We paint the interiors of homes across Rectory Farm, the NN3 estate about 4.2 miles north-east of Northampton town centre. Dean handles single rooms and whole-house repaints, from condensation-marked terraces around Collyweston Road to the detached houses off Deansway.
One estate, two very different interiors
Rectory Farm falls into two halves, and the split shapes almost every interior quote. In the northern part, around Olden Road, Crowthorp Road and Collyweston Road, most homes were built between 1973 and 1982, and Census 2021 counts 53.1% of them as terraced, 29.8% as semi-detached and about one in nine as purpose-built flats. In the south-east, Deansway and the closes named after British car makers (Morgan, Riley, Alvis, Bentley, Healey, Daimler and Allard) were mostly built between 1983 and 1992, and 80.6% of those homes are detached.
That means two different conversations. In a northern terrace the likely job is a full repaint of a small house, ceilings first, with damp marks to deal with. In the detached closes it is more likely to be a lounge, dining room and landing done together, with more time spent choosing the finish. We cover the whole estate from our Northampton base, about 4.2 miles away.
Grey corners and stained ceilings on the colder walls
Energy certificates for some 1970s houses on Mortar Pit Road and Collyweston Road record cavity walls with no insulation, or only partial fill. A cold outside wall is where moist air from cooking, showers and drying washing condenses. The marks it leaves are familiar: grey speckling in the top corner of a bedroom, a brown tide line on the bathroom ceiling, and black spotting behind a wardrobe on the gable wall of an end-terrace.
Emulsion rolled straight over those marks does not last a winter. In these houses the walls are washed down with a fungicidal solution and left to dry. Water stains are sealed with a stain-blocking primer so they cannot bleed back through, and the bathroom and affected walls are finished in a mould-resistant emulsion. Paint cannot warm a cold wall, so Dean will also tell you plainly when an extractor fan or window trickle vent would do more good than another coat.
Painting a 66 m² house around the people living in it
These are not big houses. One semi-detached house on Morgan Close has a recorded floor area of 66 square metres, and the northern terraces are just as compact. A whole-house repaint is a contained job, and it usually goes most smoothly one room at a time so the household can carry on living there. A sensible order for a two-storey terrace or semi:
- Bedrooms first, so everyone has a finished room to sleep in.
- The bathroom next, allowing drying time after the mould wash.
- Lounge and kitchen-diner, with furniture pulled to the middle and sheeted.
- Hall, stairs and landing last, when nothing else needs carrying past fresh paint.
Narrow, boxed-in staircases are common in the 1970s and 1980s layouts here, so the stairwell is painted from a stair platform rather than a long ladder leaning on the walls.
Shared owners, tenants and owners staying put
Tenure changes sharply across Rectory Farm. In the northern area Census 2021 recorded 35.5% of homes as social rented and 9.7% as shared ownership, with only 39.6% owner-occupied. In the detached closes owner-occupation was 89.8%. Those figures tell you a lot about which finish suits which house.
Someone buying a share and moving in will often want every room painted before the furniture arrives, in a scrubbable emulsion that copes with children, bikes and a buggy in a narrow hall. An owner who has been in Healey Close or Bentley Close for years may prefer a soft, flat matt in the lounge and a wipeable eggshell in the kitchen. Either way, ceilings, walls, doors and skirtings can be priced separately so you can see where the time goes.
Our main interior painting page explains our preparation in full, and the Rectory Farm area page covers outside work on the estate as well. For a rough idea of cost before Dean visits, read the painter and decorator cost guide.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
