Dean paints internal and external doors, skirtings, architraves and frames in Milton Malsor, the conservation village 3.2 miles south-west of Northampton town centre. Old joinery in the listed ironstone cottages and the standard woodwork in later infill houses need different preparation, and we plan each on its own terms.
What the village’s joinery is actually made of
Most of Milton Malsor‘s older houses sit inside the conservation area designated in 1991, and their listing descriptions are unusually specific about doors. The Forge on Green Street has a six-panel door behind a trellis porch. The Grange on Collingtree Road and The Old Rectory on Rectory Lane both have six-panel doors, the latter set in a pilastered surround with a pediment. Corner Cottage at 71 Green Street has a part-glazed plank door under a gabled hood, and the 1827 Baptist Chapel has a pair of six-panel doors under a fanlight. Milton House on Rectory Lane has a Doric doorcase.
That is a lot of hand-made timber, much of it carrying generations of paint. Infill houses built later within the village boundary have standard modern joinery, which is a quicker, simpler job.
Six-panel and plank doors: preparation comes first
On a door that has been repainted for two centuries, the first job is finding out what is already on it. Lower layers in houses of this age can contain lead, so we test before sanding and never dry-sand suspect paint. Where the build-up is sound, we clean, key by hand and overpaint, keeping the fielded panels and mouldings crisp. Where paint has crazed or lifted, we take it back locally with a chemical stripper or wet abrasive.
- Plank doors move with the seasons, so joints between boards are left free rather than filled solid.
- Glazed panels in part-glazed doors are cut in by hand, with the putty checked before it is painted over.
- Fanlights above chapel and house doors are worked from steps or a small platform, never by leaning a ladder on the glass.
Doorcases, pediments and hoods
Classical surrounds such as Milton House’s Doric doorcase and The Old Rectory’s pediment need slow, careful filling. Split joints and open grain on the columns and cornices are made good with a timber-friendly filler, primed, and finished in a good-quality gloss or eggshell that keeps the detail sharp rather than drowning it. A gabled hood like the one at Corner Cottage gets the same treatment on its brackets and top edge, which is where water sits.
Several village cottages are thatched, and some door hoods and lintels sit close to the thatch. We never use hot-air guns near thatch because of the fire risk. Stripping there is done chemically or by hand.
Front doors that open straight onto the street
Many old cottages front straight onto High Street, Green Street and Collingtree Road, with no front garden to work in. Painting a street-facing door means dust sheets at the street edge, a sign while the paint is wet, and timing coats around a dry forecast so the door can be closed overnight without sticking. Traffic film from the M1, A43 and the main line builds up on these doors, so each one is washed down and degreased before sanding.
Consent, skirtings and the modern houses
Repainting a listed front door in the same colour is routine maintenance. Changing its colour or finish, or stripping a door back to bare wood, may need listed building consent from West Northamptonshire Council, and we ask you to check that before we price the work.
Inside the older cottages, skirtings are often deep, run along uneven floors and meet walls of old lime plaster. Gaps there are filled with a flexible filler rather than hard caulk, so the plaster can still breathe. In the infill homes, it is ordinary skirting and door work: degrease, sand, fill, and two coats of water-based satin or gloss. Our door and skirting painting service page explains the full method and paint choices.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
