We paint render, painted brick and stacks in Spratton, NN6, about 6.5 miles north of Northampton town centre. In a village built largely of bare ironstone and lias, Dean's first job is often telling owners which walls should stay uncoated, then using breathable finishes on the ones that are already painted.
A village where most stone should stay bare
Masonry painting in Spratton starts with a question most render jobs never ask: should this wall be painted at all? The historic core is built from coursed ironstone rubble and squared lias limestone, with ashlar dressings on the better houses and sandstone and lias ashlar on Georgian houses such as Northbank House. These stones are soft and porous. They take in rain and give it back out through the face. A modern acrylic masonry paint stops that drying, so moisture sits behind the coating, the face of the stone breaks down and the paint blisters off with it.
So on bare stone we usually advise leaving it as it is. That costs the owner nothing, and on a listed house it also avoids an alteration that would need listed building consent. Green staining or dirt on stone is a cleaning question, not a painting one, and a gentle wash by a specialist is kinder to soft lias than any coating. We would rather lose a job than put a film on stone that has managed without one since the 1600s.
Where masonry painting does belong
There are still walls in Spratton that need a coating. Typical examples include:
- Chimney stacks or walls that were rendered at a later date, usually to cover poor stone or patched repairs.
- Brickwork that has already been painted, where stripping it is not practical and the coating needs renewing.
- Rendered extensions, garages and outbuildings added behind older houses.
On these surfaces we use breathable masonry finishes, such as mineral (silicate) paints or limewash where the base suits them, not a sealing acrylic. Where a wall already has a modern masonry paint on it, we look at whether it is sound and how damp the wall is before deciding whether to overcoat or cut back. The general preparation steps for render (algae wash, stabiliser, crack filling) are set out on our main render and masonry painting page.
Cement repairs and the 7 Manor Road example
The listing for 7 Manor Road, an 18th century ironstone cottage with a thatched gabled roof, records a gable repaired in cement. It is a good illustration of a wider problem in old villages. Hard cement render and cement pointing do not move or breathe like the soft stone around them, so water collects at the joint between the two and the stone takes the damage.
A decorator cannot cure that with paint, and putting another impermeable layer on top makes it worse. When we see cement repairs on soft stone, we tell the owner, suggest they speak to a lime specialist about the pointing or render, and paint only what sensibly can be painted in the meantime.
Red brick: Holly House and the chequered Manor House
Spratton also has brick. Holly House, dating from the early 1800s, is a tall red brick building of three floors, and The Manor House on Church Road uses chequered red and burnt brick. Patterned brickwork like that is the design, and painting over it would wipe it out. Where brick in the village has already been painted, it needs a breathable masonry finish and tall access, since a three-storey elevation means a tower or scaffold.
| Wall in Spratton | Our usual advice |
|---|---|
| Bare ironstone or lias rubble | Leave uncoated |
| Later render on stacks or walls | Breathable mineral or lime-based finish |
| Cement-repaired stone gable | Flag to owner, no extra sealing coats |
| Previously painted brick | Breathable masonry paint, tower access |
Our guide to painting render and roughcast covers coatings in more depth, and the Spratton village page sums up the other work we cover there.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
