Paint Removal in Ottery St Mary

The Moore & Franks approach in Ottery St Mary

Ottery St Mary keeps a fine stock of stone and cob cottages around The Square and Silver Street, and cob is the last wall you want sealed under masonry paint. It has to breathe, and in the damp Otter valley a trapped coating pushes moisture straight into the fabric — the worst thing you can do to an old solid wall. Moore & Franks remove unwanted paint, limewash and over-painting with DOFF superheated steam at the lowest pressure that works, gentle enough for heritage cob and stone, test patch first, so the original surface comes back breathable. Family-run, twenty-five years, £5m public liability.

The old cob and stone cottages around The Square and Silver Street are where Ottery St Mary paint removal really matters. Cob is a fussy, breathable material — it hates being sealed or soaked, and the modern-render rules simply do not apply to it. Brush masonry paint over a cob or solid-stone wall in the damp Otter valley and the moisture that should move out through the surface is trapped inside instead, which is how you end up with soft, failing fabric and damp indoors. We lift the unwanted coating with low-pressure superheated steam, at the gentlest setting that clears it, so the wall can breathe again and the original face returns.

There is real heritage fabric here — the streets around St Mary's Church and out toward Cadhay — where over-painting on stone features and detailing is best taken carefully back to bare. Up on the newer estates climbing West Hill and out to Tipton St John the walls are later render, often over-painted more than once, and owners frequently want an inherited colour or a tired old coating gone. Whatever the wall, we match the method to it and never reach for anything abrasive, which on breathable stone and cob would do far more harm than the paint ever did.

Every Ottery job begins with a test patch on a discreet area. Cob and old stone vary hugely, so proving the method lifts the coating cleanly and leaves the surface sound comes before any full elevation. It is not a step we skip on fabric this soft. It also keeps the conversation honest: some old coatings have bonded in for good and will not come fully back to bare, and we show you that on the test rather than promise the impossible. The site visit, the test and the written quote are free.

Our Ottery St Mary customers are typically within 20 minutes of our Exeter base. We cover the wider EX11, EX10, EX5 postcode area and the surrounding villages (St Mary's Church and the Tumbling Weir, The Square and Silver Street, Cadhay Manor, West Hill, Tipton St John, Newton Poppleford).