DH Painter & Decorator takes on commercial painting in Parklands, 2.5 miles out on Northampton's north-east side in NN3. Most premises here are the shops on the Coppice Drive parade and community buildings, so each job is planned around their opening times.
What counts as commercial property in Parklands
Parklands is a residential estate with a small amount of non-domestic property, and most of it sits in one place. The Coppice Drive parade holds four businesses, Browns Coffee Shop, Andrews fish and chips, Parklands Pharmacy and a Tesco Express at 1-3 Coppice Drive, with maisonettes above. Beyond the parade there is Parklands Community Centre, the Northampton Seventh-Day Adventist Church at 74 Highlands Avenue, and the schools on Spinney Hill Road. St Thomas Becket Catholic School, a secondary school on Kettering Road North, sits on the estate’s north-east side.
Larger business premises are just outside the estate. Moulton Park Industrial Estate and G Park Northampton lie to the north, and we cover those too from our Northampton base.
Painting a parade that never really closes
The difficulty on a parade like this is that the businesses keep different hours. A convenience store, a pharmacy, a cafe and a chip shop each have their own busy periods, and the flats above are lived in all the time. That shapes how we plan.
- One frontage at a time: the fascia, signage zone and shop window frames are done unit by unit, so only one business has a ladder outside its door at any point.
- Agreed working windows: start and finish times are fixed with each tenant before we begin, around their quieter periods and deliveries.
- Flat-roof upstands and upper windows: energy certificates show flat roofs over the parade maisonettes, so the top edge, fascia and upper frames are usually painted together from one scaffold or access setup.
- Customer safety: barriers and signage keep the pavement usable, and wet paint is marked clearly.
Food premises bring their own requirements. Inside a cafe or a takeaway we use low-odour, washable finishes and work out with the owner which areas can be closed off, and when. Kitchens behind the counter collect grease, so walls and ceilings there are degreased thoroughly before any coat goes on, otherwise the new paint won’t bond.
Community buildings and halls
Community centres and church halls are used at set times by different groups, so the decorating has to slot into gaps in the booking diary. Halls and corridors take heavy wear from chairs, tables and people, so we generally suggest scrubbable wall finishes and hard-wearing satin on doors and frames. Where buildings are used by children, we choose low-odour water-based products and plan so rooms have time to air.
School premises on Spinney Hill Road add the school run to the picture: drop-off and pick-up make parking tight, so van access is planned outside those times. In school buildings the usual approach is to decorate classrooms and corridors when they are out of use, with each area handed back clean and aired before it is needed again.
Exterior conditions on the estate’s edges
No heritage designation covers the parade, so there are no colour rules beyond any the landlord or a brand sets. The walls are cavity brick, so standard masonry and woodwork paints apply. Two local conditions are worth allowing for. Premises nearer Kettering Road, the four-lane A5123, collect traffic grime and need a full wash-down first. Buildings close to Bradlaugh Fields, the allotments and the mapped woodland see more algae and leaf litter on low woodwork and sills.
How we run commercial jobs in general, including method statements and keeping sites open, is on our main commercial painting page. Parade frontages are covered in more depth on our shopfront painting page, and the estate itself on our Parklands page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
