DH Painter & Decorator paints timber fascias, soffits and bargeboards in West Hunsbury, NN4, a short drive down Towcester Road from Northampton town centre. Many 1980s and 1990s houses on the estate still have their original roofline timber, and Dean recoats it from ladders or a tower set up on the driveway.
Original roofline timber, now three or four decades old
West Hunsbury’s main building period ran through the 1980s and 1990s. Listings date one four-bed detached here to 1985, a Francis Jackson build, which is typical of the age of much of the housing. Houses of that period were usually finished with painted softwood at the roofline: fascia boards carrying the gutters, soffits beneath the eaves and bargeboards along the gables. Plenty of those boards are still original, and after thirty or forty years of repainting, or not, they show it. You see cracked paint along the bottom edge, bare grain on south-facing runs, and soft spots where a gutter has been leaking.
Timber that is still sound can be prepared and repainted, which keeps its look and costs less than replacement. Our main fascia and soffit painting service sets out the process. Here we focus on how West Hunsbury houses affect it.
Recoat now or overboard later?
Original boards of this age are usually due either a recoat or a uPVC overboard, and owners have to choose. We are painters, so we cannot fit uPVC, but we can tell you honestly whether your boards are worth painting. Dean probes the timber, especially the ends of fascias, the joints on bargeboards and any section under a leaking gutter. If most of it is sound and the odd soft patch can be cut out and repaired, recoating makes sense. If rot runs the full length, painting would only hide the problem, and we will say so before you spend money.
More roofline than you might think
Detached houses have four exposed elevations, and on this estate the main roof is rarely the only one. Typical West Hunsbury plots add:
- a single or double garage with its own fascia and bargeboards, as at Fienesgate and Aviemore Gardens
- a porch canopy over the front door
- a conservatory whose top rail meets the house fascia
- an extension or annex roof, like the self-contained annex at Bramble End
Each of those adds metres of board and more corners to cut in. When we quote, we measure the house and the outbuildings separately, so you can see where the time goes and decide whether to do everything together or start with the main roof.
Leaves, gutters and shaded eaves
Hunsbury Hill Country Park covers 38 hectares, much of it wooded, and the estate wraps around it. Homes along the park edge, and woodland plots such as those on Tall Trees Close, get heavy leaf fall each autumn. Gutters fill up, water spills over the fascia, and the boards behind stay wet. Shaded soffits also grow algae. Our preparation here includes clearing the gutters we are working beside, a biocide wash on green timber, and making sure the boards are properly dry before primer goes on. Painting over damp timber is the quickest way to make new paint peel.
Setting up on a West Hunsbury drive
Most detached homes here have a driveway, so ladders or a small tower can go up on your own ground. On a single-storey home, like the detached bungalow listed in Whaddon Close, a lot of the eaves can be reached from steps, which makes the job quicker. For a rough idea of how roofline work is priced, see our painter and decorator cost guide, and for other work on local houses, visit our West Hunsbury area page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
