Restoring Victorian pine, fitting new oak, and bringing tired parquet back to life across Balham, Nightingale Triangle and the streets around the Common.
Howard Naish was founded in Balham in 2021 by Dean Naish and Luke Howard, and the area is still where most of our work happens. We've sanded and refinished original pine boards in terraced houses on Bedford Hill, fitted herringbone parquet in flats around Du Cane Court, and restored Edwardian floors in family homes near Wandsworth Common. If you live in SW12, the chances are we've worked on a property within a few streets of yours.
Balham's housing stock is mostly late-Victorian and Edwardian, which means original floorboards are everywhere, usually pine, often hidden under decades of carpet, paint or laminate. When clients lift those carpets they're often surprised by what's underneath: floors that look beyond saving but, in almost every case, can be brought back beautifully with the right approach.
What we do in Balham
- Floor sanding and refinishing, original Victorian and Edwardian pine, oak, parquet
- New wood floor installation, engineered and solid hardwood, herringbone, chevron, plank
- Pine floorboard restoration, gap filling, board replacement, staining, sealing
- Parquet repair and re-laying, matching reclaimed blocks where boards are missing
- Staining and finishing with LOBA, including grey, white, smoked and natural oil finishes
- Fireplace and hearth removal flooring repairs
- Maintenance, re-oiling, polishing, scratch and dent repair
Pine floor restoration, Balham's most common job
Probably 60% of our Balham work is pine floorboard restoration. The boards in most SW12 terraces are over 100 years old, often painted around the edges where carpet used to sit, with gaps that have opened up over the decades and the occasional split or knot that needs attention. The good news is that pine sands beautifully, takes stain well, and once finished properly will last another 50+ years.
A typical Balham pine restoration runs over 2-3 days for a full reception room: lift any tacks or staples, repair or replace damaged boards, fill gaps with either resin/dust mix or thin reclaimed pine slivers (depending on gap size), then sand through three grits and finish with either hardwax oil or lacquer depending on how the room is used. We're a LOBA-trained company, so colour options are huge. Most clients go for a clear oil to keep the warmth of the pine, but we've done plenty of greys, whites and dark walnut tones too.
New wood floors fitted in Balham
For new installations we work with engineered oak from Flooring Sales, Natural Wood Floor Co and a few other UK suppliers we trust. Engineered is the right call for most Balham flats: it's more stable than solid wood with London's central heating cycles, and the top wear layer can still be sanded down the line if needed. We also offer solid oak. Patterns we get asked for most: classic herringbone (still the most popular), chevron, and wide plank.
Dust-free sanding
All our sanding equipment is connected to industrial dust extraction. You'll get a small amount of fine dust around skirtings, this is unavoidable, but no clouds in the air, no dust on every surface in the house, and no need to seal off rooms with plastic sheeting. Most of our Balham clients stay in the property while we work.
Get a quote in Balham
Free, no-obligation quotes anywhere in SW12. Most quotes can be done same-week. Call us on 020 3131 0122 or email through the contact page and we'll come and have a look. We also cover: Clapham, Wandsworth, Battersea, Tooting, Brixton, Streatham, Dulwich and across South West London.
See our full Floor Sanding Balham SW12 page for services, FAQs and the streets we cover.