Shoreham-by-Sea
Alpine Wide Plank wood floors deliver smooth charm in Shoreham-by-Sea home
This beautiful home in Shoreham-by-Sea belongs to Dennis Heasman and his wife Helen. They bought the home in October 2015 and set about a huge renovation to create their forever home. It was the second time Dennis had taken on a big property project, and while the amount of work was daunting, the outcome of creating their ideal home was his motivation. The house was built in the late 1930’s and in need of a complete renovation. An extension to the back of the property created a new orangery, bigger kitchen, office and an annex, and upstairs a badly designed loft room was updated to create a more useable bedroom and an additional bathroom added. Every space was re-plastered and decorated neutral to maximise space and natural light.
"We were keen to extend and make the most of the available space while work was underway. To a certain degree the house is unrecognisable. We made changes inside and out, taking on a much bigger project than first planned, which even led us to move out for six months. Externally they changed the entrance to the house and updated the garage; and inside one of the key changes was the complete reconfiguration of the stairs to create a beautiful open and light centre piece to the main entrance hallway."
Wanting to keep some of the original design features of the home, two rather dated and poorly brick and tiled built fireplaces were completely taken out and re-built with bricks, re-claimed oak and flagstones to present a more traditional look and design, and new ceiling beams were added to the extended spaces to mirror the original ones featured in the home. Next were the floors.
“We had wood floors in our previous home and definitely wanted them again here. We’d installed new oak doors, and along with the wood beams, a wood floor would bring a cohesive design element throughout all of the downstairs spaces. I visited Lee Smart at C & M Smith in Rustington. They had supplied our previous wood floors and had delivered a fantastic service.
“I looked at various samples and explained I wanted floors with a very smooth finish, rather than the more rustic and character filled floor we had previously. I felt it would work better to create a more seamless and clean flow to the spaces. When Lee visited to measure for the floors he brought along a sample of V4’s Alpine Wide Plank in the Oak Select Nature UV oiled finish and Dennis agreed these were perfect. The Alpine Wide Plank uses fine-grained oak, selected for its natural elegance, which is smooth sanded and sealed with 4 coats of UV cured oil, which forms a deep lustred stain resistant surface. The boards are an impressive 190mm wide x 1900mm long to deliver a scale which promotes space and light, and they work with underfloor heating which has been installed throughout the ground floor of the home. Shoreham C & M Smith supplied and installed the floors to all ground floor spaces apart from the main kitchen area where ceramic tiles were chosen.”
“Helen and I are so pleased with the finished floors. In contrast to what we had before I love the smooth nature of them, offering subtle character that blends with the other finishes in the home. It was a long road to get to the finished house but now it’s complete we are over the moon and enjoying our new home with plenty of space to entertain our children and grand children. The floors have also been really easy to look after; a regular sweep is really all that is needed.”
