DH Painter & Decorator derusts, primes and repaints metal gates, handrails and railings in Southfields, NN3 5, about 4 miles north-east of Northampton town centre. Most metalwork here is modern steel, along with steel doors and fencing on the neighbouring Round Spinney Industrial Estate.
Not a period railings suburb
Southfields was built as a planned estate of closes and squares, without the cast-iron front railings of Northampton’s Victorian streets. There is no conservation area and no heritage ironwork recorded on OpenStreetMap within about a kilometre. The metalwork you do find is modern: fabricated steel side gates, handrails on steps, the odd balustrade, garage doors and bin-store gates. That makes the job simpler in one way, since there are no ornate castings to protect, but mild steel rusts quickly once its coating is broken. Neighbouring Round Spinney is recorded at about 94 metres, relatively high ground for the town, and Southfields has open farmland to its north, so exposed gates take wind-driven rain on one face and rust there first.
| Item | Likely metal | What usually goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Side and back gates | Mild steel, sometimes galvanised | Rust at the hinges, latch and bottom rail |
| Step handrails | Mild steel tube | Worn through where hands grip, rust at the fixings |
| Garage doors | Pressed steel | Chalky, faded paint and rust along the bottom edge |
| Unit doors and steel fencing | Galvanised or coated steel | Peeling paint that was never primed for galvanising |
Gates and handrails around the squares
Homes facing pedestrian squares such as Saddlers Square, Tower Field Square and Merrydale Square may have a metal gate to a shared rear path, and there are handrails on parts of the footpath network. Because we cannot drive to the door, we carry wire brushes, primers and dust sheets in from the nearest close, and set up a small work area that keeps the path usable.
One thing to check before booking: handrails on public footpaths are generally the council’s to maintain, not the homeowner’s. We paint metalwork on your property. If a rail is on the public side and you are unsure who owns it, West Northamptonshire Council is the place to ask.
Where gates back onto the tree belts at Pine Ridge or Brittons Drive, leaf litter and damp collect at the foot of the gate and the bottom rail rusts first. We take that area back to bright metal, prime it with a rust-inhibiting primer and finish in two coats of metal paint. Galvanised gates get a primer made for zinc, as standard paint will not grip.
Round Spinney units next door
Round Spinney Industrial Estate adjoins Southfields to the west, with units on roads such as Gatelodge Close and Edgemead Close. Industrial and trade premises there have steel roller doors, personnel doors, steel fencing and railings. On these we use commercial metal primers and coatings suited to the substrate and to the knocks the surface takes. We agree working hours with the occupier beforehand so deliveries and doors stay in use, and work through one section at a time. Larger repaints of the units themselves come under our commercial painting service.
Colour and finish
With no conservation controls in Southfields, black is not compulsory. Anthracite grey, dark green and the colour of your front door are all options for gates and handrails. Satin or gloss finishes are easier to wipe clean than matt on anything that is touched daily. Preparation methods for each type of metal are set out on our main metal gate and railing painting page, and the Southfields area page lists other work we cover on the estate.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
