DH Painter & Decorator paints the outside of homes in Upton, the NN5 neighbourhood about 2.1 miles west of Northampton town centre. Most houses here date from 2005 onwards and are brick and stone, so Dean concentrates on the parts that actually take paint: timber cladding, eaves, doors, garage doors and metal details.
What there is to paint on an Upton house
Upton was built to a design code written in 2005 for a planned extension of roughly 1,500 homes, and most of what has gone up since is brick and stone. Facing brick is not something we would paint on a house this young. So exterior work here is narrower and more detailed than on an older Northampton street: front doors and frames, garage doors, timber cladding, window joinery where it is timber, and the trims and metal details the architects used to break up each elevation. Published sources say little about the wall materials of most phases, so Dean looks at each house before saying what needs doing.
On the award-winning Site C homes off West Street the list is longer. Those villas combine brick with stone, clay, lightweight zinc cladding, metal and timber, plus large areas of glazing and roof windows. Each surface needs its own preparation and primer, and some, such as the zinc, are normally left unpainted. Part of our job is telling you which is which.
Ten to twenty years on: the first proper repaint
Most Upton homes are now between ten and twenty years old. That puts them at the point where the builder’s original coats on doors, frames and timber are breaking down for the first time. There is rarely a thick history of old paint to strip. The usual work is washing down, sanding back any lifting areas, spot-priming bare timber and putting two full coats on top. Where the builder used a thin site-applied stain on cladding, we check whether a stain or an opaque paint suits the timber better before choosing a product, because switching from one to the other needs different preparation.
Homes on the busier edges need an extra step. Elevations facing the A45 Upton Way and the A4500 Weedon Road pick up a film of traffic grime that paint will not bond to, so we wash them down and let them dry before any sanding.
Sun from the park, damp from the river
Upton slopes south towards the River Nene, and homes on its lowest edge look straight across the open country park, and the Site C villas were turned on purpose to catch the sun. Those elevations take UV all day, which fades dark colours and dries out timber finishes faster than on a shaded street. For south-facing doors and cladding we use UV-stable products, suggest a mid-tone colour if you are open to it, and are straight with you that recoats come round sooner there.
The north-facing sides tell a different story. Between the Nene, the swales running through the estate and Ashby and Marina Woods, the air stays damp and green growth appears on shaded joinery and sills. We treat it with a biocide wash before painting. Because the swales carry storm water, rinse water and solvents are kept well away from drains and the green channels.
Garage doors, mews and three-storey walls
On Site C, garages sit off a central mews with a bonus room above them. Garage doors here take sun, knocks and road splash, and steel doors need any rust at the bottom rail treated before a coat goes on. The mews themselves are narrow and shared with people on foot, and flats share parking-court bays with residents. With about a hundred mapped buildings at three storeys, upper elevations often need a tower rather than a ladder. Before the job starts we agree where the van goes, how long a tower stays up and which neighbours to tell.
A word on colour: some new-build estates carry covenants on external changes, so check your deeds or management company before choosing something very different from the houses either side. Our general method is set out on the exterior painting service page, and the painter and decorator cost guide explains what drives a quote. For other work in the neighbourhood, see our Upton page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
