From the timber-framed cottages threading the High Street and Church Street, the Georgian merchants’ houses on Sheep Pen Lane, and the Wealden farmhouses out toward Bramber, Wiston and Upper Beeding — restorations, herringbone and parquet by a family team who’ll happily make the run east along the A27.
45 minutes from our Bognor Regis workshop · Covering BN44
Steyning is one of the older market towns in our patch — forty-five minutes east of the Bognor workshop along the A27, set in the gap where the South Downs scarp drops away to the flat farmland of the Adur valley, and built around a High Street whose timber-framed cottages and tile-hung Tudor frontages have been standing since long before the Reformation. The architecture climbs in date as you walk away from the river: timber-framed mediaeval and Tudor stock through the heart of the High Street and around the Chequer Inn, weatherboard and brick-noggin cottages threading Church Street and Tanyard Lane up toward St Andrew’s Norman church, then a quieter run of Georgian merchants’ houses and Victorian villas climbing Mouse Lane and Sheep Pen Lane toward the open downs. We’ve sanded back wide oak boards in the Tudor cottages off the High Street, hand-laid herringbone engineered oak through Georgian dining rooms on Church Street, and lifted Victorian softwood pine in the villas above the bowls club for a careful sympathetic refinish.
Further out the work shifts toward proper Adur-valley farmhouse and downland-village jobs — Wealden timber-framed farmhouses out toward Wiston and Buncton, brick-and-flint cottages around Bramber Castle and Upper Beeding, and the occasional stone-built rectory on the lanes that thread up under Chanctonbury Ring. The drive east is straightforward, the King’s Head on the High Street still pours an honest pint after a Saturday survey, and the standard never changes — same hand, same patience, same respect for buildings that have stood through eight centuries. That kind of careful, end-to-end pine restoration — original boards brought home rather than ripped out — is exactly the sort of work that defines our Steyning patch.
The Steyning housing stock divides cleanly along three lines and the wood-floor brief shifts with each. The Tudor and mediaeval timber-framed cottages running the spine of the High Street — the Chequer Inn end down toward the Old Market House, then up around St Andrew’s — usually carry very wide hand-cut oak or elm boards over irregular hand-adzed joists, with eight centuries of settlement built into the floor; we survey by torch and probe rather than by lifting (the boards are part of the building’s structural fabric), and restoration is hand-buffed rather than aggressively machine-sanded so the natural cupping and patina reads as honest age rather than damage.
The Georgian and Regency stock on Church Street, Sheep Pen Lane and the upper High Street typically has narrower softwood pine or imported Baltic deal over deeper joists with proper void clearance, and herringbone or chevron oak re-lays sit beautifully in those higher-ceilinged front receptions and dining rooms.
For the Wealden farmhouses out toward Wiston, Buncton, Bramber and Upper Beeding we lean toward engineered cores — stable enough not to need acclimatising — run a moisture-meter pass over every subfloor (the Adur valley sits low and damp by South Downs standards), acclimatise the boards on-site first where we’re laying solid wood, and bring sample boards in oak, walnut, ash and reclaimed pine so the species can be matched to the room before a single board is fixed.
We serve Steyning and the surrounding downland villages — restored pine wide planks for a Tudor cottage, herringbone engineered oak for a Georgian dining room. The kind of work we'd bring to yours.
The kind of board restoration we’d do in a Steyning home — original wide pine taken back and brought up to a warm honey tone, knots and old nail holes left to read as honest age and sealed in a soft satin finish. The period floor we’d restore in a window-lit reception room.
The kind of herringbone we’d set out in a Steyning home — honey-toned oak blocks framed by a flush plank border, the grain and knots left honest and finished in a low-sheen oil. Laid here to catch the daylight from a run of garden doors.
The kind of wide-plank floor we’d lay in a Steyning home — character oak in a smoky grey-brown, run in long boards through a room and out across the threshold with knots and grain left honest, finished matt while the walls were still being made good.
The kind of staircase we’d clad in a Steyning home — treads and risers in warm mid-brown oak with the grain showing strong, finished in a hard-wearing satin. The solid, traditional stair we’d run through a period house to tie the levels together.
Tudor cottages along the High Street and Wealden farmhouses toward Wiston reward a patient hand — period, farmhouse and parquet floors across Steyning and BN44.
Solid oak, walnut, ash and maple boards — character grades and feature widths.
Read more
Herringbone, chevron and Versailles panels — modern installs and period restoration.
Read more
Sanding, gap-filling, hand-finishing — tired boards brought back without losing the character.
Read more
Real-wood top layers on stable cores — engineered for UFH and open-plan rooms.
Read more
Foyers, offices, retail and hospitality — traditional methods, delivered on schedule.
Read more
Overnight and weekend phasing — slip-rated matt finishes and food-safe sealers.
Read more
Reclaimed boards and beer-tolerant finishes for country pubs, coaching inns and gastropubs.
Read more
Multi-room timber phased around occupancy — batch-matched corridor-to-bedroom, acoustic underlay.
Read more
Grade I, II* and II floors — sympathetic species, reversible methods advised where a listing demands.
Read more
Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian houses — pitch pine, baltic deal, oak, sympathetic finishes.
Read more
Country estate programmes phased around residence — restoration and new install under one spec.
Read more
Engineered oak properly specced for wet and electric UFH — written commissioning log on handover.
Read more
French oak, English elm, antique pitch pine — sourced with provenance, laid with respect to age.
Read more
European white oak in 180mm–300mm+ planks, random lengths to 2.5m, hand-finished on site.
Read more
Barn weddings, country-house venues and marquee dance floors — Bona commercial-wear lacquer, seasonal install windows.
Read moreOur work in Steyning is anchored by the BN44 postcode — Tudor timber-framed cottages along the High Street all sit squarely inside it. Around 45 minutes up from the Bognor Regis workshop — same craftsman every visit, flat-rate quotes by the job not the mile.
Across BN44 the Steyning 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 Wealden farmhouses out toward Bramber, Wiston & Upper Beeding 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 5.8k residents in the town centre, and we’ve quoted on hundreds of the homes within walking distance of it.
“Amazing floor repair and sanding .. excellent workmanship and fair and transparent price .. really please with the restoration of our very old cottage floor and would highly recommend Darren's work and communication … thank you”
Read this on Google
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.
