We paint house exteriors in Thorplands, NN3, an estate about 3.3 miles north-east of Northampton town centre. Most of the work here is the front elevations and end-terrace gables of homes built around 1971, reached on foot from the court parking bays, and Dean surveys each one before quoting.
Courts of short terraces built around 1971
Thorplands dates from the years just after Northampton became a New Town in 1968. EPC data for the courts most often puts homes in the 1967-1975 band, and a 1971 front is the norm. Almost every court mixes mid-terrace and end-terrace houses with a block or two of low-rise flats. Great Holme Court alone has 42 flats and 43 houses, and Waterpump Court has 34 flats alongside 42 terraced homes.
That shapes an outside repaint here in a particular way. Each house has a narrow front, usually two storeys, and the job tends to be the whole of that front rather than one detail on a large detached elevation. On an end terrace the side gable roughly doubles the area, and it is often the face that has weathered worst because nothing shelters it.
A mid-terrace front is shared business
When your front wall sits between two neighbours, the ladder foot, the dust sheets and any spray drift all land close to their doors and windows. Before we start on a mid-terrace in Thorplands we ask you to have a word next door, and Dean will explain to them what is happening and for how long. Masking a neighbour’s frame, keeping their path clear and stopping a colour neatly at the party line are allowed for in the quote from the start.
Where a whole row wants doing, it is worth asking the neighbours whether they would like theirs done in the same visit. One set-up for several fronts saves everyone time, and the row ends up weathering at the same rate.
Getting paint and ladders from the car park to the door
Most Thorplands homes face onto courts and walkways off Holmecross Road and Billing Brook Road rather than private driveways. The van goes in a shared bay or car park, and everything else is carried. We plan that walk before the first day: where to stack sheets, how to keep ladders off a footpath that families and school traffic use, and how to leave the route clear each evening. If your home is near the Farm Field Court centre, the small public car park by the community hub can help, but it is shared with shoppers.
What the dates mean for preparation
Original joinery on a 1971 house has had over fifty years of weather and many coats of gloss. Where front doors, door frames or boards are still timber, expect scraping back to a sound edge, filling and spot priming before any colour goes on. The sources we use do not record what the walls themselves are built or finished in, so we look at each elevation in person and do not assume one house matches its neighbour. Homes on Huxloe Rise, mostly from the late 1970s and 1980s, and the occasional bungalow, can differ again.
The details of how we prepare and coat each surface are on our main exterior painting page, and our guide to timing outdoor painting in the UK explains why we watch the forecast closely.
Owned, social or let: who chooses the colour
With no heritage designation on the estate, the owner of a Thorplands house picks the colour of the door, the boards or a painted wall. That changes for rented homes. Property data shows social housing makes up 56 of about 90 homes on Great Holme Court and 46 of 85 on Waterpump Court. If your home belongs to a housing provider or you rent privately, check with them before choosing anything, because many have set colours or need consent for outside work.
For more on the estate as a whole, see our Thorplands area page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
