New oak parquet for the apartments of Burton Park’s Grade I listed house, and wood floors laid and restored across the country homes of Duncton, Lodsworth, Fittleworth and Bedham.
35 minutes from our Bognor Regis workshop · Covering GU28
Burton House stands in its own parkland half a mile east of Duncton, a few miles south of Petworth and thirty-five minutes up the A285 from our Bognor Regis workshop. Built around 1828 in a neo-Grecian style, faced in stucco, it is Grade I listed and has long since been divided into apartments. That means generous rooms, tall ceilings and original joinery — and every one of those details has to be treated with care when a new floor goes down.
The country around it is the same story on a smaller scale. Period farmhouses and cottages in Duncton and Fittleworth, large private houses out toward Lodsworth and the woods at Bedham, many of them listed. Owners here want floors that suit the age of the building and are laid without damaging what is already there. That is the work we do: wood flooring and parquet installed new, and old floors sanded and brought back.
In a listed building the joinery matters as much as the floor. On this Burton House job the deep, moulded skirtings stayed exactly where they were: we cut them in situ so the new parquet could be tucked underneath as it went down. There was no need to prise off and refit old skirting that might split, and no fresh gaps and filler along the walls.
Herringbone in an old house is set out from the room, not the tape measure. Walls in a house nearly two hundred years old are rarely square, so we plan the centre line around the doorways and the main view into each room, then let the pattern run cleanly to the edges. Where the parquet meets carpet or another floor, a neat plank border finishes it off.
Before anything is laid we check and prepare the subfloor, because a parquet floor is only as flat and quiet as what sits under it. If your home is listed, we will talk to you about what the work involves early on, so you can raise it with your conservation officer before we start.
One recent job: new oak herringbone parquet through a library and dressing room in a Burton House apartment. The original skirtings were cut in situ so the parquet could tuck underneath, and stayed on the wall the whole time.
Early in the job. The first rows of oak herringbone go down over the prepared subfloor, the blocks stepping out in their zigzag beside the painted period skirting, which stays fixed to the wall throughout.
Halfway there. Looking down from the doorway, the herringbone is set out across the room from a centre line, with our kit by the sash window and the bookcases still wrapped in dust sheeting.
The finished floor at eye level in the library. Warm, mixed-tone oak blocks run tight and level all the way to the built-in bookcases and panelled doors.
The same herringbone carried through the dressing room and into the library as one continuous floor, so the pattern reads right through both rooms.
Where the parquet meets the hallway carpet, a single oak plank border finishes the herringbone with a straight, neat edge. Behind it the skirting is still in place, with the new floor tucked underneath.
From new herringbone parquet in a Burton House apartment to sanding and refinishing an old floor in a Duncton cottage, we install and renovate wood floors across this corner of GU28, thirty-five minutes from our workshop.
Herringbone, chevron and Versailles panels — modern installs and period restoration.
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Solid oak, walnut, ash and maple boards — character grades and feature widths.
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Sanding, gap-filling, hand-finishing — tired boards brought back without losing the character.
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Grade I, II* and II floors — sympathetic species, reversible methods advised where a listing demands.
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Real-wood top layers on stable cores — engineered for UFH and open-plan rooms.
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Foyers, offices, retail and hospitality — traditional methods, delivered on schedule.
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Overnight and weekend phasing — slip-rated matt finishes and food-safe sealers.
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Reclaimed boards and beer-tolerant finishes for country pubs, coaching inns and gastropubs.
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Multi-room timber phased around occupancy — batch-matched corridor-to-bedroom, acoustic underlay.
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Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian houses — pitch pine, baltic deal, oak, sympathetic finishes.
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Country estate programmes phased around residence — restoration and new install under one spec.
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Engineered oak properly specced for wet and electric UFH — written commissioning log on handover.
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French oak, English elm, antique pitch pine — sourced with provenance, laid with respect to age.
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European white oak in 180mm–300mm+ planks, random lengths to 2.5m, hand-finished on site.
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Barn weddings, country-house venues and marquee dance floors — Bona commercial-wear lacquer, seasonal install windows.
Read moreOur work in Burton House, Petworth is anchored by the GU28 postcode — Burton House, the Grade I listed house at Burton Park all sit squarely inside it. Around 35 minutes up from the Bognor Regis workshop — same craftsman every visit, flat-rate quotes by the job not the mile.
Across GU28 the Burton House, Petworth brief stays the same: Darren surveys on-site, sample boards stay with you for a fortnight under your own lighting, and the install runs in a single solid stretch rather than back-and-forth day trips. It matters in places like Large private houses toward Lodsworth & Bedham where the subfloors and the building fabric earn a slower pass. Family team since 1997, working across West Sussex from the same coastal base.
“Darren’s work is absolutely fantastic and his attention to detail is phenomenal. Highly recommend and looking forward to working with him on other projects.”
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Every wood flooring pattern, character finish and construction Darren installs — solid hardwood, engineered oak, herringbone and parquet — laid out edge-to-edge so you can see real grain, real colour, real texture.
Darren will visit, measure up and walk you through species, finishes and lead times. No pressure, no hard sell — just specialist advice.
Forrestal Flooring is the trusted flooring partner to award-winning interior design studio LEIVARS. The accolades below were won by LEIVARS for their interior schemes — we're proud to have supplied and fitted the floors behind many of them.
