I have PGH brown quarry tiles throughout the kitchen, living, dining and areas of my 1980's house. I want to replace them. Can tiles or timber or bamboo floors be laid over existing tiles? I would really like to go with polished concrete, but is it worth the cost, and effort, of removing the tiles ..... and would what's underneath be satisfactory to "polish" ??? How costly is this? It's a big area.

Hi, my experience has been that every company has different aggregate depending on what is locally available so for us to choose a colour is impossible. Have you got a shortlist? Maybe that would be a better way to help?

It has a sort of Tuscan/ Mediterranian vibe , and I like most of the features ( that chimney design is clever , for example , and the way the paving is wearing is great ! ) . You say about red trim , but to me it looks like a reddy brown , which suits . The bluey greeny board doesn't suit , and doesn't go with the roof either ( I assume the roof is all those charcoal tiles ? ) . Ordinarily , I'd say to lighten the render and go with a darker board -- probably charcoal , but then thats just a continuation of the roof . BUT I like the weathered vibe of the existing render , and I like how the windows etc works with the render too . So here's my 'easy' improvement -- leave it mostly as it is , but change 2 things . The downpipe and collector near the door ( the single story one ) I'd change to genuine copper ( not just paint ) ; and the barge board around the top I'd change to either crisp white ( the safe option ) or a metallic coppery bronze -- that references the downpipe but also ties in and transitions between the render and the tiles . A bit riskier , but IMO worth trying .

When you have an idea of a colour you like, you can go to the Dulux website and see the details of the colour: light reflectance and the ratio of red to green to blue. Then pick some similar colours - I generally go for something slightly darker and something lighter but the same or similar colour. Alternatively you could go for same tone but slightly different colours - cooler or warmer. Order these 3 or 4 in the large A4 swatches and then use blu tack to put them on the walls you plan to paint. It is amazing how different these will look in different areas and at different times of the day. I number each one on the back and keep a record of my preferred colour in north, south, east & west facing spots in morning & afternoon light. The choice then comes down to which colour I picked most often.