We regularly position hobs and sinks to suit different circumstances - for example - in Heathers kitchen the hob suited the island better as they were social people and cooking and entertaining were a key part of the whole room design. In Carolina’s kitchen it was more a bank of tall storage on the perimeter wall with a long peninsula that was ‘where it all happens’ as that suited that whole room area, and their family. In my own kitchen my island is purely for prep and the cooking and sink are both on the perimeter walls ! If you cook really fragrant food - then lots of people who do prefer to vent straight outside via a wall - but sometimes you can vent strait up though a flat roof ! So no one size fits all. It’s s combination of what suits you and your building and circumstances ! Either way - a designer worth their salt will discuss lots of things with you to get the low down on how your kitchen might best work safely, efficiently and to suit you and your family!

We had ours laid before the units etc went in, but it was laid up to where there was going to be cabinets etc. You can measure where everything is going to be a perhaps mark it out with chalk. It's not worth having it underneath cabinets as you'd just be paying for something that no-one sees. Our fitter laid to just inside where the plinths were going to be. For things like the dishwasher (that wasn't built in) he laid flooring under where those would go. As for skirting, our fitter said he could lay it before or after the skirting was fitted, he said one was just as easy as the other to do, but we chose to fit the skirting after the flooring was laid.

Hello Paul, LVT in a south facing room with 5 metres worth of glazing won't cause a problem so long as you look for two things: We'd recommend going belts and braces and use a high temperature adhesive, like F Balls F48 - click here. You would normally use this in conjunction with underfloor heating and/or when in areas of huge temperature fluctuation like conservatories. We'd recommend going for one of the major LVT manufacturer brands, as they are more likely to have tested their products to be UV stable. This is what will help prevent fading in the sunlight. When you get serious with your supplier to make the purchase (and we would very much like to supply your materials, Paul), ask to see the technical data sheet for your product as you want to see for yourself that the product is UV stable. A manufacturer's data sheet should show you whether it is or is not UV stable. Major LVT brands to consider are: Amtico Karndean Natural Solutions Polyflor Best to stick to a major brand, in your circumstances, as the products will have been manufactured to high UK standards. The cheap and cheerful ones are produced, in volume, in China and do not have such stringent quality control tests carried out. Shrinkage? Doubtful. That "can" happen when using a click LVT but if you use a dryback LVT that must be adhered you won't experience shrinkage, Paul. We're cute, we're cuddly… we're the Flooring Gurus!

Is does seem that the lesser known brands of LVT are the same thickness and same warranty as the major brands- the difference seems to be the colour choice and size of marketing budget. So as long as you like the colour choice with another brand then I think the cost saving is worth having. Separately the issue with herringbone over an expansive area is making the pattern meet up- generally a competent fitter will have no problems- I wonder if the issue is that you aren’t actually looking at LVT but instead floating floors (click together floors as opposed to stick down to the screed). Floating floors need to expand and over a large sized area can need an expansion strip adding which looks fine if you can add it to a doorway but looks odd in the middle of a large room.