The photos on this page are of a Sandstone Kitchen floor at a house in the High Green suburb of Sheffield. The Sandstone tiles looked grubby and needed some love and attention. Our client was getting fed up trying to keep the stone clean, particularly around the kitchen area where cleaning didn’t seem to make much. You can see how dirty it had become on the before picture below, this is stark contrast to the middle of the of the kitchen where the portable kitchen island normally sits. I went to the property to get a better look at the problem floor and carried out a small test clean to see which products and methods would have the best impact. The patch came up really clean without much difficulty, so I was confident on being able to restore its appearance. It was clear to me the original protective sealer had worn off and dirt had become ingrained in the pores of the stone where it was proving difficult to remove. My client was very encouraged by the test clean initial result and agreed to go ahead with the quote. We arranged a suitable time to carry out the work on a day when the family would be out of the way. I started by taping up the area to make sure the skirting and woodwork were protected from splashing. Once done a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean was sprayed onto Sandstone tile and grout. It was left to dwell for approximately ten minutes to help break down all the grime and dirt and was then worked into the stone using a rotary floor machine fitted with a stiff bristled brush. This method totally transformed the dull sandstone, the stunning sandstone colours started to leap out and I could see the stone was well on its way to being transformed. The floor was then rinsed several times with water and the now soiled cleaning solution carefully removed with an industrial wet vacuum. With the floor clean I inspected all the tiles and repeated the process until I was happy the floor was total clean. I should mention It’s not always this easy to clean a stone floor and quite often I find myself having to utilise all sorts of products and methods before I’m totally satisfied it’s as clean as it could possibly be. With the cleaning done I left the floor to dry out overnight aided with heaters and air blowers. I returned to seal the floor the next day checking first that the stone was dry with a damp meter. Leaving the blowers on overnight had helped and the readings I took from the floor confirmed it was now ready for sealing. Earlier I had discussed the different types of sealer available with my clients and they had chosen to have the floor sealed with Tile Doctor Seal & Go. This works really well on Sandstone, enhancing its appearance, improving colour and of course adding protection to the stone to prevent grime and dirt stuck in the pores of the stone. Several coats were applied until I could see if was fully sealed and the right level of finish had been achieved. Sealing a floor can take some time as you need to allow each coat to dry before applying the next. Once done the floor looked meticulously clean and the new sealer had added a lovely subtle sheen to the stone. My client was very please with the transformation and left the following feedback. ‘Very professional approach, friendly, and offered great advice throughout the job. Very pleased with the finish Cheers Matt we will see you again’ One of the problems we find with many homeowners is that for cleaning they use strong bleach-based cleaning product on their sealed tiles, and this actually strips off the sealer leaving the stone vulnerable to ingrained dirt. As a result, Tile Doctor has developed Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner, it is pH neutral and gentle enough for everyday use without affecting the sealer. Matthew Lovett South Yorkshire Tile Doctor

Example of a transitional kitchen pantry design in Chicago with gray cabinets

Photos By; Nate Grant
Design ideas for a contemporary side yard wood fence landscaping in Portland.

Weiller - 2014
Elegant laundry room photo in San Francisco with raised-panel cabinets, white cabinets, gray walls and a side-by-side washer/dryer

Valance under range adds a furniture feel. Soffit over hood creates a termination for the tile backsplash in this kitchen with 10' ceilings.
Enclosed kitchen - mid-sized traditional medium tone wood floor enclosed kitchen idea in Raleigh with a farmhouse sink, shaker cabinets, white cabinets, granite countertops, gray backsplash, stone tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances and an island

Rob Karosis
Elegant u-shaped kitchen photo in New York with a farmhouse sink, beaded inset cabinets, beige cabinets, white backsplash and stainless steel appliances

Tiny House bathroom Photography: Gieves Anderson Noble Johnson Architects was honored to partner with Huseby Homes to design a Tiny House which was displayed at Nashville botanical garden, Cheekwood, for two weeks in the spring of 2021. It was then auctioned off to benefit the Swan Ball. Although the Tiny House is only 383 square feet, the vaulted space creates an incredibly inviting volume. Its natural light, high end appliances and luxury lighting create a welcoming space.

Photographer: Eric Roth; Stylist: Tracey Parkinson
Inspiration for a small coastal light wood floor sunroom remodel in Boston

Indoor Carpet Cleaning Care Fine carpet cleaning, Rug Cleaning company in Baldwin Park CA, delivers traditional hand cleaning of heirloom and modern rugs, in the Redondo Baldwin Park CA County areas.

Danish formal light wood floor living room photo in New York with white walls, a standard fireplace and no tv

Example of a mid-sized farmhouse 3/4 white tile and subway tile blue floor claw-foot bathtub design in Austin with white cabinets, a two-piece toilet, white walls, an undermount sink, marble countertops, a hinged shower door, gray countertops and recessed-panel cabinets

Inspiration for a transitional medium tone wood floor and brown floor bedroom remodel in Columbus with gray walls

When designing this beautiful kitchen, we knew that our client’s favorite color was blue. Upon entering the home, it was easy to see that great care had been taken to incorporate the color blue throughout. So, when our Designer Sherry knew that our client wanted an island, she jumped at the opportunity to add a pop of color to their kitchen. Having a kitchen island can be a great opportunity to showcase an accent color that you love or serve as a way to showcase your style and personality. Our client chose a bold saturated blue which draws the eye into the kitchen. Shadow Storm Marble countertops, 3x6 Bianco Polished Marble backsplash and Waypoint Painted Linen floor to ceiling cabinets brighten up the space and add contrast. Arabescato Carrara Herringbone Marble was used to add a design element above the range. The major renovations performed on this kitchen included: A peninsula work top and a small island in the middle of the room for the range was removed. A set of double ovens were also removed in order for the range to be moved against the wall to allow the middle of the kitchen to open up for the installment of the large island. Placing the island parallel to the sink, opened up the kitchen to the family room and made it more inviting.

This modern green home offers both a vacation destination on Cape Cod near local family members and an opportunity for rental income. FAMILY ROOTS. A West Coast couple living in the San Francisco Bay Area sought a permanent East Coast vacation home near family members living on Cape Cod. As academic professionals focused on sustainability, they sought a green, energy efficient home that was well-aligned with their values. With no green homes available for sale on Cape Cod, they decided to purchase land near their family and build their own. SLOPED SITE. Comprised of a 3/4 acre lot nestled in the pines, the steeply sloping terrain called for a plan that embraced and took advantage of the slope. Of equal priority was optimizing solar exposure, preserving privacy from abutters, and creating outdoor living space. The design accomplished these goals with a simple, rectilinear form, offering living space on the both entry and lower/basement levels. The stepped foundation allows for a walk-out basement level with light-filled living space on the down-hill side of the home. The traditional basement on the eastern, up-hill side houses mechanical equipment and a home gym. The house welcomes natural light throughout, captures views of the forest, and delivers entertainment space that connects indoor living space to outdoor deck and dining patio. MODERN VISION. The clean building form and uncomplicated finishes pay homage to the modern architectural legacy on the outer Cape. Durable and economical fiber cement panels, fixed with aluminum channels, clad the primary form. Cedar clapboards provide a visual accent at the south-facing living room, which extends a single roof plane to cover the entry porch. SMART USE OF SPACE. On the entry level, the “L”-shaped living, dining, and kitchen space connects to the exterior living, dining, and grilling spaces to effectively double the home’s summertime entertainment area. Placed at the western end of the entry level (where it can retain privacy but still claim expansive downhill views) is the master suite with a built-in study. The lower level has two guest bedrooms, a second full bathroom, and laundry. The flexibility of the space—crucial in a house with a modest footprint—emerges in one of the guest bedrooms, which doubles as home office by opening the barn-style double doors to connect it to the bright, airy open stair leading up to the entry level. Thoughtful design, generous ceiling heights and large windows transform the modest 1,100 sf* footprint into a well-lit, spacious home. *(total finished space is 1800 sf) RENTAL INCOME. The property works for its owners by netting rental income when the owners are home in San Francisco. The house especially caters to vacationers bound for nearby Mayo Beach and includes an outdoor shower adjacent to the lower level entry door. In contrast to the bare bones cottages that are typically available on the Cape, this home offers prospective tenants a modern aesthetic, paired with luxurious and green features. Durable finishes inside and out will ensure longevity with the heavier use that comes with a rental property. COMFORT YEAR-ROUND. The home is super-insulated and air-tight, with mechanical ventilation to provide continuous fresh air from the outside. High performance triple-paned windows complement the building enclosure and maximize passive solar gain while ensuring a warm, draft-free winter, even when sitting close to the glass. A properly sized air source heat pump offers efficient heating & cooling, and includes a carefully designed the duct distribution system to provide even comfort throughout the house. The super-insulated envelope allows us to significantly reduce the equipment capacity, duct size, and airflow quantities, while maintaining unparalleled thermal comfort. ENERGY EFFICIENT. The building’s shell and mechanical systems play instrumental roles in the home’s exceptional performance. The building enclosure reduces the most significant energy glutton: heating. Continuous super-insulation, thorough air sealing, triple-pane windows, and passive solar gain work together to yield a miniscule heating load. All active energy consumers are extremely efficient: an air source heat pump for heating and cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation (ERV), and high efficiency appliances. The result is a home that uses 70% less energy than a similar new home built to code requirements. OVERALL. The home embodies the owners’ goals and values while comprehensively enabling thermal comfort, energy efficiency, a vacation respite, and supplementary income. PROJECT TEAM ZeroEnergy Design - Architect & Mechanical Designer A.F. Hultin & Co. - Contractor Pamet Valley Landscape Design - Landscape & Masonry Lisa Finch - Original Artwork European Architectural Supply - Windows Eric Roth Photography - Photography

I thought I would share this case history of a Yellow and Black Victorian Tiled floor that we worked on at a large house in Lancaster last year. It’s a great example of the typical problems we face with old Victorian floors, especially around door thresholds where the transition between the different foundation invariable cause problems. I didn’t know the full history of the floor, but it was now in quite a state and recent renovation work had left the floor unstable with loose and cracked tiles. The tiles needed to be removed and then the damaged subfloor carefully scraped out and replaced. Once that was done the floor would need relaying and then cleaned and sealed so everything would blend in. After visiting the property and providing a quotation we were given the go ahead and agreed a date to do the work. We returned on the agreed date and set about carefully removing the loose and cracked Victorian tiles and put them aside for later use. Some would need replacing however this would not present a problem and they are still widely available, and I have several contacts I can turn to for this. Once this was done and the subfloor exposed and cleaned up, I used self-levelling cement to bring the floor level up and in-line with the existing. This now needed to set hard, so the rest of the day was spent cleaning up the tiles we removed earlier with Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up and Pro-clean. Our goal is to reuse as many of the original tiles as possible to preserve the heritage of the floor. The next day with the new subfloor set it was ready for tiling. This involves laying out the tiles first without adhesive carefully cutting and fitting new tiles as needed to maintain the overall pattern of the floor. Once I was happy the tiles were moved to a board and then fitted with fresh adhesive. I came back on day three with the aim of cleaning the floor so it could be sealed however whilst inspecting my new tiling I was disappointed to discover some were not as level as I had hoped. I had noticed the replacement tiles were not the same thickness as the originals the previous day but I had worked around this by using different levels of adhesive, clearly this plan was not as effective as I had hoped for. To counter this problem, I used a set of 50-Grit, 100-grit and then 200-grit diamond pads in sequence to mill the floor flat and remove the lippage between them. This is done with water to lubricate the process and a weighted floor buffer. The pads generate a lot of slurry and so you need to rinse this off with more water and extract all the soil after each pad. I followed this up with various Diamond burnishing pads of increasingly finer grits across the whole floor until we achieved a consistent finish and had the added benefit of getting the whole floor clean. More water is used to rinse the tiles after burnishing and the soil extracted with a wet vacuum as before. Once done and inspected the floor was left to dry off overnight. Tile Doctor Colour Grow was applied to enhance the appearance of the tiles and protect them going forward. This product copes well with damp which can always be a problem with old floors like this one with no damp proof membrane present. The floor looked amazing when finished and our attention to detail had really paid off, in fact you simply could not tell we had done any tiling work or replaced any tiles. For aftercare I recommend the use of Tile Doctor Neutral Cleaner which is designed for the regular cleaning of sealed tiles. Russell Taylor Lancashire Tile Doctor

Oriental, Persian, and Antique rugs add a wonderful warm atmosphere to every room. When you were first moving into your home, you remember the excitement that you felt when you were able to tie in your style with the final pieces. The lovely presence of these special rugs turn houses into family homes. These rugs, whether oriental, persian, or antique, can also be a headache to take care of. After a couple years of enjoying their presence, they can start to smell musty and if you don’t know how to care for them, then they can begin to lose their charm. This is where our wonderful services come in to save the day! If you are looking for an excellent carpet and rug cleaners to care for the special rugs in your home, you have found the best here at Carpet and Rug Cleaning Croton-on-Hudson. We have over 7 decades of combined experience, and our team is ready to care for your rug with our specialized hand washing processing.

Philadelphia Row Home Renovation focusing on maximizing storage for a young family of 5. We created a "mudroom" in the front of the row home with a large living room space for family time + hosting. We used kid-friendly furnishings with performance fabrics that are durable and easy to clean. Prioritized eco-friendly selections, utilizing locally sourced + American made pieces.

Is it necessary to clean gas fireplace? It’s intuitive that the dark black buildup of combustion needs to be cleaned from a typical wood burning fireplace, but is it needed to clean a gas fireplace? It’s gas…right? Gas fireplaces do not have a visible buildup of combustion, but should be cleaned at least once a year to prevent serious problems with the fireplace. Gas vs. Wood Burning Fireplaces When thinking of the inside of a family home, we think about the most comfortable room: the living room or family room. This is where the family meets, watches movies, and plays board games during rainy days, evenings and family time. It usually has a lofty, cozy couch and a wood burning fireplace. Nothing’s more comforting than falling asleep to the dim light of the fireplace and faint smell of burning wood. Nowadays, we have a close alternative to this old fashioned comfort: the gas fireplace. Gas fireplaces don’t leave much creosote behind, however gas fireplaces should be cleaned once a year, per the CSIA, due to dust, pet hair, insects, and other debris that can build up and cause performance problems. Chimney sweep are primarily for firewall worthiness assurance, cleaning and obstruction free assurance. Gas fireplaces look similar to wood burning fireplaces, with a live flame. The logs inside the gas fireplace look real, but are not actually burning. Oftentimes, they are made of ceramic. A gas fireplace produces much less heat than a wood burning fireplace, but can retain more heat inside your home based on its type and configuration. Gas fireplaces can be low maintenance and energy friendly alternatives to a wood burning fireplace. Some Signs to Clean Gas Fireplace 1. Buildup: Although gas fireplaces do not produce as much visible flammable and hazardous buildup, it does produce some corrosive substances and flue gasses that may settle inside your home without you knowing. Burning natural gas leaves a residue that must be cleaned annually. Failing to clean the residue may cause health risks if left untouched. 2. Technical Issues: There may be technical problems that are not visible, such as issues with the burner. Gas fireplaces are usually built to last long term but it’s imperative to check if there are any unnoticed technical issues at least once a year. 3. Gas Leaks: Over time, valves and pipes turn weaker and become corroded. It’s important to inspect these valves, as a gas leak is extremely hazardous. A certified chimney specialist must inspect and determine any damage or future damage to prevent this serious problem. 4. Condensation: Due to the high temperatures in the flue, there’s a buildup of condensation when the fireplace vapors are cooled. Natural gas exhaust also contains a high content of water vapor in emissions. The condensation reacts with byproducts and is acidic and corrosive, and must be cleaned at least once a year to not pose a potential health hazard. It’s just as important to clean a gas fireplace at least once a year to prevent long term issues that could pose health risks if not cared for. A certified chimney professional from Superior Chimney will inspect and sweep the fireplace and ventilation system. Contact us today to clean gas fireplace at 877-244-6349.

Photo: Vicki Bodine
Eat-in kitchen - large cottage u-shaped medium tone wood floor eat-in kitchen idea in New York with a farmhouse sink, beaded inset cabinets, white cabinets, marble countertops, white backsplash, stone slab backsplash, stainless steel appliances and an island