We repaint rented homes in Denton between tenancies for private landlords, letting agents and property owners, about 5.4 miles east of Northampton. The approach depends on the house: estate-era homes take a quick, hard-wearing neutral repaint, while lets in the old limestone core need breathable paints and more time.
What we know about letting in Denton
We have not found a reliable figure for how many homes in Denton are rented, so we will not guess. What the records do show is that the Castle Ashby estate, which held the manor for centuries, still owns around 16 properties in the village. Two Bedford Road terraces, New Buildings and Flannel Row, are among them, as is a row of three thatched cottages on Wareing Lane. Beyond that, the village is mainly a commuter village, with homes ranging from 17th century cottages to bungalows built near the A428.
So the work here is likely to come from individual landlords with a single house, from agents managing a property on their behalf, or from an owner with an established specification. We are happy to work with any of these. If you manage the let from a distance, we can collect keys from your agent, send photographs of each room before we start and when we finish, and list anything we notice that needs a different trade, such as a dripping overflow or a loose handrail.
Working to an owner’s specification
Where one owner holds a row of houses, such as the Bedford Road terraces, they may want every front door, window and gate in the same colour to keep the row looking uniform. Inside, a large landlord may also have a standard paint colour and finish they use across their properties. If you send us the specification, we follow it exactly and record the product and colour on the job sheet, so the next repaint matches. If you are a tenant wanting to redecorate, the owner’s permission comes first.
Conservation area boundaries cover the northern Bedford Road terraces and the first six numbers on Wareing Lane, so any exterior colour change there should be checked before it is booked, especially on a listed building.
Changeovers in stone cottages
A let in one of Denton’s older limestone or Castle Ashby brick houses needs more thought between tenants than a modern house. Solid walls and lime plaster can’t take a sealed vinyl finish, and in a house with no cavity, condensation and black mould in kitchens, bathrooms and behind wardrobes is common. On these changeovers we:
- Wash and treat mould with a fungicidal wash before painting, and tell you where ventilation is the underlying cause.
- Use breathable emulsions on lime plaster so the paint does not blister within a tenancy.
- Repaint timber casements and plank doors in oil-based or microporous paint rather than heavy gloss.
- Never use heat to strip paint near the eaves on a thatched cottage.
Quick turnarounds on The Leys
Homes on The Leys, put up in the late 1960s on the A428 side of the village, and the later bungalows and houses towards the bypass are easier to turn around. Standard plastered walls and machined joinery mean a void repaint can be planned to the day. Parking on these streets is also simpler than on the lanes of the conservation area, where vehicles parked at the roadside and narrow footways can slow loading. We usually suggest one scrubbable neutral for walls, white ceilings and water-based satin on woodwork, so the next tenant’s scuffs can be touched up rather than repainted.
Our landlord and letting agent decorating page covers how we work with agents on keys, access and reports. Typical job sizes are explained in the cost guide, and the Denton area page lists everything else we do in the village.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
