DH Painter & Decorator paints the outside of homes in East Hunsbury, the NN4 suburb on the slope south of Mere Way, under two miles from Northampton town centre. On these 1980s and 1990s brick-and-tile houses the work is mostly timber, doors, garages and any rendered panels, and Dean prices each elevation after seeing it.
On a brick-and-tile house, what actually gets painted?
Most of East Hunsbury went up in the 1980s and 1990s on former farmland and old ironstone quarry ground, and the houses that came out of that expansion are largely facing brick under tiled roofs. That brick was never meant to carry paint. Coating it can hold moisture in the wall, commits you to repainting it for good and rarely suits a street where every neighbour’s brick is still natural. So when someone in Merefield, Blacky More or Collingtree Park asks for their exterior to be painted, the list we work through is usually shorter and more specific than on an older rendered house:
- fascias, soffits and bargeboards at the roofline
- front and back doors, door frames and any timber window joinery left in place
- garage doors, whether timber or steel up-and-over
- rendered panels, bay infills or plinths where a builder used them
- porch canopies, timber cladding and side gates
Dean walks round and lists every painted surface before quoting, so you can see which items are worth doing now and which can wait a year. Our main exterior painting service page explains the preparation and products in more depth.
Garages and conservatories add to the job
Sales and letting listings for the area keep mentioning the same extras: a detached garage on Stanford Way, a single garage and a conservatory on Thames Road. Those extras matter when you plan an exterior repaint. A garage door faces the street and usually fades faster than the front door beside it, so it is worth quoting at the same visit. Its frame and any timber side door often need more filling than the house joinery.
Conservatories and sun rooms bring a different problem. Painting the fascia or wall above a glazed roof means boarding or sheeting that roof before any scraping starts, and cutting in cleanly where painted timber meets white uPVC. We allow time for that in the quote rather than treating it as an afterthought.
Planning ladders on a hillside suburb
The ground in East Hunsbury falls from Mere Way at the top of the hill to Wootton Brook in the valley to the south, and some houses sit on raised plots with sloping drives and paths. That slope decides how ladders are footed and where a small tower can stand level. The upside is parking. Unlike the terraces closer to town, most homes here have a drive and a garage, often in a cul-de-sac off Rowtree Road or Windingbrook Lane, so the van can usually sit on the drive and there is no need to plan around on-street permits.
Shade, run-off and when to book
A lot of gardens back onto Grangewood Park, Penvale Park or the green corridors along the brook. Trees keep rear elevations shaded, and shaded timber stays damp for longer after rain, which is where green algae and soft paint show up first. North-facing back doors and the bargeboards at the rear of a house usually need more preparation than the sunny front. We clean and treat any growth, let the timber dry and only then prime. For timing, our guide on when to schedule exterior painting covers temperatures and drying windows.
Then there are the two older survivors on Towcester Road, Wootton Grange Farmhouse and its barn, both Grade II listed. The farmhouse has a cement-rendered front, timber casements and a Doric-pilaster doorway, so it calls for listed-building awareness and compatible coatings. Its owners should check consent before any change of colour or material. Its preparation and paint choice have nothing in common with the estate houses around it.
For more on how we cover the area as a whole, see our East Hunsbury page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
