Paint Stripping in Exmouth

The Moore & Franks approach in Exmouth

Salt off Lyme Bay is what kills paint in Exmouth — the coating on a seafront terrace along The Beacon or Louisa Terrace blisters and peels years before the same paint would fail inland. Add the Georgian and Victorian joinery down there, and the flaking masonry paint on the estate homes at Littleham and Withycombe Raleigh, and there's plenty of tired paintwork wanting taking back before it's repainted. Blasting soft, salt-laden render or old timber only opens it up further. Moore & Franks lift failed paint with DOFF superheated steam — hot, low pressure, kind to the surface underneath. Family-run, twenty-five years, £5m public liability, a 25-minute run from Topsham.

On the seafront terraces along The Beacon and Louisa Terrace the paint takes the worst of it. Salt-laden wind off Lyme Bay drives moisture into painted render and joinery, and the coating blisters and chalks off long before it would inland — you see it worst on the exposed south and west elevations. Stripping salt-degraded paint off soft render is delicate; force it and the surface comes away with the paint. DOFF superheated steam lifts it at low pressure, back to a sound surface ready to repaint, and clears the salt-fed grime that comes with it rather than driving more moisture behind what is left.

Inland, the estate housing at Littleham, Withycombe Raleigh and Brixington, and the newer silicone and K-Rend homes around Liverton Copse and Dinan Way, throw up a different problem: masonry paint that has been recoated a few too many times and is now flaking in sheets. Some of those modern films need softening with a poultice or chemical stripper before the steam will shift them cleanly. We read each wall first — the type and number of coatings decides whether it is a straight steam job or needs the extra step, and we would rather find that out on the survey than halfway through.

Around the Maer Road conservation area and the older painted frontages we are careful, and honest. Not every tired-looking wall needs the whole coating stripped — if the paint is sound and only patch-failing, a full strip is money wasted, and we will tell you that on the visit rather than sell you the bigger job. Where a coating really has gone, though, patching over it just traps the salt and damp underneath and the new paint fails just as fast. The free survey is where we work out which it is and quote the honest scope.

Our Exmouth customers are typically within 25 minutes of our Exeter base. We cover the wider EX8 postcode area and the surrounding villages (The Beacon, Littleham, Withycombe Raleigh, Brixington, Exmouth Seafront & Marina, Lympstone).