Victorian Terrace Transformation — Chelsea

Our clients in Chelsea had lived with worn, uneven laminate floors for years. The brief was clear: restore the ground floor to its Victorian character using wide-plank real wood, keeping transitions minimal to maximise the sense of continuous space from front door to garden.

Sub-Floor Preparation

The ground floor spanned three distinct zones — original suspended timber at the front, solid concrete slab in the Victorian rear extension, and a newer screed in the 2019 kitchen-diner addition. Each required different preparation, and all three needed to finish at the same level.

The timber sub-floor was inspected, re-screwed at all squeaky points, and overlaid with 6mm ply before the acoustic underlay. The concrete zones were ground level and primed. Total preparation: day one, entirely.

The Floor

We selected 220mm brushed European oak in a natural UV oil finish — warm enough to complement the period cornicing and original Victorian coving, yet contemporary enough to suit the family's modern furniture. The boards were run in a single continuous direction from the front door to the rear garden doors, with no threshold strips between rooms.

The result transforms five rooms into one flowing space. Two of the three doorway openings between rooms now read as archways rather than transitions — visually and acoustically, the house feels twice the size it did before.

Three Days

Day one: sub-floor preparation. Day two: floating installation, ground floor. Day three: skirtings, thresholds, silicone, clean, and handover. The clients were back in their home on the afternoon of day three, exactly as planned.