DH Painter & Decorator paints the outside of houses in Dallington (NN5), the former village about 1.3 miles north-west of Northampton town centre. Dean covers the listed sandstone core around Dallington Green with breathable, like-for-like finishes, as well as the 20th-century houses and new builds around it.
One postcode, two very different kinds of outside job
Dallington splits neatly in two for anyone painting outdoors. The old village around Dallington Green, St Mary’s church and upper Raynsford Road has been a conservation area since 1970 and holds 15 listed buildings. Its walls are 17th and 18th century sandstone, in coursed rubble or dressed ashlar, under thatch, Welsh slate and plain tile. Around that core sit the later suburban streets off Harlestone Road and Dallington Park Road, where sales records show mostly terraces and semis, and further out the 2020s estate at Dallington Grange.
On the suburban houses an exterior repaint is the familiar package of walls where they are rendered, windows, doors, fascias and gates. In the conservation area the stone itself is usually left alone, and the painting is almost all joinery and metalwork. Knowing which half of Dallington a house sits in is the first thing Dean checks, because it decides the products, the colours and whether anyone else needs to be asked.
Painting around stone, lead and thatch
The listed cottages and houses on the green carry details you do not find on a 1960s semi, and each one changes how the prep is done:
- Leaded-light metal casements, as on the Wheatsheaf and Brookside, are cleaned and keyed by hand and primed with a metal primer, working around the lead cames so the glazing is not loosened.
- Stone-mullioned lattice casements, like those on the 1673 Raynsford Almshouses, mean small panes and slow, careful cutting-in rather than quick coverage.
- Georgian sashes with glazing bars and the eight-panel entrance door at Dallington Hall suit a traditional oil-based or good waterborne gloss over properly sanded joinery.
- Thatched roofs rule out blowlamps and heat guns anywhere nearby. Old paint is taken off with scrapers, abrasives or chemical strippers instead.
Paint stops at the timber and metal. Sandstone rubble and ashlar should not be sealed with plastic masonry paint, so the stone is masked and protected rather than coated. Our render and masonry page covers the walls that can take paint.
Shade, damp mornings and the Dallington Brook
The old village sits low in the valley of the Dallington Brook, a tributary of the Nene, with mature trees round the greens and along the water. That setting is lovely to look at and slow for paint. Mornings start damp, sills and bottom rails stay wet into the day, and shaded joinery picks up green algae and sap. Every job starts with a wash and a fungicidal treatment where growth is showing, and top coats only go on once the surface has dried out properly.
In practice this means watching for a run of settled, dry days rather than starting on the first bright one. Our guide to choosing when to paint outside explains the temperature and humidity limits we work to.
Consent, overhanging branches and shared buildings
Three local rules tend to shape the timetable before a brush is lifted:
- Listed buildings need listed building consent to change external finishes or colours, so a repaint here is normally like-for-like. If you want a different colour, speak to the conservation officer first.
- Cutting back a tree in the conservation area means telling the council six weeks ahead. If branches overhang the elevation to be painted, give that notice early so the access is clear when the dry spell comes.
- Dallington Hall is divided into apartments, so its outside is a matter for the freeholder or management company, not a single owner.
Outside the conservation area none of this usually applies, and a semi off Harlestone Road or a Dallington Grange house can be booked like any other repaint. Wherever you are in NN5, Dean visits, looks at what is there and gives you a written quote. For a wider picture of the area, see our Dallington page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
