From 1930s seaside bungalows along Pound Road to modernised farmhouses and beach houses behind the dunes — bespoke hardwood, reclaimed herringbone parquet restoration and pale wide-plank oak by a family team who understand salt air.
30 minutes from our Bognor Regis workshop · Covering PO20 · PO18
West Wittering is half an hour from our Bognor Regis workshop, out at the tip of the Manhood Peninsula. Most of the work that lands here is in the coastal stock set back from the beach — 1930s and post-war bungalows that have been extended and reordered, larger plots toward Cakeham Road, and the run of newer beach houses behind the dunes that lean toward open-plan kitchen-diners with underfloor heating.
Whether it's an engineered oak floor through a sea-facing extension, a parquet revival in an older village home off Pound Road, or pale wide-plank oak in a holiday-let conversion, the brief here is usually the same: a floor that takes salt humidity, sand and sun without trouble, and looks the part against a lot of natural light.
A good share of it is restoration rather than new supply. We've taken reclaimed pitch-pine and mahogany-toned herringbone parquet back in the older hallways out here — lifting failed blocks, relaying salvaged ones into the original weave, then sanding and sealing the whole floor to a warm, even tone. And over on Roman Landings we've handled refurbishment alongside the supply and installation of engineered flooring across several properties, so the estate's floors are a known quantity to us.
West Wittering sits at the open end of Chichester Harbour, half a mile from a Blue Flag beach — and that combination of salt humidity, blown sand and strong westerly light shapes every flooring decision out here. We lean toward engineered cores in anything within reach of the dunes; they take the humidity in their stride and don't need acclimatising. Where solid wood is the right call — typically in the older village stock — we acclimatise on site first and survey the subfloor void before quoting.
Finishes matter just as much: hardwax oils get the nod over high-build lacquers because spot-repairs are easier when sand and the occasional wet retriever do their worst. And because so many West Wittering rooms run a lot of glazing toward the sea, we'll bring sample boards in the lighter, bleached and brushed end of the range so you can see how each one sits against your own light before you commit.
We also take on a fair bit of reclaimed herringbone and block parquet restoration in the older hallways around the Witterings, Birdham and Itchenor — lifting and relaying salvaged blocks where the original bitumen bond has let go, filling and re-weaving the patches so the repair vanishes into the surrounding floor, then sanding the whole run back to one even tone. It's slower, careful work, but it keeps a period parquet floor original rather than tearing it out for a replacement.
A reclaimed herringbone parquet restoration we took on in a West Wittering hallway, start to finish — failed blocks lifted, salvaged ones relaid into the weave, then sanded and sealed back to a warm, even floor.
Where this one started — a tired reclaimed herringbone hall taken back by hand, blocks eased up with hammer and chisel so the loose and broken ones could come out. The honest first stage of a parquet restoration in a West Wittering home.
The middle of the job — whole sections of herringbone lifted to reach the old black bitumen subfloor, salvaged blocks stacked and sorted ready to relay. This is the part that decides whether a period parquet floor can be saved rather than replaced.
Reclaimed blocks relaid into the original weave — the newer, lighter patches sit slightly proud and raw at this stage, waiting on the sanding pass that pulls the whole floor together. A repair that disappears once it’s finished.
The finished floor — the same reclaimed herringbone sanded flat, sealed and lacquered to a warm, reddish honey tone, running crisply through the hall and on into the rooms beyond. The kind of parquet revival we’d bring to a coastal home at the Witterings.
Beach houses behind the dunes off Rookwood Road and coastal bungalows on Pound Road want salt- and damp-stable floors — engineered, wide-plank oak and hardwood across West Wittering and PO20.
Sanding, gap-filling, hand-finishing — tired boards brought back without losing the character.
Read more
Herringbone, chevron and Versailles panels — modern installs and period restoration.
Read more
Real-wood top layers on stable cores — engineered for UFH and open-plan rooms.
Read more
European white oak in 180mm–300mm+ planks, random lengths to 2.5m, hand-finished on site.
Read more
Solid oak, walnut, ash and maple boards — character grades and feature widths.
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
Barn weddings, country-house venues and marquee dance floors — Bona commercial-wear lacquer, seasonal install windows.
Read moreOur work in West Wittering is anchored by the PO20 postcode — 1930s-onwards coastal bungalows along Pound Road and Cakeham Road all sit squarely inside it, with regular jobs reaching out into the neighbouring PO18 where Reclaimed herringbone parquet restoration in older hallways toward East Wittering and Bracklesham Bay keep us busy. Around 30 minutes up from the Bognor Regis workshop — same craftsman every visit, flat-rate quotes by the job not the mile.
Whether the address reads PO20 or PO18, the West Wittering 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 Engineered-flooring refurbishments on Roman Landings, and beach-house stock behind the dunes off Rookwood Road 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 2.9k residents in the town centre, and we’ve quoted on hundreds of the homes within walking distance of it.
“Darren restored the parquet floor in our hall and study. Both rooms are completely transformed. He did a great job and couldn’t have been more helpful. Thoroughly recommended.”
L
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.
