DH Painter & Decorator repaints shopfronts in Southfields, NN3, a 4-mile run north-east from Northampton town centre. The work here is the Farmhill Road parade and the units at Prentice Court: fascia boards, window frames, doors, stallrisers and roller shutters.
Two small parades, no high street
Southfields does not have a high street. Most of its shopping is done at Weston Favell Shopping Centre, the district centre for the eastern estates. What the estate does have are two small clusters of everyday units: Southfields Supermarket, Southfield Grill & Pizza and The Gallery pub beside the Farmhill Road car park, and, at Prentice Court (NN3 8XW) on the southern edge, a Nisa with a Post Office counter next to a takeaway.
Both clusters sit among the closes and squares rather than on a through road, so a faded or flaking frontage is seen by the same neighbours day after day. Keeping it in order is largely maintenance: catching bare timber and rust before they turn into repairs.
Prentice Court lies on the southern fringe towards Lings and Thorplands, a short drive from Farmhill Road, so an owner or landlord with units in both places can have them looked at on the same visit.
What a parade frontage involves
A typical unit on a suburban parade like these has a number of surfaces, each needing its own product:
- Fascia board and sign panel. Timber or composite, often with lettering. We paint around fixed signage or, if the sign is being replaced, prepare the whole board.
- Window and door frames. Timber needs sanding, priming of bare spots and an exterior gloss; aluminium frames need a suitable primer before any colour change.
- Stallriser. The low panel under the window takes kicks, trolleys and splashback from the pavement, so it gets a hard-wearing coating.
- Roller shutters and shutter boxes. Usually galvanised steel, which needs a specialist primer so the paint grips and does not peel off in sheets.
The general approach is on our main shopfront painting page.
Fitting the work around opening hours
Convenience stores and a Post Office counter keep long hours, and takeaways are busiest in the evening, so each unit has a different quiet window. Before we start, we agree with you which hours the frontage can be worked on, and plan the noisy stages, like scraping and sanding, for the quietest of them. The entrance is kept usable throughout, with wet-paint signs where customers might brush past, and shutters are painted when they can be left up or down long enough to dry.
The Farmhill Road car park helps here, as the van can usually sit close by rather than on the street. We keep ladders and sheets inside a marked area so parked cars and shoppers are not affected. Exterior paint still needs dry weather and moderate temperatures, so dates can move if rain is forecast.
Pub frontages and larger premises
A pub frontage is a bigger job than a single shop: more joinery, often a larger sign area and outdoor seating to work around. For premises like The Gallery, or for the care home on Farmhill Road and the trade units on neighbouring Round Spinney Industrial Estate, the work sits under our commercial painting service, which covers interiors and phased work as well.
Colour and branding
Neither parade is in a conservation area, so heritage rules on shopfront colours do not apply, unlike some of Northampton’s older centres. If you lease the unit, the landlord’s terms may still say something about signage and colour, so check them before choosing a new scheme. We can match a brand colour from a supplied reference. For homes around the parades, see the Southfields area page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
