Sheffield / S3
Painter and Decorator in Pitsmoor.
Victorian terraces. Mostly working off existing colour schemes. Front doors are where people make a statement.
Pitsmoor is a hilly inner district rising north-east out of the city centre, established as a chapelry in 1845. Its higher streets were, in their heyday, a desirable address, and the district still holds some genuinely grand Victorian housing built for doctors, teachers, and businessmen, with ashlar stone fronts, hipped slate roofs, and ornate porticoes. There is also a notable group of early-19th-century classical villas on Pitsmoor Road dating from around 1825, an unusually early and refined layer for this side of the city. Over the 20th century many of the big houses were split into bedsits and flats, so the district mixes restored period houses with multi-occupancy conversions.
Those classical villas on Pitsmoor Road want a lighter touch and a quieter palette than the Victorian stock. They are Georgian in feel, all restrained classical proportion, porticoes, and moulded surrounds, and they read best in off-whites, soft stone shades, and muted greys, with the joinery and any portico picked out crisply rather than in strong colours. A Georgian house wants a more disciplined palette than a busy Victorian terrace. The detail is the whole point of these houses, so it gets hand-brushed, not rushed through with a roller and a spray gun.
The ashlar stone fronts on the better houses behave differently to brick and to rough-cut stone. Ashlar is dressed, smooth-faced stone, and it is breathable, so it needs moisture to be able to move out of the wall. Coated in a standard vinyl masonry paint, that film traps damp and the stone face starts spalling. When we repaint a painted ashlar front we use a silicate or mineral paint that bonds to the stone and breathes. If a front is bare and sound, the better long-term answer is usually to leave it unpainted and simply clean it rather than locking the surface under paint.
The porticoes and classical mouldings on the grander houses are where decades of repainting do the most damage. Layer after layer builds up on porticoes, pilasters, and moulded surrounds until the crisp classical lines go soft and blurry. We can strip the built-up paint back, with careful sanding or chemical stripper depending on the substrate, then prime and rebuild the coats so the mouldings read sharp again. It is slow, skilled work, so we quote it separately from a standard repaint, but on a classical front it makes the difference between a house that looks properly Georgian and one that looks smothered in paint.
A chunk of the interior work here is in the subdivided big houses, either bringing a whole house back or doing up a single flat in one. Inside a flat that means careful work to cornicing, ceiling roses, picture rails, deep skirtings, and panelled doors, brushing in by hand and stripping back where old coats have clogged the profiles. Restoring a whole house is a bigger job and we quote it room by room. Either way we keep the original detail rather than flattening it with thick modern coats, because that detail is what survived the bedsit years and it is worth holding onto.
The higher streets sit exposed above the valley, so the weather-facing elevations take more wind and rain than a sheltered street and the paint works harder. On a rendered or already-painted-stone front we use a proper two-coat system rather than one thin coat, and we check the forecast before starting because masonry and mineral paints need dry, mild conditions to cure. If the front is bare sound stone, the best protection is usually leaving it breathable and keeping the pointing and the gutters in good order, so water is not being thrown at the wall in the first place.
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Common Questions
Pitsmoor questions
The questions Richard gets asked most often at the kitchen door. If yours is not here, ring him.
I have one of the classical villas on Pitsmoor Road. How should it be painted?
With a lighter touch and a quieter palette than a Victorian house. The villas around there date from about 1825 and are Georgian in feel, all restrained classical proportion, porticoes, and moulded surrounds. That kind of house reads best in off-whites, soft stone shades, and muted greys, with the joinery and any portico picked out crisply rather than in strong colours. If the stone front is bare and sound, we would clean it rather than paint it. If it has already been painted by a previous owner, we use a breathable mineral paint so the stone can still dry out. The detail is the whole point of these houses, so it gets hand-brushed, not rushed.
My house has an ashlar stone front that has been painted. Can it be redone?
Yes, but with the right product. Ashlar is dressed, smooth-faced stone and it is breathable, so it needs moisture to be able to move out of the wall. If it has been coated in a standard vinyl masonry paint, that film traps damp and the stone face starts spalling. When we repaint a painted ashlar front we use a silicate or mineral paint that bonds to the stone and breathes, so you do not get the flaking and spalling the wrong paint causes. If you have a chance to get back to bare stone and it is sound, leaving it unpainted and just cleaning it is often the better long-term answer.
My portico and door surround have layers of paint clogging the detail. Can you sharpen them up?
Yes, this is common on the grander Pitsmoor houses. Decades of repainting build up on porticoes, pilasters, and moulded surrounds until the crisp classical lines go soft and blurry. We can strip the built-up paint back, either with careful sanding or chemical stripper depending on the substrate, then prime and rebuild the coats so the mouldings read sharp again. It is slow, skilled work, so we quote it separately from a standard repaint, but on a classical front it makes the difference between a house that looks properly Georgian and one that looks smothered in paint.
I am converting a big subdivided house back, or doing up a flat in one. Can you help with the period detail?
Yes. A lot of the large Victorian and Georgian houses here were split into bedsits and flats over the years, and bringing the detail back is some of the most satisfying work. Inside a flat that means careful work to cornicing, ceiling roses, picture rails, deep skirtings, and panelled doors, brushing in by hand and stripping back where old coats have clogged the profiles. If you are restoring a whole house, that is a bigger job and we would quote it room by room. Either way we keep the original detail rather than flattening it with thick modern coats.
My house is high up and the front weathers badly. What helps?
The elevation is the reason. Pitsmoor's higher streets sit exposed above the valley, so the weather-facing elevations take more wind and rain than a sheltered street and the paint works harder. On a rendered or already-painted-stone front we use a proper two-coat system rather than one thin coat, and we check the forecast before starting because masonry and mineral paints need dry, mild conditions to cure. If the front is bare sound stone, the best protection is usually leaving it breathable and keeping the pointing and the gutters in good order so water is not being thrown at the wall in the first place.