DH Painter & Decorator covers commercial painting in Upton, NN5, about 2.1 miles west of Northampton town centre. The premises here are mostly modern: shops round Latchet Lane and The Square, roadside units on Upton Way, schools, the Elgar Centre and care homes, so jobs are upkeep repaints planned around opening times, term dates and residents.
What commercial premises in Upton look like
Upton has no old high street and no business park. Its commercial buildings were built as part of the masterplan, so most are young and in sound condition. According to OpenStreetMap they fall into a few groups:
- The Latchet Lane local centre: a food store, a fish bar, a restaurant, a takeaway, beauty salons and a café in modern ground-floor units.
- High Street and The Square: the Elgar Centre with its coffee shop, a tattoo studio and Upton Meadows Primary School.
- Upton Way: roadside units including a food hall, a petrol station, a takeaway and a hotel, all beside the A45.
- Care and education: Foxfields care home on Latchet Lane, The Hawthorns on Weedon Road, and Quinton House School in the Upton Hall buildings.
Inside, these spaces need scuffed walls, door frames and ceilings refreshed without the business having to close for long. How we plan commercial work in general is covered on our commercial painting page. What matters in Upton is fitting that work around the very different routines of a primary school, a care home and a takeaway on the same few streets.
Term times, community bookings and food premises
For Upton Meadows Primary and Quinton House School, classrooms, corridors and halls are usually painted in the school holidays, so the job is planned months ahead and areas are handed back dry and ventilated before pupils return. The Elgar Centre is a community building with rooms booked for groups, so we work through it in sections and agree which rooms are out of use on which days. In the food units around Latchet Lane, we use low-odour water-based paints, keep kitchens covered and agree a programme that fits trading hours, so a shop can keep part of its floor open.
Care homes and residents’ routines
Upton’s two care homes sit in very different spots. Foxfields is on Latchet Lane, in the middle of the local centre with its food store, takeaways and salons, so parking the van and carrying materials in has to fit around deliveries to the neighbouring units. The Hawthorns is on Weedon Road, the A4500 trunk road, where the frontage collects traffic grime that is washed off before any outside coat. Inside either home, corridors and lounges are painted a section at a time with walkways kept clear for frames and wheelchairs, low-odour water-based paints throughout, and rooms released by the manager around mealtimes and visiting.
Upton Hall: a listed exception
Quinton House School occupies Upton Hall, a Grade I listed country house with plasterwork dated 1737 that Historic England singles out for its Baroque quality. Its modern sports hall and teaching areas can be repainted like any other school building. The historic rooms and the brick and ironstone exterior are a different matter. Anything there has to go through listed building consent, use traditional materials that let the old walls breathe, and be agreed with the school and the council before it is quoted.
Loading at The Square and Upton Way
Upton Square is pedestrianised, so materials for units around it are carried in from the nearest loading point, and we plan this with the business beforehand. Units facing the A45 on Upton Way collect traffic grime on their frontages, which has to be washed off before any exterior paint goes on. For shop fascias and frames, see our shopfront painting page. More on the neighbourhood is on our Upton area page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
