Hailsham

New build upstairs floors are the most common carpet job in Hailsham: three or four bedrooms, a landing and the stairs, replacing the thin carpet the house was sold with. A wool twist in the bedrooms and a stain resistant twist on the stairs and landing is the usual answer, fitted over a proper underlay that makes the whole floor feel different.

In the older houses in the town centre and the villages, our carpet fitters spend more time on the measure: floors that slope, doors that need easing, a hall that narrows. It is the work we like best.

The open plan ground floors of the new developments are made for luxury vinyl tile: one glue down floor from the front door through the kitchen and living space to the garden doors, over the screed and the underfloor heating, with no thresholds. Herringbone in the hall is the popular choice at the moment; a wide plank through the rest.

In the older houses LVT is the way to get a flat, warm, waterproof floor over boards that have moved: ply, a latex skim and the planks laid from a centre line.

On the estates, sheet vinyl in the kitchen and bathroom and laminate in the living room is the practical, good value combination, and it is what we fit for many of the town's landlords between tenants. Laminate goes down with the right wear class for the room and an expansion gap at every wall; vinyl goes down in one piece wherever the room fits the roll.

Stairs in the farmhouses and cottages around Herstmonceux, the Dickers and Chiddingly are often painted or stripped and take a runner with rods; in the new builds a fully fitted carpet over a firm underlay is the usual choice. Older flights rarely have two treads the same, so every one is measured and every winder cut and folded by hand.