We paint shopfronts in Kingsley, where Kettering Road heads north-east out of town, 1.5 miles from the centre. The work here is on the shops, pharmacies, pubs and clubs of Kettering Road and Kingsley Park Terrace, plus the surgeries on Kingsley Road, with dates and times agreed around each business's opening hours.
A main-road shopping street
Kettering Road runs through the middle of Kingsley, and the stretch called Kingsley Park Terrace is its shopping street. Directory listings put a Tesco Express at No. 102, pharmacies at Nos 4 and 56, the Lord Byron pub at No. 58 and Kingsley Park Working Men’s Club at No. 120, and estate agents describe the road as lined with shops, restaurants and bars. Round the corner on Kingsley Road are dental practices and an optician (No. 42). A shopfront on a road like this usually means a painted timber or rendered fascia, window frames, a stallriser below the glass and the entrance door.
The road is busy all day, and that has two effects on painting, both of which we build into the plan and the quote. Frontages collect a layer of traffic grime that has to come off before anything will stick, and the pavement in front is in constant use, so the working area has to be fenced or signed and kept passable.
Working around the till and the dispensary
A pharmacy cannot shut its door for a day, and a pub’s quietest hours are not a convenience shop’s. Before we start we agree working times with you, and plan the order of work so the entrance is painted first or last and customers can always get in. Typical arrangements on a Kettering Road frontage:
- Clean and prepare the whole frontage in one session, which is noisy and dusty but quick.
- Paint the fascia and upper frame from steps or a tower while trading carries on below, with the footpath protected.
- Do the door and its frame at the quietest point of your week, with quick-drying products and wet paint signs.
- Leave the stallriser, which takes the most kicks and road spray, until last so it gets a hard-wearing finish without being knocked during the job.
Existing signs, lettering and lights are masked before work starts, and the fascia around them is cut in by brush.
Road grime, stallrisers and the right finish
The lower part of a Kingsley Park Terrace frontage takes spray from passing traffic and wet feet, so stallrisers and door bottoms fail first. We degrease and wash them, sand back flaking paint, prime bare timber or render, and finish in a durable exterior gloss or a hard-wearing masonry coating that can be wiped clean. A darker colour on the stallriser hides road splash between washes, which is worth thinking about when choosing the scheme. If you want a second opinion on colour, see our colour advice service.
Older buildings on the crossroads
The White Elephant, at the corner of Kettering Road and Kingsley Road, was built in 1883 as the Kingsley Park Hotel, a residential club for racehorse owners, trainers and jockeys, and it is on the West Northamptonshire local heritage list. Kingsley Park Methodist Church nearby is Grade II. Commercial frontages near buildings like these, or inside the Kingsley conservation area, may come under extra planning controls if you want to change the design or colour, so it is worth checking with the council before choosing a new look. Like-for-like repainting is straightforward.
Shopfronts are one part of our shopfront painting and wider commercial work. Residential work on the streets behind the shops is set out on the Kingsley area page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
