When replacing an existing floor in your home what options have you open to you? Of course you've got your standard choice of carpet throughout or the more up to date favourite of wooden or laminate flooring both of which are still extremely popular, hard wearing and acceptable in the modern household.

But what alternatives have you got open to you that will set you apart from the normal crowd? Flooring is big business, this makes sense really, every home has some kind of flooring whether it be carpet, wooden, laminate, vinyl or tiles made of varying materials. Carpet has been not so popular in recent years, over the years the consumers demand for cheaper and cheaper product drove the quality down to such a level that people moved away from carpet to other types of flooring such as, initially laminates.

The carpet market has seen an upturn in business and surprisingly, considering the reason for its down fall, the reason for its resurgence is a growth in the higher priced product, the luxury deep pile carpet. Carpet may have its down side as a floor covering but a luxurious deep pile carpet does take some beating.

10-15 years ago when laminate flooring first became popular it was the must have flooring for the home. DIY superstores had every imaginable shade of wood available as a laminate floor covering but as is the way of the market a price war broke out and the product got cheaper and cheaper and the quality suffered. At first the consumer accepted that laminate flooring was an affordable commodity but of course after the flooring being laid for a couple of years the consumer realised that it wasn't built to last and then they have to go through the process of re-laying another flooring.

In recent years in the same way the carpet market suffer before the laminate flooring market has seen a drop in business at the cheaper end of the scale but a rise in the better quality product at the higher end of the market. Floor tiles are now a popular option for flooring certain rooms of the house although floor tiles do not suit every room in the house they do lend themselves well to the rooms where water may be present, bathroom, WC and kitchen. These are the rooms that in the 1970's and 80's were covered in linoleum when the original tiles were ripped up.

The problem with floor tiles back then was that they were extremely cold to the touch, no one likes cold feet first thing in the morning and linoleum offered a warm to the foot and cost effective alternative to floot tiles. The fashion for a period was to fit cork floor tiles in kitchens but these were very difficult to keep clean so that fad soon moved away. In the 90's under floor heating became more cost effective and this offered people an option to replace the vinyl or wooden flooring with original or modern floor tiles on top of an under floor heating system that does away with the problem of cold feet.

The trend for flooring certainly looks as if the battle has been won by the better quality products, laminates have been in a lot of cases been replaced by solid wood flooring, cheap carpets are still available but we're seeing a growth in better quality luxury carpets and linoleum has been seen off by the introduction of under floor heating and the resurgence of floor tiles.