Builders in Worthing and across Sussex
We build house extensions and renovations, garden rooms, new builds and self-build homes, and outdoor buildings for campsites and schools. Carpentry is our core trade, and Julian leads every job himself.
What we do
Tidal Drift is a family-run building company based in Worthing, with a workshop near Chailey. We build extensions, renovations, garden rooms and new homes across Sussex, for homeowners, self-builders and architects.
We work alongside your architect and design team, not instead of them. Brought in early, we work through detailing, buildability and structural challenges so what’s on the drawings is what gets built. Technical carpentry, timber frame and bespoke joinery sit at the centre of what we do, combined with the creative engineering to make technically demanding builds work.
We’re at our best on the problems other builders avoid, and we take the same care over a kitchen extension as over a new house.
We work across Sussex, including Chichester, Worthing, Steyning, Shoreham-by-Sea, Brighton and Hove, Lewes, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill and Uckfield, and further afield for the right project.
Three things we do differently
Creative engineering, built on technical carpentry
Technical carpentry is the core of Tidal Drift: timber frame, structural carpentry and bespoke joinery, kept in-house rather than subcontracted. Julian’s background in film and illustration helps with difficult details. When a structural constraint looks immovable, we work it through with the engineer and architect until the design still works.
Working with your architect from the start
Bring us in at the design stage and we can help with the detailing and how the job will be built, before anything is fixed. We stay involved with your architect and designer from the first drawings to the finished build, and keep you told what’s happening along the way.
The same standard at every size
A garden room gets the same detailing as a full new build. Larger projects need longer programmes and more coordination, but the bench-level standard never changes.
Services
We build homes and outdoor buildings to the same standard, whatever the size of the job.
Extensions & renovations
From a single-storey kitchen extension to structural work on an older house.
Garden rooms
Garden rooms, studios and offices for use all year: insulated, wired and finished to the standard of your house.
Modular & self-build
Help for self-builders at any stage, timber frame, and modular and kit homes.
New builds
One-off new homes built from your architect’s design. No architect yet? We can recommend ones we trust.
Outdoor buildings
Glamping and campsite accommodation, forest school shelters, treehouses and tree decks, made in our workshop near Chailey and installed on your site.
Recent projects
Read how two recent jobs were planned and built.
Findon conservatory replacement
A cold 1980s conservatory replaced with a 48 m² insulated extension: an artist’s studio, gallery and dining room, designed by Jake White Architecture.
Read the case study
School tree deck and fire-pit hut
A raised tree deck, rope bridge and ten-sided fire-pit hut for a Dorset prep school’s outdoor learning woodland.
Read the case studyWhat clients say
I would highly recommend Julian and Tidal Drift to anyone considering construction work. … Julian possesses an exceptional focus on quality and detail, and together we have worked on projects that show this exceptional capability.
I met Julian over twenty years ago. He has done the vast majority of work I have needed from garden stairs and decking to interior balustrade, shelving, renovation works and more.
…we were extremely impressed with their professionalism, expertise, and attention to detail throughout the project.