DH Painter & Decorator offers commercial painting in New Duston, where Harlestone Road runs along the north-west edge of Northampton, 2.8 miles from the town centre. Business premises here split between Lodge Farm Industrial Estate across Harlestone Road and a handful of small local parades, plus churches, a pub and other community buildings.
Two sides of Harlestone Road
Harlestone Road (the A428) marks the northern edge of Duston parish. On one side is Lodge Farm Industrial Estate, with warehouse, trade and logistics premises including Travis Perkins, XPO Logistics and the former Debenhams distribution centre. On the other side, New Duston itself has no high street but several small shopping parades that the Duston Neighbourhood Plan protects. The two need quite different planning, so we treat them separately. Our general approach to commercial work, from method statements to working around staff, is on our main commercial painting page.
Industrial and trade units at Lodge Farm
Units on an estate like Lodge Farm are mostly about steel, blockwork and durability rather than decoration. Typical jobs include:
- Steel personnel doors, roller shutter surrounds and frames, which are wire-brushed, treated for rust and primed with a suitable metal primer before the topcoat.
- Painted blockwork walls in warehouses and workshops, which need a coating that copes with knocks and can be washed down.
- Offices, welfare rooms and staff kitchens inside the units, decorated like any office, with the order of rooms agreed around the occupier’s own working pattern.
- Railings, bollards and external steelwork where industrial coatings suit better than domestic paint.
Sites like this have delivery traffic and forklifts, so we agree working zones, timings and any site induction with the occupier before starting.
Parades at Port Road, Quarry Road and Main Road
New Duston’s shops sit in small groups along Port Road, Harlestone Road, Quarry Road and Main Road, with a few more units at Woodley Chase. These are small businesses such as salons, takeaways and convenience stores, so the work is planned around opening hours. Inside, that usually means working room by room on the quietest trading days. Outside, it means keeping the entrance open and fumes away from food premises.
The Harlestone Road frontages face a heavily trafficked main road, and traffic grime builds up quickly on paintwork there, so surfaces are washed thoroughly before coating and finished in something that can be cleaned. Duston’s Neighbourhood Plan review logged 22 signage applications over 2010-13 and six refusals, a reminder that changes to signs and frontages here do get looked at. Repainting in the same colours is rarely an issue, but a new colour scheme with new signage is worth checking with the council first. Shop frontages themselves, including fascias and shutters, are covered in more detail on our shopfront painting page.
Churches, halls and community buildings
Main Road has two buildings of local note: New Duston Free Church, and a chapel set back behind hedging with a single stone-edged stained glass window, named as a local landmark in the Neighbourhood Plan. Buildings like these are used at set times through the week, so decorating is planned around services and bookings. Any painted stonework outside is treated with breathable systems rather than sealed in with plastic masonry paint, and inside, halls and meeting rooms used by groups of all ages need washable walls and woodwork that will take chairs and tables being moved about every week.
Getting a quote
For a business we prefer to visit, see how the premises run day to day and quote from that, including when the work can be done. New Duston is 2.8 miles from Northampton town centre, so a site visit is easy to fit around your opening hours. More about the area is on our New Duston page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
