Tiling, bathrooms and kitchens in Rugby

Rugby is best known for its school — where, legend has it, rugby football began — but much of the town grew with the railway in the Victorian era, leaving streets of terraces and villas close to the centre. Those older homes often have period features, compact bathrooms and floors that need careful preparation.

To the east, Houlton is turning the former Rugby Radio Station site into a whole new community, and Cawston Grange and other developments have added more modern homes on the edges of the town. New houses benefit from the same thinking as anywhere: replace standard tiling with something chosen for the space.

Villages such as Dunchurch, Clifton upon Dunsmore and Long Lawford, and Kilsby and Crick over the border in Northamptonshire, mix period cottages with newer homes — all within easy reach along the A428 and the M1.