Royal Tunbridge Wells is largely Georgian and Victorian, with extensive conservation areas and a high proportion of period floors still in place. It is the furthest regular point of our Kent coverage, and the work here is almost entirely restoration rather than new fitting.
The floors we find in Tunbridge Wells
Georgian townhouses with wide pine and oak boards, Victorian villas with narrower pitch pine, and a good deal of original block parquet in reception rooms. In the villas around the Pantiles and Mount Sion, floors are frequently original and have never been lifted.
Will sanding damage a period property?
Not if it is done with restraint. The risks in a period house are taking off too much timber, flattening the character out of a floor that has settled over two centuries, and damaging skirtings or thresholds with edge machines. We use finer grits than we would on a modern floor, hand-finish the perimeter rather than running an aggressive edger against original mouldings, and stop when the surface is even rather than chasing a factory-flat result that would look wrong in the room.
What a job in Tunbridge Wells usually involves
- Survey and moisture check. We measure board thickness and check whether the floor has been sanded before. On a board already sanded two or three times there may not be enough timber left, and we will say so.
- Repairs first. Loose, split or missing boards are fixed before any sanding. Sanding a loose board just produces a smooth loose board.
- Dust-free sanding. Coarse grit to remove the old finish and damage, then progressively finer grits until the surface is closed.
- Gap filling, if wanted. Resin and sanding dust for hairline gaps, timber slivers for wider ones. In Georgian rooms we usually recommend leaving some gaps unfilled — a completely filled floor can look oddly modern in a period interior.
- Finish. Hardwax oil, lacquer or oil, two or three coats.
How long it takes and what it costs
A single room in Tunbridge Wells is usually one to two days; a whole ground floor three to five. Guide rates are £25–£32 per m² for standard boards and £32–£42 per m² for parquet, with a £550 minimum project cost. We are not VAT registered, so there is nothing to add on top. Full detail on the prices page.
Services available in Tunbridge Wells
Floor sanding and restoration, parquet restoration, wood floor fitting, herringbone and chevron fitting, engineered floor fitting, floorboard repairs, staining and colour changes, and re-oiling or re-coating.
Nearby areas we also cover
Southborough, Rusthall, Langton Green, Pembury, Speldhurst, Sevenoaks and Tonbridge. See other areas we cover.
Get a price for your Tunbridge Wells floor
Send a photo to info@epic-floors.com or call 07344 467352. We can usually tell from a picture whether a floor needs sanding, repair or replacing, and give you a ballpark before visiting. Open Monday to Saturday, 8am to 6pm.
Recent floors
Get a free quote
Tell us about your floor and we will come back to you with a price. A photo gets you a far more accurate answer.