Lee Featherstone was the winner of the Tile Fixer of the Year title at this year's Tile Awards, presented on 14 May at St John's Hotel, Solihull, with his entry showing some spectacular use of natural stone (see the picture on the right).

It is not surprising that his work should include stone because Lee trained as a stonemason at Bath College as a CITB apprentice with stonemason PM Bines, obtaining a level three NVQ.

He established his own business, the Natural Stone Tile Gallery, in Melksham, Wiltshire, in 2005, using his training to enable him to work stone to complete bathrooms like the one pictured with bespoke door and window jambs, shower trays, mirror frames and worktops rather than just tiling the floors and walls.

Lee is regularly recommended by local builders and kitchen and bathroom specialists and has close links with Mandarin Stone and Fired Earth, where he is the recommended fitter for both in the Bath area. He is usually booked up for months in advance.

Lee has also completed the Schluter training course in wet room installation. Lee can organise other trades such as carpenters, electricians and plumbers and regularly project manages the installation of new bathrooms. He works very closely with his adhesive manufacturer Rocatex Adhesives, who provide all his adhesive products and keep him updated with any new developments, allowing him to overcome any technical issues that may arise.

The picture on the right shows a bathroom tiled using polished Callacatta Viola marble.

The client was Ms C Pinder, who comments: "When I moved to Bath I wanted to have a marble bathroom in my new home. I chose a marble which the supplier informed me would be difficult to install given the striking veining and markings. They recommended that I engaged Lee to do the work as the ‘only tiler’ whom they trusted to do the work to a high enough standard.

"Lee was extremely busy and I had to wait several months for him to be free but, given the supplier's recommendation, I decided to wait.

"What a great decision that was!

"Lee was able to organise the plumber, plasterer, glass and mirror supplier to complete the project. His own specialism, the tiling of the walls and flooring, was done to perfection. He came up with solutions such as how to raise the bath and construct a purpose made marble plinth, which he fabricated himself.

"What sets Lee apart is that he knows all the trades and is able to hire and work well with them. He comes up with solutions not problems.

"Moreover Lee is a delight to have in one's home. I will most definitely be using Lee again for future jobs – his work is of such a high standard."

What a commendation! No wonder Lee won the Tile Fixer of the Year title. But it was not a walkover. The judges had to look closely at the fine detail to choose a winner from among the finalists.

The others short-listed also had strong credentials to stake their own claim to be winners. They were: David Stott of Elite Tiling; James Smith of James Smith Tiling; Nigel Davidson of Davidson Tiling; Phillip Harrison of Harrison Contract Tiling; Rowan Johnson of Atlantis Installations; and Wes Geraghty of Geraghty Tiling.

Wes Geraghty also entered one of his projects – the bathroom and public areas of Taymouth Castle in Scotland – in the Leisure / Hospitality category. It made exemplary use of natural and engineered stone in this major project that turned a 200-year-old castle into a golf clubhouse and included the bathrooms in newbuild chalets. You can read more about that here.

Most of them say understanding stone has become an essential part of a tiler's job because so much of the work now involves natural stone. Not that they mind much whether they are using natural stone, porcelain or ceramics. They accept the different aesthetics of clients, both commercial and domestic, and are happy to go along with whatever is required.

David Stott puts it this way: "As Elite Tiling I am a fully trained (to NVQ level 2) tile fixer. I am a specialist in fixing all types of tiles from large format tiles to the smallest of mosaics, from the toughest granites to the softest travertine, including ceramics to grade five polished porcelain, all man-made and natural stone products including marble, slate, Galaxy Gulf Stone, limestones and terracotta. Work extends from the smallest kitchens or bathrooms to much larger bespoke commissioned projects."

Trainor Stone & Tile's work at Harvey Nicholls at the Mailbox in Birmingham exemplified that. The project was entered in the 'Commercial Contract' category, although it was pipped to the post by another stunning stone project, Armatile's St Patrick's Church in Donaghmore, Northern Ireland.

The Harvey Nicholls store was designed by architect Virgile + Partners using semi-transparent polycarbonate ceiling panels; shop counters made from concrete slabs topped with white Corian and faced with iridescent horizontal panels; background walls with variously rough unfinished plaster and an elaborate texture of brick and timber blocks forming a sculptural pattern. The main field of the floors consists of concrete trapezium tiles measuring 1500mm on their longest side. There are black diamond and triangular shaped concrete tiles that match the size of the larger grey trapezium to give the client continuous grout lines. And 1,000m² of Calacatta Vagili marble blends with the concrete tiles to conform precisely with the design specification.

Carlos Virgile, Director of Virgile + Partners, says the aim is to break established rules supposed to define luxury shopping environments.

The project that won the category. St Patrick's Church, also included a mixture of natural and man-made tiles, although not all the stonework cannot really be called tiles. It included stone mats designed and made by Armatile, the Northern Irish tile retailer, manufacturer and contractor, that involved waterjet cutting for inlaying – Armatile has a well equipped factory that includes two waterjet cutters. The mats have a Carrara marble centres surrounded by a border depicting vines and leaves created from Sienna, Rojo Alicante and Alpi Verdi marbles to Armatile's own design. The steps and altar floor are all Crema Marfil. It is a project any stone company would have been proud to have completed.

The ideal accompaniment to high thermal mass hard flooring that retains its heat for a long time, as stone does, is underfloor heating. It creates a pleasant and economical radiated heat. It is ideal heating for cold winters but because it takes so long to respond, is not so good for chilly evenings in spring and autumn (or even summer).

Nigel Davidson, from Davidson Tiling, another company in Northern Ireland, says anhydrite screed can overcome that because it can be used so much thinner than sand and cement screed. Not everyone likes it because it has to be primed and isolated, but it warms up and cools down more quickly because of its reduced thermal mass. It will still take up to two hours for a stone floor surface to reach operating temperature but with a thicker sand and cement screed that could four hours.

And with underfloor heating in mind, the Best Innovation Award at the Tile Awards went to Warmup's 4iE smart thermostat.

In developing the 4iE, Warmup set out to achieve three key objectives:

1. The house should always be at a comfortable temperature when occupied.

2. Energy bills should be as low as possible.

3. The least possible effort is required from the user to achieve these benefits.

Warmup says its 4iE and MyWarmup are the first truly smart thermostat system in the market. This is not just a thermostat that can be turned up and down from a smartphone, or guesses when you're likely to be home, it is, says Warmup, "a powerful, personal heating expert, with over 10 years of market leading R&D built into it".

It uses algorithms to work in the background, calculating the most efficient ways to keep families comfortable, allowing them to enjoy their home without having to make adjustments, yet still making considerable savings.

There are a lot of categories in the Tile Awards and a lot of stone and products to interest stone companies, especially those involved in interiors, among the finalists in many of the categories of the Awards. You can see all the winners on The Tile Association website.