Paint Stripping in Totnes

The Moore & Franks approach in Totnes

Totnes is a heritage town, and paint here sits on fabric that demands respect — the Georgian and Victorian townhouses up Fore Street and High Street, much of it listed, the slate-roofed terraces across the Dart at Bridgetown, and stone mullions and old joinery throughout. Dart-valley damp and shade keep the walls wet, so paint on soft render and timber blisters and lifts. Stripping it back is careful, conservation-minded work. Moore & Franks use DOFF superheated steam to soften and lift failed coatings at low pressure, keeping the historic surface sound and breathable. Family-run, twenty-five years, £5m public liability, thirty minutes from Topsham.

Totnes is a heritage town, and paint here sits on fabric that demands respect. The Georgian and Victorian townhouses up Fore Street and the High Street are largely listed or in the conservation area, with painted render, stone mullions and old joinery throughout. Dart-valley damp and the shade off the steep streets keep the walls wet, so paint on soft render and timber blisters and lifts. Stripping it back is careful, conservation-minded work — DOFF superheated steam softens and lifts the failed coating at low pressure, keeping the historic surface sound and breathable, which is the whole point on listed fabric.

Across the Dart at Bridgetown the slate-roofed terraces carry layered gloss on joinery and painted render fronts, shaded and slow to dry beside the river, and out at Follaton the newer rendered homes throw up flaking masonry paint on the damp elevations. Old gloss and lime-based paint come back cleanly with steam; where a wall has been over-coated in a modern plastic masonry paint that won't lift on its own, we soften it first with a poultice or chemical stripper. On stone mullions and period joinery especially, the gentle steam method avoids the gouging and scorch other methods risk.

On heritage fabric the honest answer often is to do less, and in a conservation town that matters. If the paint on a frontage is broadly sound and only failing in patches, taking the whole lot back is both overkill and, on listed fabric, more disturbance than the building needs — we will say so and quote the repair. Where a coating has properly blown, stripping it back gently to a sound, breathable surface first is what protects the fabric and makes the repaint last. The site visit and written quote are free.

Our Totnes customers are typically within 30 minutes of our Exeter base. We cover the wider TQ9 postcode area and the surrounding villages (Bridgetown, Follaton, Dartington, Berry Pomeroy, Ashprington, Stoke Gabriel).