DH Painter & Decorator repaints the outside of houses in Kings Heath, the NN5 estate that sits 1.7 miles out from the centre of Northampton towards the north-west. Dean handles front doors, window woodwork and any painted walls, treating each house on a mixed-ownership terrace as its own job.
Womersley’s terraces, one front door at a time
From the street, Kings Heath still looks much as it was drawn in 1950. The county’s Historic Environment Record credits its well-designed terraces with giving the estate its character, and the houses on Swale Drive, Derwent Drive, Severn Drive and the other river-named streets have changed little since. For an exterior repaint, that has a practical upside. Because the river-named streets share one 1950s design, an untouched house further along the row shows how the doors, frames and trims looked when they were new.
Built for the borough council, the houses are no longer all council-owned: property records show private sales on several of the river-named streets. In practice one terrace might contain an owner who wants a full repaint, a council-let house next door and a privately rented one beyond that. We quote and paint each house on its own terms rather than treating the row as a block.
Where your colour meets the house next door
No conservation area or listed building covers the residential streets, so you are free to choose your own colours. On a terrace, though, the line where your paint stops is right beside your neighbour’s front door. A few things help that boundary look deliberate rather than accidental:
- Stop masonry paint on a clear vertical line, such as a downpipe or the joint between two houses, never part-way across a brick or panel.
- If the neighbours’ woodwork is white, an off-white on yours can look like a dirty version of theirs. A clearly different shade usually sits better.
- Leaseholders and tenants should check with the landlord or managing agent before any change of colour. That consent question replaces the planning question you might face in an older part of town.
Seventy-odd years of repainting means most woodwork here carries thick layers of old gloss. Expect sanding back, filling and spot-priming of bare timber before new coats go on, rather than a quick coat over the top. Our main exterior painting service page sets out the full preparation sequence.
Elevations that face the open green
The estate is laid out on a symmetrical, kidney-shaped plan around a large central green, the Central Playing Field off North Oval. It was praised early on for its green spaces and village feel. For outside painting, that openness means houses fronting a green get little shelter from wind and driven rain, and paint on those faces dries and cures in harder conditions than on a sheltered street.
We schedule green-facing elevations for settled spells and leave the more sheltered sides for days when the forecast is less certain. Our guide to the right time of year for exterior painting explains the temperatures and dry hours paint needs. Front doors on exposed faces lose their gloss sooner, so a hard-wearing exterior gloss or a quality satin is worth the extra coat.
Getting ladders to a footpath-fronted house
Exterior work means ladders against the front wall, and on a house that faces a path or green instead of a road, those ladders arrive on foot. The van may be parked a short walk away, so ladders, dust sheets and paint come in by hand, and the path is kept passable for neighbours while they are up. We check vehicle access when we come to look at the house, and we allow time for it in the schedule so the working day is not cut short.
Park Drive is the signposted road into the estate, a short drive from our Northampton base. See our Kings Heath area page for the other work we cover on the estate.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
