DH Painter & Decorator paints walls, ceilings and woodwork across Hunsbury Meadows, the NN4 estate between West Hunsbury and the canal, 2.2 miles from the town centre. Dean handles whole-house redecoration in the late-1990s detached homes off Banbury Lane and first full repaints in the 2012-15 Pineham Lock houses and flats by the canal.
One parish, two building phases
Hunsbury Meadows went up in two distinct goes, and what we find on the walls depends on which one your house belongs to. Land Registry first sales date the core estate off Banbury Lane to December 1996 to 2001, with Ashpole Spinney and Whitesands Way at the start, Dapplestone Close and Brindlestone Close in the middle and Lynmore Close and Samwell Way at the end. Almost all of it is detached family housing, with some terraces and semis on Riverstone Way, the spine road. After a gap of more than a decade, the canal-side Pineham Lock phase sold new from 2012 to 2015 on Lockgate Road, Canal Way, Tiller Way, Towpath Avenue, Windlass Close and Narrowboat Lane, with a looser mix of semis, terraces and flats.
A house from the first phase is now 25 to 30 years old and may well have been repainted by owners already. A Pineham Lock home is more likely to be on its first proper redecoration. We quote and prepare the two quite differently.
Pineham Lock walls: sealing the developer’s paint first
Many of the 2012-15 homes still carry the matt emulsion the developer left. It is thin, slightly powdery and marks as soon as you wipe it. Roll a new colour straight over it and the result is often patchy, with dull and shiny areas where the old coat soaked up the new one at different rates. Before any colour goes on, we:
- wipe a test patch to see how much of the old coat comes away on a cloth;
- apply a stabilising or sealing coat where the surface is chalky, so the finish sits evenly;
- fill the hairline cracks along board joints and the popped screw heads that appear in a house’s first decade as the structure dries and settles;
- pick a washable matt or eggshell for halls, kitchens and children’s rooms, which is where the original paint has usually suffered most.
In the Narrowboat Lane flats and maisonettes we decorate your own rooms only. Shared stairs and landings in leasehold blocks are normally the management company’s to look after, so check before asking anyone to paint them.
The 1990s detached homes: whole-house jobs and tired woodwork
The late-1990s houses are larger, and some are four-bedroom executive-style homes with several reception rooms. That makes whole-house redecoration a realistic single project. We plan it so you always have a working kitchen and at least one usable bedroom, finishing rooms in an order that lets furniture move from a done room to one we haven’t started.
The woodwork is where the age shows. Softwood skirtings, architraves and internal doors from that era have often gone yellow under oil-based gloss, and the corners are chipped from twenty-five years of hoovers and furniture. Moving to a water-based trim paint keeps the white from yellowing again, but it won’t grip old gloss without keying and an adhesion primer. Skip that step and it peels at the first knock. Where a house has timber French doors (one estate listing mentions both timber and uPVC), we treat the timber as joinery and cut cleanly against the plastic.
Where a larger house has a double-height hall, Dean brings a stair platform or small tower for the top of the walls, and confirms the layout in person rather than guessing from the street.
Getting materials in on the closes
Inside work needs less kit than an exterior job, but a whole-house redecoration keeps the van outside for several days. On the shared-surface closes, and on the Ashpole Spinney drive that serves three homes, we unload sheets, steps and tins first thing and leave neighbours a clear way out. Riverstone Way’s pavement parking means agreeing a spot with you in advance. Tins are opened and decanted on a sheet, never straight on block paving, because emulsion is hard to get out of the joints.
Our Northampton base is a short drive from the estate, which sits about 2.2 miles out on the south-west side of town. Our interior painting service page sets out the full process, and the cost guide lists what moves an interior quote up or down. There is more on the estate’s houses on the Hunsbury Meadows area page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
