Dean treats and repaints iron railings and metal gates in Semilong, NN2, about 0.8 miles north of Northampton town centre. On the Barrack Road Conservation Area edge, front walls with railings and gates are protected, so repair and repainting are the right course rather than removal.
Where the ironwork is protected
The eastern fringe of Semilong lies in the Barrack Road Conservation Area, an 8.5-hectare designation dating from 1987. Since 2000 an Article 4 Direction there has removed permitted development rights for altering or demolishing front gates, walls and fences on houses fronting a highway, and it also controls painting those frontages. Boundary walls topped with iron railings, and their gates, are among the features the conservation area sets out to keep on Marriott Street and the Barrack Road terraces.
For an owner, that points in one direction: keep the railings and look after them. Rusting bars should be treated and repainted, not cut out and replaced with something different. If the colour is to change, check with West Northamptonshire Council first. Repainting in whatever colour is there now avoids the question entirely.
Railings set into stone and brick walls
Railings on these streets sit in the top of low boundary walls, and the point where each bar enters the coping is where trouble starts. Water collects there, rust forms below the paint line and expands, and in time it can crack the stone or brick around it. The boundary wall of Bishop’s House on Marriott Street has been repointed, and fresh pointing beside a rusting bar soon stains and cracks again.
Our order of work on a Semilong front railing usually runs like this:
- Wire brush and scrape back to sound metal, paying most attention to the base of each bar and the gate hinges.
- Treat remaining rust and prime bare metal straight away so it cannot flash-rust.
- Mask the coping and any painted stone detail so primer does not stain it.
- Two coats of a durable metal finish, brushed into every joint and finial.
Old ironwork may be wrought or cast iron, and each is handled differently; the main metal gate and railing painting page explains why.
Working beside the A508
Barrack Road is the A508, busy and noisy, and at certain times parked cars take up one of its lanes. Front railings on that road sit right at the edge of the footway. We set up so that the pavement stays open for pedestrians, keep tools and tins inside the line of the wall, and choose times of day that avoid the busiest periods. Traffic film settles on ironwork along main roads, so washing and degreasing comes before any primer.
Gates and railings elsewhere in Semilong
Away from the conservation area, metalwork is more varied: front gates on terraces that have a small front area, gates and railings around the motor-trade and trade-counter units on St Andrews Road and Grafton Street, and newer galvanised steel, which needs a specialist primer before paint will hold.
Front gates on the terraced grid get far more use than railings do, opened and slammed several times a day in houses split into rooms. Hinges, latches and the bottom rail wear first, and a gate that drags on the path loses its paint along the lower edge within months. We free off and lubricate hinges after painting, check the gate swings clear, and give the lower rail an extra coat. Where a gate has dropped badly, we say so, because a sagging gate will scrape through new paint quickly.
If you are comparing quotes, our guide on how to choose a painter and decorator lists what to ask. Our Semilong area page covers the rest.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
