We take on commercial painting in Phippsville, about 1.3 miles north-east of Northampton town centre, for residential and nursing homes, managing agents of converted blocks, and shops and services along Kettering Road and St Matthews Parade. Every job is phased around the people who live, work or shop there.
Care and nursing homes in St Matthew’s parish
St Matthew’s Church says it ministers to a significant number of residential and nursing homes in the parish, and these are some of the most demanding commercial settings to decorate. Residents are at home all day and may be frail, and a care home cannot close for decorating, so the work has to go on around them.
For a care setting we plan room by room and corridor by corridor with the manager, painting a vacant bedroom or a closed-off section and handing it back before moving on. We use low-odour, water-based paints throughout, with no solvent-borne gloss in occupied areas, and wipeable, scrubbable finishes on corridor walls where trolleys and wheelchairs pass. If the home has a scheme that uses contrasting colours for doors, handrails and walls to help residents find their way, we follow it exactly. Fire doors, closers and signage are painted around, never over.
Where a home occupies one of the large 1880s villas, there is a further layer. High ceilings, deep cornices and tall sash windows in the bays mean a resident’s room can take longer than its floor area suggests, and stairwells in these houses need platforms rather than ladders. We allow for that in the programme, so the manager has a room-by-room timetable before any work starts. Where a home has kept period features such as panelled doors or original fireplaces, we prepare them by hand and keep them in the colours the home has chosen.
Small units on Kettering Road and St Matthews Parade
The shops and essential services here are small local units, not a high street. Two things set them apart. The Kettering Road is a busy bus route, so frontages pick up a film of traffic grime that has to be washed and degreased before any paint will hold. And loading outside is restricted near the bus stops, so we plan when the van arrives and keep materials inside the unit rather than on the pavement.
Inside, we can paint on a closed day or at the quietest point of your trading week so customers aren’t disrupted, and we section off the area being painted so customers aren’t walking past wet surfaces. For the outside, see our shopfront painting service.
Managing agents and converted blocks
Many of the 1880s villas are now blocks of flats looked after by a managing agent, and to us that is commercial work in all but name. The agent needs a written scope, a clear programme, notices for residents and a price that can go to the leaseholders. The typical contract covers the entrance hall, stairwell and landings, flat entrance doors on the communal side, and sometimes the exterior joinery on the canted bays and sashes. We set out what is and isn’t included, so the service charge covers only what was agreed.
What we agree before starting
- A site visit to measure up and look at access, occupancy and any listed or sensitive features
- A written method and phasing plan for the manager or agent
- Product data sheets for the paints we’ll use, if your compliance process asks for them
- Agreed working hours and a named contact on site, which is Dean himself
We’re fully insured for commercial work. More on how we handle offices, shops and rented buildings is on the main commercial painting page, and other services in the district are listed on our Phippsville page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
