DH Painter & Decorator repaints shopfronts in Semilong, NN2, the neighbourhood immediately north of Northampton town centre. Dean covers premises on Semilong Road, Stanley Street, Uppingham Street, St Andrews Road and Leicester Parade, timing the work so trading carries on.
Semilong’s shop frontages
Semilong Road holds Neighbourhood Centre status in the council’s Local Plan Part 2, and its small cluster of shops includes a Co-op supermarket, a pharmacy, a laundrette, a betting shop and a takeaway. Around the grid there are more single units: a Nisa Local on Stanley Street, a convenience store on Uppingham Street, an off-licence and fish bar on St Andrews Road, and a short parade on Leicester Parade facing Barrack Road. Most sit on terraced streets rather than in modern retail units, and the painting needs to suit that.
Where a shop sits in a terrace with living space above, the shopfront is only the ground floor of a residential elevation. Upper windows, a side door to the flat above and the brickwork between them all belong to the same frontage, and a freshly painted fascia under tired upper sills looks unfinished. We price the shopfront on its own and, separately, the upper joinery, so the owner can decide whether to do both together.
A corner shop front in a Victorian terrace usually has a timber fascia, a glazed frontage in timber or metal, and a stallriser below the window that takes kicks, bags and mop water every day. We prepare each part differently, then use hard-wearing exterior finishes, particularly on the stallriser and the door frame, where wear is heaviest.
Keeping the doors open
A convenience store or pharmacy cannot close for a repaint. We agree hours with you before we start, do the messier preparation when footfall is lowest, and work the entrance first or last so customers can always get in. Wet paint signs go up wherever a hand might brush a fresh coat.
The street outside adds its own problem. Semilong Road has no street trees or verges, and the neighbourhood plan notes its footpaths are narrow and uneven, so there is very little room between a shop window and the kerb. We set up in a compact footprint, keep the footway passable and clear materials away at the end of each session rather than leaving them stacked outside your door. We also leave room for your own drop-offs and agree where stock can come in while the frame is wet.
Leicester Parade: paint the joinery, not the stone
The shops on Leicester Parade occupy a Neo-Jacobean range from 1882, built in squared rubble with ashlar dressings and recorded as a locally important building. The stone should never be painted. Only the shopfront joinery, signboards, windows and doors are ours to repaint, and we mask the stonework carefully. Because the parade falls in the Barrack Road Conservation Area, ask West Northamptonshire Council before any colour change to its frontages.
Takeaways, laundrettes and motor-trade units
Different businesses wear their frontages in different ways:
| Premises | What wears first | What we focus on |
|---|---|---|
| Takeaways and fish bars | Grease film near extract outlets and doors | Degreasing before priming, washable top coats |
| Laundrettes | Condensation on frames and sills | Sound priming of timber, moisture-tolerant finishes |
| Motor-trade units, St Andrews Road | Knocks, tyre marks and oily dirt at low level | Tough coatings on doors, shutter surrounds and lower walls |
Larger interiors and trade units are covered under commercial painting, and the general process is on the main shopfront painting page. The Semilong page covers our wider work in the neighbourhood.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
