't tend to go for this in a big way, but you might decide to use wallpaper (tapet) instead.
Redoing the bathroom is one of the most common renovation projects, and if you are convinced to do this, you'll need to get tiles (kakel), and grouting (fogmassa).
If you are laying down a new bathroom floor, you might also need liquid putty or flytspackel, to make the floor slope down to the drain.
Good luck!