We decorate rented homes in Yardley Gobion for landlords and letting agents, mostly repaints between tenancies, travelling 9.7 miles south from Northampton. Rental numbers for the village are not published, so each property is quoted on its own merits, from the converted Mount Pleasant terraces to the post-war estate homes.
Letting in a mainly residential village
Yardley Gobion is a mainly residential village with a little over 1,300 residents at the 2011 census. We have not found published figures on how many homes here are rented, so we will not pretend there is a large lettings market. Of the village’s housing, the two groups most likely to come up as lets are the converted terraces at Mount Pleasant and the 1950s to 1970s houses south of the village.
A turnaround job in a village almost 10 miles from Northampton needs more planning than one in town. Materials have to be on the van from the start, and if the job is going to stretch over more than one day, it needs to be clear before work begins.
Mount Pleasant: workhouse terraces in a conservation area
Mount Pleasant is the former Potterspury Union Workhouse, converted in 1835 from existing buildings. It was renamed The White House in 1904, closed in 1917, and later converted into the terraced houses arranged round the courtyard today. Nos 3 and 4 have a datestone of 1667 and are listed. The whole of Mount Pleasant is inside the Yardley Gobion Conservation Area.
For a landlord, that brings practical points:
- The way into the courtyard is a single lane of rough gravel with no footway, so we plan unloading and parking before the job starts.
- The brick buildings have stone and yellow brick detailing, which should be masked and left unpainted when external woodwork is refreshed.
- The conservation area appraisal objects to replacing timber windows and doors with uPVC. Keeping the existing joinery painted between tenancies costs less than replacing it and fits what the appraisal asks for.
- On the listed houses, check with West Northamptonshire Council before changing external colours.
Inside, older walls may be uneven or include sections of lime plaster, and some walls may need a breathable paint rather than a standard vinyl matt. We will tell you where that applies.
Post-war houses south of the village
The estate built south of the village after the war is the simpler turnaround. These homes have modern plaster, standard stairwells and softwood joinery, and they sit outside the conservation area. A typical between-tenancies job here is filling and sanding the marks from the last let, two coats of a scrubbable matt in a neutral colour, and eggshell on skirtings, frames and doors.
The estate sits around the primary school, and in a let house there the hall, stairs and kitchen usually take most of the wear. We can focus on those areas and just touch up the rooms that are still in good condition. Our main landlord and letting agent decorating page covers recording paint colours and products for future touch-ups.
Working with an absent landlord or an agent
If you live away from the village or let through an agent, a turnaround can still run without a site visit on your part. For that we need:
- Key collection and return arrangements, agreed with the agent.
- A clear list of rooms and items in scope, with photos from check-out if you have them.
- A named contact to approve any extra work found, such as damp staining or failed plaster, before it is done.
Dean sends photos when the job is finished, so you can see the property before the next tenants view it. Pricing depends on the size and condition of the property. Our cost guide explains what affects it, and our Yardley Gobion page covers the rest of the village.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
