We decorate rented homes in Sywell for private landlords and letting agents, travelling roughly six miles north-east from Northampton. If your let is one of the listed 1860s estate cottages, the paint that suits a quick changeover in a modern house may be the wrong one for its walls.
Letting in a small village
Sywell is small (792 residents at the 2011 Census), and the sources we rely on hold no figures for how many homes here are rented. We won’t guess at one. What we can say is that a let in the village will usually be one of two kinds of building, and each needs a different changeover: a Grade II estate cottage in the conservation area, or a newer house elsewhere in the parish. Residential park homes at Overstone Lakes are often subject to the park’s own rules on occupancy, so check those before planning to let one.
Listed cottages: quick turnarounds without the wrong paint
The Main Street and Church Lane cottages were built in 1860-64 of solid lias. Inside, the walls are likely to be lime plastered, which clashes with the common landlord habit of covering everything in a tough vinyl silk. On a solid wall a non-breathable coat can trap moisture, and that shows up as blistering, flaking or mould spots, often on the outside walls of bedrooms. It then turns into a tenant complaint and another repaint.
For these cottages we suggest a breathable emulsion in a single neutral colour throughout, recorded so touch-ups match at the next changeover. On these walls a breathable paint outlasts a vinyl one, which is what matters across several tenancies.
A listed cottage’s protection extends indoors, so a changeover in one of these houses should stay as maintenance: repainting what is already there. Removing original joinery or making alterations is a different matter and may need consent from North Northamptonshire Council.
A changeover checklist for Sywell lets
- Wash down and treat mould marks on outside walls before repainting, and tell you if they point to a ventilation or damp problem.
- Fill and sand fixing holes, patching lime plaster with a compatible material rather than gypsum.
- Refresh doors, frames and skirtings in a water-based satin that stays white between tenancies.
- Repaint tired porch and window joinery like for like, keeping the lias unpainted. A rural let on the edge of farmland takes plenty of weather on its timber.
- Note which rooms only need touching up, so the void period goes on work the next tenant will notice.
Our wider approach to rental work is on the landlord and letting agent decorating page.
Access, timing and planning the void
Sywell is served by rural roads such as Main Street, Church Lane and Wellingborough Road rather than town streets, and the listed cottages stand in pairs and continuous rows of four or five. Rear access to a mid-row house can be limited, so if the back of the property needs work, materials may have to come through the house. Tell us about access when you ask for a quote and we will plan around it.
Give us the void dates and we will say what can realistically be done in that window, and in what order. In a two-storey cottage the stair and landing usually go first, because that is where carrying furniture and materials does the most damage, and the bedrooms follow. Outside joinery is weather-dependent, so on a winter void it may be better to agree a separate visit in spring. To understand what drives the price of a repaint, see our painter and decorator cost guide. Our Sywell page covers the other kinds of property in the parish.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
