Here’s how to DIY your way to feeling warmer.

• Strip wallpaper. An electric wallpaper stripper is like a big kettle and creates lots of steam, so it’s a great way to get warm. Moving the scraper up and down will help, too, especially if the wallpaper is hard to remove.
• Paint your walls. Similarly, moving your paint roller up and down can keep you warm. If you want to paint after dark, use powerful work lights so you can see what you’re doing – they give off a surprising amount of heat.
• Paint your woodwork. Using quick-drying wood and metal paint is a good idea at any time of year, but especially in winter. Freezing temperatures will slow down the drying process, though, so train a fan heater on your freshly painted woodwork to speed things up and make you toasty.
• Sand. Sanding is often vigorous work, so it’ll keep you warm. You won’t get a good finish if you don’t sand thoroughly, so put your back into it and you’ll benefit in more ways than one.
• Silicone seal. To silicone seal around a bath, you need to fill it with water. This replicates the weight of someone having a bath and helps to prevent the sealant from cracking. When you’re doing the sealing, sit on the edge of the bath with your feet and legs in the water – as long as the water’s hot, you’ll be warm.

DIY news bulletin

The B&Q winter sale has already started and it’s a sale with a difference because the company will beat any price in the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom market (terms and conditions apply).

It’s also launched a four-year interest-free credit deal to help customers spread the cost of their kitchen, bathroom or bedroom in these cash-strapped times.

The best deals include the Cooke & Lewis Helena bathroom suite, reduced from £1,036 to £642; the Cooke & Lewis Cascata walk-in shower enclosure, reduced from £549 to £275; and the Cooke & Lewis Carisbrooke kitchen, reduced from £3,575.50 to £2,512.66 for an eight-unit example.

The event is on until the beginning of March. See www.diy.com for details.

When wrapping your gifts (DIY related or not) this year, ensure you make them ‘secure’.

New research from Sellotape reveals that it’s important to wrap presents properly, as almost a third of UK adults admit to being a ‘present peeker’ before the big day.

The survey also found that people in Yorkshire are most likely to have their presents wrapped before the middle of December.

More organised still, 3% of people in the South East have bought and wrapped all their gifts before the end of November.

Residents of the North West typically spend the most time wrapping their presents, while people in the South West are most likely to rush – 39% devote less than an hour to it each year.

Ask the expert…

Q: I like the look of a slate floor, but I’m worried that slate tiles will be too hard for me to lay myself, which I want to do to cut costs. Is there an easier alternative?

A: You should find ceramic intimations of slate easier to cut and lay, or, if you want to avoid tiling altogether, slate-effect laminate, which is straightforward to fit once you’ve got the hang of it. If you’d prefer real slate, choose tiles that aren’t very thick and buy a diamond-wheel flatbed tile cutter – it’s easy to cut them on one of these. Cutting is the hardest bit, so as long as you can do that, you should be able to lay the floor yourself.

Seasonal task…

Check the exterior of your home, especially the roof, for damage inflicted by the recent storms and high winds. Missing tiles, for example, can cause leaks, so use a pair of binoculars to help you to assess the condition of the roof safely, without having to go on it.