Dean paints internal and external woodwork in Earls Barton (NN6), a 6.4-mile drive east of Northampton. That covers doors, skirtings, architraves, frames and casement windows, with breathable microporous systems on the timber of the 18th century lias cottages and conventional finishes in the later houses.
Casements and lintels in the old core
Walk along West Street, past The Square and up High Street and the joinery tells you the age of each house before the stone does. The 17th and 18th century cottages and former inns have casement windows set under wooden lintels, a few with leaded lights, and front doors sitting straight onto the footway. That timber has spent two or three centuries moving with the seasons inside a soft limestone wall. It is rarely square, often patched, and in places held together by a century of paint.
On these houses Dean starts by finding out what is already on the wood. Thick, brittle layers of old oil gloss crack along the grain and lift at the joints, and a fresh coat on top only adds weight to a failing film. Where the old paint is sound we key it and build on it. Where it has let go we take it back to firm timber, check the putty and the bottom rails for soft spots, and prime bare wood before anything else goes on.
Why microporous paint, and why by hand
A wooden lintel bedded in lias, or a casement in a wall that sits on the Nene valley spring line, has moisture reaching it from behind as well as from the weather. A hard, sealed gloss traps that moisture in the timber, and the result is blistering and rot under paint that still looks intact from the street. Microporous paints flex with the wood and let it dry out, so that is the system we use on this joinery.
Everything on these frames is cut in with a brush. Leaded lights, narrow glazing bars and old putty lines leave no room for spraying, and masking tape can pull loose putty straight out. Brushing also lets us follow the slightly irregular lines of hand-made joinery rather than fighting them. On a listed cottage, keep to the existing joinery colour until the council has seen any proposed change; a straight repaint rarely raises questions.
Skirtings that meet uneven stone walls
Inside the old houses, skirtings and architraves are fitted against solid walls that bow and lean. The gap between board and plaster opens and closes through the year, so a single bead of hard decorator’s caulk will often split by the next winter. We fill these gaps with a flexible filler suited to the movement, and on very uneven runs we judge with you whether a neat shadow line looks better than a gap filled flush.
The other common job is where a later brick extension at the back of a listed house meets the stone front. New softwood skirtings and doors in the extension sit beside old, much-painted joinery in the original rooms. We match sheen and colour across the two so the change from old to new is hard to spot, but we prepare and prime each according to what it is.
Joinery in the later brick houses
Away from the historic core, where most of Earls Barton’s 5,000-plus residents live, the houses are later and brick-built. Here the woodwork is conventional: machined skirtings, flush or panelled internal doors, softwood or hardwood frames. Jobs are usually about wear rather than history. Scuffed skirtings along a busy hallway, yellowed oil gloss on doors, sticky handle areas and doors that rub after one coat too many.
For these we normally recommend a water-based satin or eggshell that stays white and dries quickly, and we take edges back so doors still close cleanly. The step-by-step preparation is on our main doors, skirtings and woodwork page, and our cost guide explains what affects the price of woodwork-only jobs. Other services in the village are listed on our Earls Barton area page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
