From Anglo-Saxon cottages on Bosham Quay to sail-loft conversions on Itchenor Reach and beach houses at West Wittering — coastal-grade hardwood, engineered and parquet by a family team who understand salt air.
25 minutes from our Bognor Regis workshop · Covering PO18 · PO20
Chichester Harbour is twenty-five minutes from our Bognor Regis workshop, and a real chunk of our work comes from the villages strung along its shoreline. Bosham — pronounced "Bozzum" by anyone who lives there — is the heart of it: Anglo-Saxon cottages around Holy Trinity Church, Quay Meadow flooding twice a day, and a housing stock that needs the kind of patience you can't rush. We've lifted plenty of original pine in Bosham High Street and Shore Road, gap-filled it traditionally, and finished it with hardwax oils that take coastal humidity in stride.
Out toward Itchenor, Birdham and the Witterings the work shifts more toward installation — engineered oak laid over underfloor heating in kitchen extensions, herringbone in the modernised farmhouses around Birdham Pool, and bleached-tone wide-plank oak in the beach houses at West Wittering. Different houses, same standard, and the same coastal-savvy approach to subfloor moisture.
Chichester Harbour is an AONB, and the houses around it are an unusual mix — Saxon and Georgian quayside cottages on one hand, sailing-club moderns and beach-house conversions on the other. The common factor is the air. Salt humidity swings hard between summer and winter, and that's brutal on board flooring if it isn't handled properly.
We lean toward engineered cores in anything within a quarter-mile of the water — they take the humidity in their stride and don't need acclimatising — run a moisture-meter pass over every subfloor, and where we do lay solid wood we acclimatise the boards on-site first.
For period stock in Bosham's flood zone we'll always survey the void below — restoring boards over a damp subfloor is a quick way to ruin both. Hardwax oils get the nod over lacquers here too: easier to spot-repair when a stray sailing boot scuffs the hall.
We serve the Chichester Harbour villages from Bosham to West Wittering — the species and finishes we'd choose for a waterside home like yours. A look at the work we'd bring.
Where a restoration sits mid-job — weathered grey-brown wide oak boards with heavy saw-texture, taken back and laid through a bare room before the final oil goes on. The kind of rustic floor we’d bring up slowly in a Chichester Harbour home.
How an install comes together around the harbour — honey-toned oak herringbone parquet laid block by block up to a fresh skirting, the bare subfloor alongside still waiting its turn. The kind of parquet we’d lay in a Chichester Harbour home.
The kind of waterside install we’d specify around the harbour — golden-honey wide-plank oak run through a hall and on into the rooms beyond, knotty grade with plenty of grain character and finished in a soft satin oil.
Where a restoration nears the finish — pale oak strip boards sanded right back to bare, even timber, light and raw and ready for the oil. The kind of floor we’d take back and re-finish in a Chichester Harbour home.
From Saxon cottages at Bosham Quay to beach houses at the Witterings, we fit moisture-stable engineered and solid floors right around Chichester Harbour and the PO18/PO20 shoreline.
Real-wood top layers on stable cores — engineered for UFH and open-plan rooms.
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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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Herringbone, chevron and Versailles panels — modern installs and period restoration.
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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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Grade I, II* and II floors — sympathetic species, reversible methods advised where a listing demands.
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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 Chichester Harbour is anchored by the PO18 postcode — Saxon-era cottages around Bosham Quay all sit squarely inside it, with regular jobs reaching out into the neighbouring PO20 where Sailing-house wide-plank installs at Itchenor keep us busy. Around 25 minutes up from the Bognor Regis workshop — same craftsman every visit, flat-rate quotes by the job not the mile.
Whether the address reads PO18 or PO20, the Chichester Harbour brief is 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 Beach-house pale oak finishes at West Wittering where the subfloors and the building fabric earn a slower pass. Family team since 1997, working across West Sussex from the same coastal base. Around 4.5k residents in the town centre, and we’ve quoted on hundreds of the homes within walking distance of it.
“Thoroughly professional service from start to finish. From my first communication with Darren, to completed project I was over the moon with the service, the workmanship and the price. My new engineered wood floor looks absolutely amazing. A great company to deal with, I would whole heartedly recommend.”
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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.
