From Georgian townhouses on the four central streets to Edwardian villas in Summersdale — bespoke hardwood, sympathetic restoration and skilled parquet.
20 minutes from our Bognor Regis workshop · Covering PO19 · PO20
Chichester is twenty minutes from our Bognor Regis workshop, and a good third of our work has come from inside the city walls and the surrounding villages. The Georgian quarter — North, South, East and West Streets — is where most of our restoration jobs land: original pine boards lifted, gap-filled, stained and finished without losing the patina that makes those homes what they are.
Out in Summersdale, Lavant and Westhampnett the work shifts toward installation: Edwardian and Victorian extensions, kitchen-diners going engineered oak over UFH, the occasional parquet revival in a 1930s semi. Different houses, same standard.
Chichester's housing stock is unusually old for a city its size — a lot of what we install or restore sits inside Grade II listed property. That means working alongside conservation officers, sourcing species that are sympathetic to the original build, and using lime-based finishes where modern lacquers would look wrong.
We've also dealt with damp pulled in from the harbour on a handful of restoration jobs in the southern parishes, so we're happy to walk you through subfloor checks before quoting.
We lay and restore hardwood, engineered and parquet floors across Chichester and PO19 — from Georgian boards in the central streets to engineered oak in a Summersdale kitchen-diner. The kind of work we'd specify for yours.
The kind of wide-plank floor we’d lay in a Chichester home — rustic-grade oak in a weathered grey-brown tone, run in long boards across a freshly plastered room and finished in a low-sheen oil that lets the heavy graining and saw-texture show.
The kind of herringbone we’d set out in a Chichester home — pale oak blocks newly laid through a light-filled room beside the stairs, the raw timber down and squared up but not yet sanded and oiled, ready for its final finish.
Where a herringbone floor takes shape — pale oak blocks set out across a bare subfloor and worked down the hall a row at a time toward the light. The kind of careful parquet install we’d run through a Chichester home before sanding and oiling.
The sort of staircase we’d clad in a Chichester home — pale natural oak treads and risers in a soft knot-grade timber, set against a black steel stringer and rail, the warm wood and dark metal making a clean modern contrast.
From Georgian boards on the four central streets to Edwardian stock in Summersdale and Lavant, we lay and restore hardwood and parquet across Chichester and PO19 — by hand, since 1997.
Solid oak, walnut, ash and maple boards — character grades and feature widths.
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Herringbone, chevron and Versailles panels — modern installs and period restoration.
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Sanding, gap-filling, hand-finishing — tired boards brought back without losing the character.
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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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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 is anchored by the PO19 postcode — Georgian-era boards on the four central streets all sit squarely inside it, with regular jobs reaching out into the neighbouring PO20 where Listed building consents in the Cathedral conservation area keep us busy. Around 20 minutes up from the Bognor Regis workshop — same craftsman every visit, flat-rate quotes by the job not the mile.
Whether the address reads PO19 or PO20, the Chichester 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 Edwardian & Victorian stock in Summersdale and Lavant 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 30k residents in the town centre, and we’ve quoted on hundreds of the homes within walking distance of it.
“New Havwoods flooring to hall and kitchen. I would totally recommend Darren and his team — a very clear culture of care and leadership! He is highly passionate about his work and his attention to detail is incredible. We felt very comfortable using Darren's services from the moment we met at the initial site survey. Very knowledgeable, competitively priced and clearly not just a fitter but a solution provider! Recommend him to anyone and everyone!”
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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.
