Dean paints the outside of houses in Weedon Bec, NN7, a large village about 8 miles west of Northampton town centre near the source of the River Nene. In the conservation area the work is mostly joinery and render around bare stone; on the 20th and 21st-century estates it can take in walls, roofline and garden timber together.
Three old settlements, very different outsides
Weedon grew from Upper Weedon, Lower Weedon and Road Weedon on the A5, and the outside of a house here depends heavily on which part it sits in. Queen Street in Upper Weedon and Church Street, Oak Street and West Street in Lower Weedon hold the late 17th and 18th-century cottages and farmhouses: walls of ironstone and limestone in courses, mullioned windows, and roofs of old plain tile or thatch over brick chimneys. On the Road Weedon stretch of the old turnpike, buildings mix sandstone, timber framing, old red brick and pale render. Then there are the 20th-century estates at Queens Park, Princes Close, Oaklands, Cavalry Fields and Holm Close, and the newer houses at Harmans Chase. Before quoting, Dean works out which of those groups a house belongs to, because that decides almost every product choice. The Weedon Bec area page covers the village’s building types in more depth.
Painting around bare ironstone and limestone
On a house like The Firs on Queen Street, dated 1692, or the Maltsters Arms on West Street, the walling is bare stone and should stay that way. Stone needs to dry out through its face, and a paint film stops that. So on the older houses in the Weedon Conservation Area, an exterior repaint is mainly the timber: casements set into stone mullions, plank and panelled doors, porches and window boards.
Stone sills are where these jobs succeed or fail. Water sits on them and wicks into the bottom rail of the casement, so the casement gets a microporous joinery paint, cut in tight to the stone, which lets trapped moisture out of the rail instead of lifting the paint. Where a cottage has rendered or whitewashed parts, like the whitewashed addition at 8 Church Street, the Old Bakehouse, those take a mineral or limewash-compatible coating rather than a standard acrylic masonry paint.
The estates: render, timber and the whole house in one go
The loop roads and cul-de-sacs added to the north, south and west in the 20th century are more straightforward to paint. There is no listing to check, driveways usually give space for a van and ladders, and a single visit can cover rendered panels, timber doors, sills, garage doors and garden timber. Many of these homes have uPVC windows and roofline boards, which narrows the job to whatever is still timber or masonry. Homes on the rising ground south of the village, up towards the 162-metre Weedon Hill, catch more weather, so their exposed faces tend to need attention sooner than sheltered elevations. Our main exterior painting page sets out how each surface is prepared.
Narrow streets and the viaducts
Access shapes the programme in the village centre. In the oldest streets, South Street and Queen Street among them, cottages and infill crowd the road so closely that there is hardly any pavement, so a ladder footing or a small tower has to be planned around passing traffic and neighbours’ doors. The draft neighbourhood plan also noted parking pressure on Farthingstone Road and New Street. Coming in from the east, the canal and rail viaducts restrict large vehicles, which is one reason we work from a small van. Where a tower would block a footway, we check with the council about any permit before booking the dates.
After the floods in the village centre
Surface water ran through the centre of the village in November 2012, November 2024 and March 2025. On the outside of a house, the evidence is tide marks and damp at the base of render, doors and frames. Paint applied to a wall that is still drying will blister, so we check moisture first and only paint once the surface has properly dried. Timing matters for any outside job here: see our guide to when to paint outside in the UK, then ask Dean for a free quote.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
