Paint Stripping in Torquay

The Moore & Franks approach in Torquay

Torquay's grand Victorian and Edwardian villas around the Warberries, Lincombe and Wellswood carry acres of painted render, joinery and balcony detail — and Tor Bay salt with the sea fret that hangs over the hills works at all of it. Add the painted and pebble-dashed terraces through Ellacombe and Upton, and there's no shortage of blistered, flaking paintwork waiting to be taken back. Failed coatings on soft render and old timber need lifting gently, not blasting. Moore & Franks strip old paint with DOFF superheated steam, hot and low-pressure, so the surface underneath comes through sound. Family-run, twenty-five years, insured to £5m, covering Torbay from our Topsham base.

The grand Victorian and Edwardian villas around the Warberries, Lincombe and Wellswood are Torquay's big paint jobs — sweeping rendered elevations, deep painted joinery, bargeboards and balcony detail, much of it three storeys and more. Tor Bay salt and the sea fret that settles over the hills work into the paint until it blisters and flakes, worst on the high, shaded faces. Stripping failed paint off elevations this size and this soft is careful work: DOFF superheated steam softens and lifts the coating at low pressure, back to sound render and timber, without the scarring a blast or the scorch a heat gun would leave.

Through Ellacombe and Upton the terraces are painted and pebble-dashed, and the 1930s semis around Chelston and Shiphay carry masonry paint that has weathered and started peeling on the damp, salt-touched walls. Standard masonry and gloss coatings steam off readily; where a wall has been over-coated in a modern plastic or elastomeric paint that won't shift cleanly, we soften it first with a poultice or chemical stripper and then take the residue back. Pebbledash in particular hides failing paint in its texture, so we assess each surface properly before quoting a method.

With elevations this large, doing more than the wall needs gets expensive fast, so we are honest about scope. If the paint is broadly sound and only failing along a run of joinery or one elevation, a full strip is overkill and we will say so, quoting the smaller job. On the older and heritage fabric — the villas, and the cottages out at Cockington — stripping is gentle and considered, never a blast. Where a coating really has blown, taking it back to sound first is what makes the repaint hold. The visit and quote are free.

Our Torquay customers are typically within 45 minutes of our Exeter base. We cover the wider TQ1, TQ2 postcode area and the surrounding villages (Babbacombe & Oddicombe Beach, Cockington Village, St Marychurch, Wellswood, Torre Abbey, Kents Cavern).