Hardwood Flooring Specialists
Solid hardwood floors, installed and finished by hand.
Oak, walnut, ash, maple, merbau, iroko, wenge — character grades, feature widths, traditional finishes. Same craftsman on every job, start to finish.
Free survey across Sussex, Surrey & Hampshire · Solid wood installation since 1997
7
species installed
29
years on the tools
5.0
★ · 215 reviews
About hardwood flooring
Hardwood, the way it ought to be laid.
A solid hardwood floor is the one investment that gets more beautiful with use. We supply and install kiln-dried European and tropical hardwoods — oak as standard, plus walnut, ash, maple, merbau, iroko, wenge, and reclaimed and antique stock (French oak, pitch pine, reclaimed oak parquet) on commission. With solid hardwood we'll advise on acclimatising the boards in the room before laying so they settle to its moisture content, and we'll always discuss species and grade against your subfloor, room use and finish preferences before committing to anything.
Most of our installs are secret-nailed onto timber joists or floating-glued onto screed — we don't use floating-clip systems with solid boards. Finishes are hand-applied: hardwax oils for character work, traditional lacquers where you need bombproof wear (kids, dogs, the lot), and natural soap finishes on the period restorations where lacquer would look wrong. Every floor gets a written care card on completion so you know exactly what's been used and how to look after it.
One spec line we won't quote: solid hardwood over wet underfloor heating. Solid boards cup and gap dramatically with the temperature and humidity swings that UFH causes, and we've been called out to fix too many failed installs to put our name on another one. If your project has UFH, the right answer is engineered — see our underfloor heating compatible wood floors page for the substrate envelope, board specification and commissioning protocol that actually works.
Oak, walnut, ash, maple, merbau, iroko, wenge
Prime, character & rustic grades
Hand-applied hardwax oil or lacquer finish
Boards acclimatised in the room before laying
Most popular
European Oak
Our most-installed species. Honey-toned, hard-wearing, ages beautifully. Prime grade for clean modern interiors; character grade where you want knots and movement on show.
American Black Walnut
Rich chocolate browns and purple undertones. Premium feel, brilliant in libraries, studies and dining rooms. Pairs well with brass and warm metals.
Ash, Maple & Light Tones
Pale, almost-blonde boards for north-facing rooms and modern coastal interiors. Ash takes stain beautifully if you want to shift the tone.
Tropicals — Merbau, Iroko, Wenge
Specified for hardness, dimensional stability or just dramatic contrast. Less common but we install them regularly — happy to source FSC-certified.
Specialist
Reclaimed Pitch Pine
For period property work where new boards would look wrong. We source from architectural salvage yards and match to surviving original boards where possible.
Why solid hardwood is worth it
Solid hardwood, or the cheap stuff?
A genuine solid hardwood floor costs more up front than a laminate or thin-veneer click-board. Spread over 30 years, it's the cheaper option. Here's the honest trade-off — pulled straight from jobs we've quoted against.
Solid hardwood, hand-finished
Recommended-
Sandable 6–8 times over its life
An 20mm solid board can be sanded back to bare timber every 10–15 years. Same floor, fresh finish — easily a 60–80 year service life with a single fitting.
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Real grain, real character
Every board different — knots, medullary rays, mineral streaks. Develops a deeper patina with use. Looks better at year ten than year one.
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Fixed properly, not floating
Secret-nailed to joists or fully bonded to screed. Doesn't drum underfoot, doesn't pop at the joints, doesn't telegraph subfloor lumps as the seasons change.
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Adds to the house value
Estate agents flag genuine hardwood as a sale feature. Surveyors note it on valuations. Cheaper flooring counts as 'something the next owner will replace.'
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Repairable in situ
Damage a single board and we lift, replace and re-finish that area only. No need to live with a scar or re-lay the whole room.
Cheap laminate or LVT click
What you give up-
Replace every 10–15 years
The wear layer scratches through to MDF/HDF core and there is no fix — the whole room has to come up. You'll do this two or three times in the lifespan of one solid floor.
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Photo-printed surface
Every plank in the pack is identical. Once you've spotted the repeat pattern in your own room, you can't unsee it.
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Hollow underfoot
Floating click systems sit on foam underlay. Every footstep has a thin acoustic ring — quieter rugs everywhere usually follow.
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Doesn't age, just degrades
Wear shows as pale scuff patches and chipped edges. The floor never looks better than the day it was laid — only worse.
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Water in a joint = swelled core
A spilled glass left under an edge swells the HDF substrate irreversibly — the board lifts and won't sit back down. Real wood breathes and recovers.
Recent Chichester quote: 38m² of solid European oak supplied + fitted at £92/m². Mid-market LVT click + fit was £48/m². Over 30 years (one re-finish for the oak, two full replacements for the LVT) the oak floor worked out £6/m² cheaper — and you still have a floor at the end of it.
Our process
From first call to final polish.
Same family team on every stage — no subbing out, no chain of phone numbers.
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Free home survey
Darren visits, measures the room, checks the subfloor and brings physical sample boards. 30–40 minutes, no pressure. Written quote follows within 72 hours.
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Sample & specification
We agree species, grade, board width, finish and laying pattern. You hold the sample boards in your own light before signing anything off.
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Acclimatisation
We'll advise on acclimatising the boards in the room before laying so they reach equilibrium moisture content. With solid hardwood it's worth doing — skipping it is a common cause of cupping and gaps.
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Installation
Secret-nailed, glued or floated depending on subfloor. Skirting and beading removed and reinstated cleanly. Dust kept to an absolute minimum — dust extraction on all our sanding machines, with polythene dust sheets supplied where required.
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Finish & handover
Hand-applied hardwax oil or lacquer, buffed between coats. Final walkthrough with a written care card showing exactly what's been used and how to maintain it.
Recent hardwood flooring work
A few of our hardwood flooring projects.
Real homes where this work has just gone in — across Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire.
Chichester, PO19
Warm golden oak plank boards
Wide oak plank boards in a warm golden-brown, run the length of a bright period room with a bay window and garden doors — knot and grain on show under a soft satin finish. The kind of solid wood floor we’d lay in a Chichester home.
Midhurst, GU29
Dark walnut wide-plank boards
Rich dark walnut-toned wide planks running the full length of an open-plan kitchen-diner — deep chocolate-brown with straight, even grain and a low satin sheen against the white island. The kind of warm, modern floor we’d lay in a Midhurst home.
Room by room
Hardwood flooring for every room in the house.
Where you’re laying it changes what we recommend. Here’s how we approach hardwood flooring in each room of a home.
Hardwood flooring for kitchens
The busiest floor in the house — spills, dropped pans and constant footfall. We spec hard-wearing boards and a tough, wipeable finish that shrugs off splashes around the sink and hob.
Hardwood flooring for bathrooms
Moisture is the enemy here, so we lean toward engineered constructions and water-resistant finishes — warm wood underfoot without the swelling and cupping that catches solid boards out.
Hardwood flooring for hallways
First impression and highest traffic in one. Durable, scuff-resistant boards run wall-to-wall to draw the eye through the house and take the daily pounding of muddy boots and the front door.
Hardwood flooring for living rooms
The room you actually live in. Wider, character-grade boards make the space feel calm and considered, with a satin finish that's warm to walk on of an evening.
Hardwood flooring for bedrooms
Quiet, warm and easy on bare feet first thing. We fit over acoustic underlay upstairs and finish with a low-sheen oil that keeps the room restful.
Hardwood flooring for stairs
The hardest-working timber in the house and the trickiest to fit. Bullnosed treads, matched risers and a non-slip finish, scribed to the existing strings for a seamless run.
Hardwood Flooring across the region
Hardwood Flooring from Chichester to Chichester Harbour.
Hardwood Flooring is the bread and butter of the workshop. You’ll see our van rolling out of Bognor Regis most weeks toward Chichester, Haslemere, Petersfield, Midhurst, Arundel, Petworth, Emsworth and Chichester Harbour — the postcodes across Sussex, Surrey & Hampshire where hardwood flooring keeps the diary full. Solid wood floors in oak, walnut, ash, maple, merbau, iroko and wenge — character grades and feature widths, finished by hand.
Whether the brief is a Georgian terrace in Chichester, a 1930s semi out near Haslemere, or a converted barn off the lanes around Chichester Harbour, the spec and the standard don’t shift. 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 — no day-trip back-and-forth, no chain of phone numbers, flat-rate quotes by the job not the mile. Family team since 1997, covering Sussex, Surrey & Hampshire from the same coastal base.
“I'm absolutely thrilled with my new solid oak flooring. The craftsmanship and professionalism shown by Darren and Carl were second to none. I chose Forrestal specifically because they offer a fitting service that doesn't require removing skirting boards — and they delivered exactly as promised. The installation was flawless, with no disruption to my home and no need for redecorating. Outstanding work.”
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Frequently asked
Questions about hardwood flooring.
Solid hardwood or engineered — which is right for me?
If you have underfloor heating, a concrete subfloor, or a very large open-plan area, engineered is usually the better call — it's more dimensionally stable across temperature swings. Solid hardwood is unbeatable on timber joists in older properties and can be sanded back and refinished far more times over its life. Darren will walk you through both at the survey.
How long does a typical hardwood install take?
A single average-sized room is usually 3–5 working days including acclimatisation, install and finishing. Whole-ground-floor jobs are typically 2–3 weeks. We give you a written schedule before any work starts so you can plan around it.
Can you match new boards to my existing original floor?
Often yes — particularly with oak, ash and pitch pine. We bring multiple sample boards to survey and can tone-match with stain or oil tints. Where the original boards are sound but worn, restoration is usually the better answer than replacement.
What finish do you recommend for a family home with kids and dogs?
Hardwax oil for character, lacquer for absolute toughness. The Bona commercial lacquer we use on family floors is rated for commercial wear — it's not the cheapest option but it's what we'd put in our own house. Touch-up kits supplied so you can deal with small marks yourself between visits.
Do you supply the wood as well as install it?
Yes — almost always. We have established trade accounts with European and tropical hardwood suppliers and can usually beat retail showroom prices on the species you actually want. You're welcome to supply your own if you have a specific source, but we don't guarantee finish quality on material we haven't graded ourselves.
Ready to start?
Talk to Darren direct
07973 658149
Mon–Fri, 8am–6pm
Get a free survey for your hardwood flooring.
Darren will visit, measure up and walk you through species, finishes and lead times. No pressure, no hard sell — just specialist advice.
