DH Painter & Decorator paints the outside of homes in Camp Hill, NN4 9, about 1.8 miles south-west of Northampton town centre. On this 1980s estate the work is mostly timber trim, door frames, porches and fences, with a separate approach for the Grade II listed Hunsbury Hill Farmhouse.
An estate built on an old ironstone pit
Camp Hill is the housing estate climbing the north-east face of Hunsbury Hill, ringed to the north by Danes Camp Way and sharing the hill with the Iron Age hillfort that is now Hunsbury Hill Country Park. Much of it stands on ground that was quarried for Northampton Ironstone between the 1880s and the 1920s, and the houses came later, mostly in the 1980s. Property records put the small semis on Harksome Hill at 1983 to 1990, and the Parsons Meade retirement bungalows were built in 1988.
That date matters more than anything else for exterior painting here. Original softwood fascias, bargeboards, door frames and porch timbers are now around 40 years old. Some have been boxed in with uPVC, some are still painted timber, and plenty of houses have a mix of both. The general method behind our outside work is on the main exterior painting service page.
Which surfaces usually need paint on a Camp Hill house
On a typical semi or terrace in the estate, a repaint tends to come down to the following:
- roofline timber that was never capped, which by now needs sanding back and spot priming rather than a quick top coat
- front and back door frames, and any original timber doors
- any timber porch canopy or entrance detail, where the house has one
- the occasional render panel or part-elevation, rather than whole rendered houses
- shared boundary fences and side gates
Because there is no conservation area in Camp Hill, most owners can choose a new door or trim colour freely. On the terraces in the Squares, though, houses share party walls and face onto a common court, so a sensible choice is one that sits comfortably with the neighbours on either side.
Ladders, home zones and the walk from the van
Many Camp Hill roads are mapped as living streets, shared-surface home zones such as Summerfields, Merry Hill, Cullahill Court and Herne Hill Court. The houses grouped in Squares off Dayrell Road, including Haselrig, Farraxton, Higgins, Dimock and Marnock Squares, look onto courts with shared parking areas. In both cases the van often cannot stop outside the door.
So we plan the access at the quote: where the van can wait, how far ladders and tins have to be carried, and how to keep the shared path open for neighbours while work is under way. The roundabout where Danes Camp Way meets Hunsbury Hill Road and Hunsbarrow Road gets congested in the rush hours, so we arrive and take deliveries outside those spells.
Slow-drying walls on the side of a hill
With the estate facing down the hill to the north and east, many front or rear elevations get little direct sun. Timber on those sides stays damp for longer after rain, and that is when fresh paint blisters. We leave longer weather windows on the shaded side of a house than on the sunny side, and choose mould-resistant finishes for walls that rarely dry out properly. Our guide to how weather and season affect exterior painting covers how to pick a painting window.
Two other local conditions show up on outside paintwork. Homes beside the wooded ramparts of the country park collect leaf litter, sap and green algae on sills and fences, which a fungicidal wash has to clear before any coating. Houses near Danes Camp Way pick up a grey traffic film that also has to be washed off first.
The listed farmhouse on Rotherthorpe Road
Hunsbury Hill Farmhouse is the exception to the estate pattern. It is an 18th-century house of dressed ashlar, extended with two angled wings in the 1800s, under a Welsh slate roof and sash windows with glazing bars, listed Grade II since 1976. Repainting its sashes and joinery means like-for-like finishes, and any change of colour or material may need listed building consent from West Northamptonshire Council. We would treat that as a separate, slower job from an estate repaint. For everything else we do in the neighbourhood, see our Camp Hill area page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
