DH Painter & Decorator paints interiors across New Duston, the northern half of Duston parish, 2.8 miles north-west of the town centre. Dean adjusts the preparation to the house, from older plaster in the original cottages to plasterboard in the 1980s-2000s estates, and quotes free of charge.
Three starting points inside one NN5 neighbourhood
New Duston started as a knot of natural stone terraced cottages where Main Road, Port Road and Quarry Road meet, with red brick cottages added as the settlement spread up towards Harlestone Road. After the Duston Manor estate was auctioned in 1919, 20th-century housing filled in around that core, with flats and council homes forming a bigger share than in Old Duston. The western side then took nearly 3,000 houses in a 10 to 15 year burst, centred on Wrenbury Road and Rochelle Way. Even the old British Timken works on Main Road, closed in 2002, has been cleared for housing.
For anyone painting a room here, that history matters more than the postcode. A wall in a cottage by the Port Road shops and a wall in a detached house on Bergerac Close behave differently under a brush and need different preparation. Our interior painting service page covers the full method. Below is how it shifts between New Duston’s house types.
Older plaster behind the cottage walls
The stone and red brick cottages are the oldest homes in New Duston, and their inside walls are likely to be plaster on solid masonry rather than plasterboard on studs. Walls like these move, crack along old repairs and sometimes hide distemper or chalky coats under later emulsion. Paint over that without checking and the new coat can lift within months. So before quoting, Dean tests how well the existing paint is holding, and plans for scraping back, filling with a compatible filler and sealing any powdery patches.
Where a solid stone wall needs to let moisture out, a breathable paint is a safer choice than a heavy vinyl emulsion. Expect extra time in these rooms for:
- cutting in along ceiling lines that are rarely straight
- window reveals set into thick solid walls
- hairline cracks where old plaster meets later patching
- small rooms where furniture can only be moved within the room, not out of it
Flats, shared stairs and party walls
Purpose-built flats are a bigger share of the housing in New Duston than in Old Duston, and so is council housing. Inside a flat the walls are usually more regular, but the logistics change. Paint, sheets and steps have to come up a communal staircase, shared hallways must stay clear for neighbours, and drilling or sanding noise carries through party walls, so we plan the noisy prep for sensible hours.
Tenants need their landlord’s permission before redecorating, and communal stairwells are normally the landlord’s or the council’s job rather than the resident’s. In small flats a few walls take most of the wear, so for kitchens, halls and children’s rooms we usually suggest a washable or scrubbable matt that can be wiped down and touched in later.
Large detached houses on the western closes
The estates around Rochelle Way, with closes such as Avignon Close and Loire Close, are mostly two-storey brick houses, many of them large and detached. Inside it is plasterboard: straightforward to paint well, but quick to show nail pops, taped joints and settlement cracks at the wall-to-ceiling line under light from a big window. Where a house has not been redecorated for a while, the same colour may still run through hall, landing and stairwell.
Jobs here are often a whole floor or a whole house. We fill and sand the cracks, spot-prime repairs so they don’t flash through the finish, then work through ceilings, walls and woodwork room by room so the house stays usable. Two-storey stairwells need a proper stair platform rather than a stepladder balanced on a tread.
Extensions, parking and getting a quote
The Duston Neighbourhood Plan expects extensions to be the main kind of building work on these estates, and every new extension brings fresh plaster. That needs a diluted mist coat before any colour goes on, as explained in our guide to painting new plaster. With 85% car ownership in Duston, the closes can be tight for parking, so Dean will ask whether a driveway space is free on the days we are working. You can see what else we do locally on the New Duston area page, and a free written quote starts with a visit.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
