Follow these top tips when preparing to lay vinyl.

• You may think that vinyl flooring is the poor relation to a tiled floor, but there are some brilliant vinyls. Check out Floorgrip 98 Stripes, a striking black and taupe barcode-style striped design that’s smart, contemporary and currently reduced to just £10.49 per sq m at Carpetright (www.carpetright.co.uk). It would really transform a room.
• Before fitting your chosen vinyl, you need to prepare the sub-floor. It should be clean, dry and as stable and flat as possible. If the sub-floor’s concrete, use cement mortar to fill any cracks and holes. An uneven concrete floor can also be improved with a self-levelling floor compound, available from DIY stores.
• If the sub-floor’s floorboards, knock down any protruding nails with a hammer and nail punch. Screw down any loose boards, checking first that there aren’t cables or pipes underneath (you may want to screw them all down to prevent movement).
• When the boards are secure, cover them with hardboard, which first needs to be acclimatised to the room it’s going to be laid in. Do this by brushing water onto the rough side of the boards and leaving them stacked flat for a couple of days with the rough sides touching. You should also leave your roll of vinyl in a warm room for at least a day to make it easier to lay.
• Fix the hardboard (rough side up) with 19mm annular nails, ensuring that the heads don’t stick up and, again, that you don’t hammer through any cables or pipes underneath.

DIY news bulletin

Not protecting our gardens and garden furniture from bad weather is costing us dear, according to new research from wood protection specialist Sadolin.

The survey found that 80% of us don’t do anything to prepare our outside space for winter, with exterior woodwork such as fences, sheds and decking the most likely to be ignored (by 75% of homeowners). Sadolin calculates that binning weather-damaged things from the garden, and buying products to rectify the damage, could cost homeowners a staggering £880 million a year.

More than 40% of those surveyed admitted to throwing away weather-damaged things from their garden in spring. Almost a quarter said that they didn’t do anything to protect them because they couldn’t be bothered, while 23% said they didn’t know how.

And for those willing to make the effort to put things right in spring, the average person will spend approximately one working day and £40 on reconditioning and repairing. You have been warned!

Condensation or mould and mildew a problem at this time of year? Try UniBond’s new Humidity Absorber.

It’s small, so it can be tucked away out of sight and is easy to store in summer, and comes with two PowerTABS (like big dishwasher tablets), which last around six to eight weeks. They absorb the humidity and neutralise any odours. Just pop a tab in the top of the unit and it sucks up moisture and releases it below as a blue liquid. You can clearly see when the tank’s full and it’s easy to empty.

The UniBond Humidity Absorber costs from £6.99 for a small until December (usually £13.99). Visit www.makingdiyeasier.co.uk

Ask the expert…

Q: My new home has textured wallpaper on every wall and ceiling. What’s the best way to get rid of it?

A: Depending on the type of wallpaper, you’ll need to pull or scrape off the top layer, or if it doesn’t come away easily, score the paper. You’ll then need a sharp stripping knife and a good steam stripper to get the paper off. Try the PTL 1 wallpaper stripper (£49.99, Bosch), which is upright and compact and has a really flexible, kink-resistant and instantly detachable steam hose, making it easy to use. It also has an on/off switch, so you don’t have to turn it off at the socket, which is useful. Another good model is the KX3300 wallpaper stripper (£39.99, Black & Decker). Its steam tube isn’t as flexible or easy to detach, but it is easier to fill and empty the tank, thanks to a big screw cap. It heats up really quickly and you get 15 minutes more work time.

Seasonal task…

Get your front door ready for winter by fitting brush draught excluders on the back of the letterbox, around the frame and/or on the bottom of the door, especially if there’s a big gap there. You could also fit a curtain pole above it, so you can draw a long, heavy curtain across the door when it’s not in use.