From the pitch-pine herringbone floors of the Elmer Sands estate to the chalet-style houses along Middleton-on-Sea — reclaimed-block repairs, honest refurbishment and skilled parquet, five minutes from our workshop.
5 minutes from our Bognor Regis workshop · Covering PO22 6LT
Elmer is barely five minutes from our Bognor Regis workshop, and it's a corner of the coast we know block by block. The Elmer Sands estate in particular is full of detached bungalows and chalet-style houses laid, decades ago, with pitch-pine herringbone parquet — a warm, close-grained floor that has aged beautifully but rarely made it this far without a few tired patches.
That's most of what we do out here: lifting the failed blocks around hearths and patio-door thresholds, cutting in reclaimed pitch pine to match, and sanding the whole floor back so the repairs disappear into the original. We've carried out the same repair-and-refurbishment work on several houses along one Elmer Sands street now — the same 1950s herringbone, the same honest fix.
It isn't all herringbone, though. The larger detached houses toward the seafront often want something new underfoot, and more than once that has meant lifting the old coverings, treating a damp subfloor with a two-part epoxy membrane, then supplying and laying fresh engineered oak that we sand and lacquer by hand. It's staged, careful work, and we quote it straight — no nasty surprises when the final bill lands.
The pitch-pine herringbone on the Elmer Sands estate is a very particular floor, and it fails in very particular places. Sixty-odd years of a coastal home means the blocks nearest the hearths and the patio-door thresholds are the ones that lift first — the subfloor beneath them draws damp, the bed breaks down, and a handful of blocks work loose. We lift the granite hearth where we have to, make the subfloor good, and re-lay in reclaimed pitch pine that matches the original run.
Because this is repair-and-refurbishment rather than a fresh install, the skill is in the colour and grain match and in the final sand — reclaimed blocks cut in, the floor taken back to bare timber and re-finished so the new work reads as one continuous floor. It's the honest way to keep an original herringbone rather than tear it out.
From the 1950s pitch-pine herringbone of the Elmer Sands estate — repaired block by block in reclaimed pine and sanded back bright — to a detached seafront home given a fresh engineered-oak floor over a two-part damp-proof membrane. The honest repair and the careful new install we bring across Elmer, on the same visit if a home needs both.
The finished floor at the patio doors — 1950s pitch-pine herringbone taken right back to bare timber and sanded to a clean, pale gold. The reclaimed blocks cut in along the threshold have vanished into the original run, exactly the result we aim for on an Elmer refurbishment.
Where this one started — the original pitch-pine herringbone dark and dusty with age, and the black granite hearth lifted clear so we could reach the loose blocks and the broken bed underneath. The honest before, on a floor we’d go on to save rather than replace.
The other trouble spot — blocks lifted at the sliding patio doors where damp had got into the subfloor. We take the bad ground back to something solid, make it good, then re-lay reclaimed pitch pine to knit the herringbone back together before the final sand.
A detached home near the seafront, finished in warm, natural engineered oak. The old coverings came up, a two-part epoxy membrane went down to see off the damp in the subfloor, and new oak planks were laid the length of the room toward the sea-view doors — then lightly sanded and lacquered to the soft honey tone you see here.
The same house mid-installation — pale, unfinished boards being laid out over the freshly damp-proofed subfloor, with the next bundles stacked ready and the saw set up in the corner. Nothing sanded or sealed yet; this is the honest middle of the job, before the light sand and lacquer bring the oak up to colour.
From the pitch-pine herringbone of the Elmer Sands estate to the chalet homes toward Middleton-on-Sea and Felpham, we repair failed blocks in reclaimed pine and refurbish tired parquet across Elmer and PO22 — matched, sanded and finished by hand.
Herringbone, chevron and Versailles panels — modern installs and period restoration.
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French oak, English elm, antique pitch pine — sourced with provenance, laid with respect to age.
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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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Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian houses — pitch pine, baltic deal, oak, sympathetic finishes.
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Solid oak, walnut, ash and maple boards — character grades and feature widths.
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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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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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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 Elmer, Middleton-on-Sea is anchored by the PO22 6LT postcode — Detached bungalows & chalet-style houses all sit squarely inside it. Around 5 minutes up from the Bognor Regis workshop — same craftsman every visit, flat-rate quotes by the job not the mile.
Across PO22 6LT the Elmer, Middleton-on-Sea 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 Reclaimed-block repairs on 1950s floors 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 6k residents in the town centre, and we’ve quoted on hundreds of the homes within walking distance of it.
“We are extremely pleased with our hall and lounge after Darren sanded back our 1950s block wood flooring and finished it off with a clear lacquer. It now looks a lot lighter and brighter. Thank you Darren.”
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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.
