Paint Stripping in Exeter

The Moore & Franks approach in Exeter

Exeter throws up every kind of failing paintwork — flaking gloss on the Victorian sash joinery around St Leonard's, blistered masonry paint on the 1930s bays through Heavitree and Pinhoe, and tired painted render out at St Thomas and Wonford where the Exe valley keeps everything damp. Once a coating lets go it traps moisture and lifts in sheets, and the wrong fix only makes it worse. We're minutes away on Ferryman Way in Topsham, so Exeter is home ground. Moore & Franks strip old and failed paint the gentle way — DOFF superheated steam that softens and lifts the coating without the substrate damage grit-blasting causes. Family-run, twenty-five years in, insured to £5m.

Around St Leonard's and Newtown the paint problem is mostly joinery — sash boxes, bargeboards and front doors on the Victorian terraces where decades of gloss have built up, cracked and started flaking off the timber. Layered paint like that holds damp against the wood and has to come off before a new coat will last. DOFF superheated steam softens the old build-up and lifts it at low pressure, so the timber comes back clean and sound without the gouging a scraper or sander leaves. On the older painted render around St Thomas and Wonford we work the same gentle way, matching the method to how tired the surface really is.

The 1930s bay-fronted semis through Heavitree and Pinhoe are a different job. A lot were coated in modern masonry paint that looked tough but has since blistered and peeled as Exe-valley damp pushed up behind it, and some of those plastic films will not steam off cleanly on their own. Where that is the case we soften them first with a poultice or an appropriate chemical stripper, then lift the residue back to sound render. The newer render estates at Cranbrook, Newcourt and Monkerton throw up patch-failing paint too, and we take each elevation on its own terms rather than assuming one method fits all.

Around Southernhay, the Cathedral streets and the conservation core the fabric is period stone, cob and lime, and paint on surfaces like that must be lifted gently or not at all — anything abrasive damages the very thing you are trying to save. That is also where we are most likely to talk you out of a full strip. If the existing paint is largely sound and only failing in patches, taking the whole lot back is overkill, and we will say so and point you at the cheaper repair instead. The free site visit is where we work out which of the two you actually need.

Our Exeter customers are right on our doorstep. We cover the wider EX1, EX2, EX3, EX4, EX5 postcode area and the surrounding villages (St Leonard's, Heavitree, Pinhoe, Topsham, Pennsylvania, Exeter Quay).