It has been a lot of work to get my kitchen looking as I dreamed, but I was lucky to find some great companies to work with including www.kitchentilesstokeontrent.co.uk. They offer a fantastic range of tiles and I felt completely spoilt for choice. I wanted a monochrome look for the kitchen and they had just the tiles that I was looking for.

So when they went away for a couple of weeks to Greece we decided to give them a nice surprise for when they got home and get www.woodenflooringberkhamstead.co.uk in to deck out the whole of the downstairs with new oak flooring.

We went for an expensive one as we wanted to do a really good job for them, but as my brother and I clubbed together, we counted it as both their Christmas presents and we could just about manage it, and www.woodenflooringberkhamstead.co.uk offered such good choice and quality service that we didn’t mind paying that bit extra for the right thing.

Once the floor was down and polished it did look amazing, and it was nice to see the house without the horrible seventies carpet which had been there since we were kids.

It was like an episode of Changing Rooms when Mum and Dad got back from their holiday. They couldn’t believe how good it looked. I think Mum even cried. Who knew wood could make someone that emotional?!

They’re now following our example and getting the rest of the house done out with wooden flooring.

I was amazed to discover how many other buildings use Travertine. There’s the Sacre-Coeur in Paris and, in Los Angeles, California, the Getty Center is a great example. Would you believe the Travertine used in the Getty Center was actually imported from Tivola and Guidonia?

About ten years ago, Italy had a near monopoly on the production of travertine but now there are quite a few producers. These include Peru, Mexico and Turkey.

The United States of America also has a few travertine producers in the Western States as demand has increased. However, as they use nearly a million tons a year most of it is imported.

From its early beginnings travertine is now one of the most frequently used stones in architecture today, which is quite a thought.

Somebody mentioned travertine to me the other day and I thought it must be something to do with Trappist monks.

Well it’s not, as most of you better educated than me will know.

It is actually a form of limestone formed by hot springs. That’s the water type of springs by the way, not bedsprings!

If you want the science behind it, a rapid process of precipitation of calcium carbonate forms Travertine.

If you come across it in a limestone cave you may see it as a stalactites or stalagmites. Or perhaps in other speleothems. See I am not that stupid.

The deposits tend to be white or cream coloured.

Anyway obviously someone in Italy thought it would make a good tile. That’s floor or wall rather than roof!

All I can imagine is they break it off from the cave roof or floor and then slice it up into thin pieces.

Hence was born the tile, which we see in classy homes and hotels today. With all the effort that goes into shaping the travertine tile I can see why you have to pay a little bit extra for a quality product.

But why choose underfloor heating? Well, firstly the cost. Underfloor heating is actually the most cost efficient way to heat your home. Plus, having the luxury of a nice warm floor to walk on is, in itself, priceless.

Underfloor heating also heats your house faster than normal heating systems. Finally, with underfloor heating, we can say goodbye to those ugly, bulky radiators and heaters cluttering up our living spaces.

www.underfloorheatingromford.co.uk offers a full and professional service. They guided me seamlessly through the process, and offered a fantastic aftercare service. After 1 year of underfloor heating I could never go back. Also, with the money I save on heating, the system has almost paid for itself. If you are interested in underfloor heating for your house, and you’re in the Romford area, why not give www.underfloorheatingromford.co.uk a call? It’s about time more people caught on to the benefits it can bring to their homes.

I wanted the walls to be quite plain but with lots of pictures up. We could then go for a more intricate design for the floor. I ordered it with an antique oak finish. It took quite a long time for the whole of downstairs to be fitted. The results are better than I could have imagined. The flooring is a real feature of the house now and has made the interior look bigger. I prefer hard wood flooring as it is more hygienic and easier to clean. This is essential when you have three children and two dogs running through the house. Now I can just give it a mop at the end of the day.

I own a small business on the outskirts of Liverpool which specialises in selling IT and computer technology. As the business was slowly growing, it was a case of making ends meet and just sticking with what we had for the time being. However, now we’ve been going for over five years and have flourished into a little empire, I think now is the right time to get all new flooring for the offices.

There are so many options for flooring in Liverpool that it is hard to know where to start. From vinyl and laminate flooring to carpets, there seems to be a choice for everything. We currently have carpets in the offices but they are so worn out that we have begun to see the underlay beneath the carpet!

I think we are going to go for a carpet again though. All these other flooring options are great but with us being a computer based company, we do a lot of manual work which probably wouldn’t suit a laminated flooring very well!

So this weekend I have decided to go on the hunt for some new office flooring. I can think of better ways to spend my weekend but at least it will keep the staff complain free for at least a little while!

My bathroom has certainly seen better days and it’s only since getting a promotion that I can afford to do some extra work on it. In the past, I have always seen getting a new bathroom fitted as a bit of a chore because it’s a lot of money to spend on securing one room. Saying that, a good bathroom is designed to last at least 10 years so hopefully mine will do the same!

I have been looking for some vinyl flooring in North London for a good amount of time now. I like that fact that the flooring is not as hard as laminate and has that soft, warming feeling to it.

I’ve looked at many other flooring options including hard wood flooring, tiled flooring and carpet alternatives. I’ve concluded though that vinyl flooring in North London seems to be the most cost effective, quality flooring.

Whilst this may be thinking in an older generation’s fashion, I do like to step out of the bath onto a warmish floor when it’s the winter months. My grandma for example swears by carpet as her flooring choice just because she says it’s warmer than the others. I must admit, she does make sense from time to time!

Vinyl flooring was probably not my immediate choice for flooring but it will certainly go down in my new bathroom a treat!

Doing it on a budget meant that I had to call on my friends to help fit the place out. Luckily they were up for it. We had to crack on as every day we weren’t open, we were losing money.

Tiling the kitchen was one of the biggest jobs. It had to be perfectly sealed and easy to keep clean. Health and safety, you know.

One of my friends does a bit of building work from time to time. He told me to buy Mapei grout, Mapei adhesive and Mapei sealer if I wanted a fast-setting grout, and to accept no substitutes.

So I got back on to the internet, and searched for Mapei grout. There were quite a few suppliers, so I chose one that could supply immediately and ordered a few quantities of Mapei adhesive, Mapei grout and Mapei sealer.

A day later and it was with us. We got to work. It was a huge job, so I was glad I had chosen a brand I could rely on. Days later (and some nights), we were finally finished. Thank goodness, it was a fast-setting grout or it would’ve taken even longer.

We’re now open and, of course, my workman friends have had a free meal or two. I reckon they earnt it.

Being a bit of a computer geek, I immediately did a search on the internet for carpet fitters in Bishops Stortford. It was quite hard to decide between so many companies but I rang the first four that were listed.

One firm was especially helpful, a family-run firm who had been in the business of Carpet Fitting in Bishops Stortford for many years. He said he would come round to measure up and bring a selection of different carpet samples with him. The next day he came round – on time – and he was extremely efficient and very nice.

Even my wife liked the pet-friendly samples he showed us, and she’s not an easy woman to please.

The carpet was fitted the following Monday, and the way that the guys moved all the furniture around was impressive. The dog loved all the attention too.

Now my wife has got a brand-new living-room carpet that is hard wearing and won’t show any stains.

I’ve got myself on a dog-training course so there shouldn’t be any more little accidents.