Exterior Spray Painting in Greetland

What the age of the housing means for the walls

Of the 6,100 properties the Valuation Office Agency records around Greetland centre, 33.6% pre-date 1919 (well above the 21% average), so solid-walled stone or brick houses that must be able to breathe sit alongside later cavity-wall housing that can take a wider range of coatings, and we establish which you have before recommending a system. Across the other 83 West Yorkshire towns we cover, pre-1919 housing averages 26.0%, 7.6 points lower than here, so solid walls that need breathable coatings are more of a feature here than elsewhere in the county.

A further 30.4% were built between 1919 and 1972 (13.8% between the wars and 16.6% from 1945 to 1972, below the 42% average for that period), and postwar estates of the 1950s and 1960s often mixed brick with rendered or dashed panels; a few system-built houses of that time have concrete panels that need a survey before any coating. Across the other 83 West Yorkshire towns we cover, 1919 to 1972 housing averages 39.1%, 8.7 points higher than here, so dashed render is likely to be less of the work here than in neighbouring parts of the county.

Homes built from 1973 to 1999 make up 23.0% of properties here (above the 19% average), and houses of that era are mostly brick-faced, so the exterior work on them is usually rendered panels, timber cladding and roofline boards, where original timber or early uPVC soffits and fascias are often weathered, yellowed or chalky by now.

House type, access and what gets sprayed

Detached and semi-detached houses are 49.4% of homes here (below the 58% average), so many jobs have fewer elevations than in suburban towns. Across the other 83 West Yorkshire towns we cover, the detached share averages 23.8%, much the same as here.

Terraced homes are 37.4% of the total (above the 27% average), and on a mid-terrace we normally spray the front and rear only, with an end terrace adding its gable. We agree a clean finishing line where your wall meets the neighbour's, sheet adjoining walls, windows and cars against overspray, and check rear access at the survey because it often decides the programme.

Owners, landlords and timing

Owner-occupiers make up 71.9%, above the 63% average for the towns we cover, so most exterior jobs here are long-term decisions about the house, which is why we would rather spend an extra day on render repairs than skip them. Of the other households, 16.6% rent privately and 10.5% rent from a council or housing association. Across the other 83 West Yorkshire towns we cover, owner-occupation averages 70.5%, much the same as here.

How Greetland compares with nearby towns

The share of pre-1919 housing is broadly similar in the nearest towns (33.0% in Elland, 43.1% in Halifax and 37.8% in Sowerby Bridge). The biggest contrast in house type is with Halifax, where only 8.2% of homes are detached, so more jobs in Greetland involve four elevations and the access equipment that goes with them. Renting also differs: 27.1% of households here rent, against 49.2% in Halifax, and on a rented home the colour of the outside walls is normally the landlord's decision.

For housing built from 1919 to 1972, the main pebbledash and roughcast era, the three range from 23.2% in Halifax to 35.6% in Sowerby Bridge, and Greetland sits within that range. Halifax has the most recent building of the three, with 19.8% of homes dating from 2000 onwards, so through-coloured renders that may only need cleaning are more common there than in Greetland. Owner-occupation is higher here than in Halifax, where 50.5% of households own their home, so fewer of the exterior decisions in Greetland rest with landlords.

What the figures suggest about a quote

The most common home around Greetland centre is a terraced house: roughly 2,170 of the 5,794 households live in terraced houses. With only the front and rear to do on most terraces, the front-elevation starting figure of around £1,200 is a closer guide here than on bigger houses, though rear access can affect the quote as much as wall area. Next come semi-detached houses, roughly 1,550 households, where the side elevation is usually the main addition to the front. The largest group of properties was built before 1919, so the survey also decides whether a wall should be coated at all, and with what.

With this much pre-1919 housing, listed buildings and conservation areas are more likely here than in most of the towns we cover, so if yours may be one, check with Calderdale Council before booking any change of colour or painting of bare masonry.