DH Painter & Decorator paints the outside of homes in New Duston, NN5, on the north-western fringe of town, 2.8 miles out from the centre. Dean covers joinery, front and garage doors, fascias and any walls that are already painted, from the stone cottages at the Main Road, Port Road and Quarry Road junction to the western brick estates.
Four generations of house in one neighbourhood
New Duston did not grow as one estate, and the outside of a house here tells you roughly when it went up. The original settlement is a cluster of natural stone terraced cottages where Port Road and Quarry Road join Main Road, some with long rear gardens. Red brick cottages were added as it spread. After the Duston Manor estate was sold at auction in 1919, 20th-century suburban housing followed, with flats and council homes making up a far bigger slice than they do in Old Duston. Then came the big western build: close to 3,000 gable-roofed brick houses, mostly two storeys, put up over 10 to 15 years in the Wrenbury Road and Rochelle Way area.
| House type | Where | What usually needs painting |
|---|---|---|
| Natural stone terrace | Old centre, Main Road / Port Road / Quarry Road | Windows, doors, sills; stone walls only if already painted, and then with a breathable system |
| Red brick cottage | Around the same junction | Joinery, sills and boundary features; bare brick faces left alone |
| Purpose-built flats and council homes | Mid to late 20th-century parts of New Duston | Communal entrance doors, handrails and window joinery, often arranged through the landlord or council |
| 1980s-2000s estate houses, many detached | Rochelle Way, Loire Close, Bergerac Close, Avignon Close | Front and garage doors, fascias and bargeboards, all of roughly the same age |
That last group matters for timing. Houses built within a few years of one another have doors, garage doors and roofline timber that age at the same rate, so on many of those closes the first full repaint cycles are coming round together.
Outside the conservation area, inside a character area
The conservation area designated in 1977 is drawn around Old Duston and St Luke’s Church; New Duston falls outside it, and no Article 4 direction turned up in our checks. In practice that means repainting a house in New Duston normally needs no consent, which is not always the case a short walk south in Old Duston.
The Duston Neighbourhood Plan does still treat New Duston as a local character area under policy BE1. That policy is about extensions and new building, but its point applies to colour as well: the stone terraces, the red brick cottages and their front boundary walls give the old centre its look. On those cottages Dean will steer you towards door and window colours that sit with natural stone rather than fight it. On the newer estates there is more freedom, and the usual aim is replacing tired builder-grade colours.
Traffic grime on Harlestone Road
Harlestone Road, the A428, forms the northern edge of the parish and carries heavy traffic, with the Lodge Farm Industrial Estate directly opposite. Frontages along it collect a grey film of road dirt far quicker than houses tucked into the closes. Paint will not hold on that film, so every surface facing the road gets washed down and rinsed before any sanding or priming starts. For the finish coats we lean towards harder-wearing, washable exterior products that you can sponge clean between repaints.
Working on that road also needs some planning. We agree where the van and ladders will sit before the first day, keep the footway clear and set out barriers where a ladder foot lands near the pavement.
Parking, closes and long back gardens
With 85% of Duston households owning a car, the Neighbourhood Plan lists parking as a local concern. In the cul-de-sac closes off Rochelle Way a driveway can be the only place a ladder can stand, so we ask you to move a car on the morning we start rather than block a neighbour in. At the stone terraces the problem is distance: with a long rear garden, every ladder, dust sheet and tin has to be carried the full length, which adds time to the back elevation and is allowed for in the quote.
The village sits at the top of the valley slope above the River Nene, so we plan around dry spells and avoid painting before a frost; our guide to the right time of year for exterior painting explains the temperatures we work to. Preparation methods and products are covered on our main exterior painting service page, and other work we cover in the area is on the New Duston page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
