Period houses and exteriors

The Georgian page is the townhouse, not a colour card

Use the Georgian page when the building is a townhouse or terrace and the brief has to respect how its parts relate. Around Richmond Green the appraisal describes an open green, connecting lanes, surviving eighteenth-century houses and nineteenth-century villas. Brick predominates, with some render dressings, and bare facades are not assumed to be candidates for paint. On the Hill the designation crosses the river. These pages stay with Richmond in TW9 and TW10. On the Richmond side the ground rises, main routes have a broadly north-south emphasis, and the recorded fabric includes eighteenth-century terraces, substantial Victorian houses, stucco details, timber sashes and later flats. The Georgian page is the right lead for the eighteenth-century house and terrace, including the rooms inside them. It asks for a schedule that names glazing bars, shutters, cornices and door leaves separately, because 'windows and woodwork' blurs decisions that should stay apart. A Victorian villa that is not a Georgian townhouse should not be forced onto this page. If the main question is how a family will live through an interior repaint, use the family-house page, and add the Georgian page only for the fabric it actually describes. Repainting a listed interior or exterior may need consent where special interest is affected. That application is handled by our sister consultancy under its own appointment. The decorating schedule should then repeat the treatment the application describes.

Sources: Richmond Council: Richmond Green conservation area appraisal; Richmond Council: Richmond Hill conservation area appraisal; Richmond Council: listed-building painting guidance; Hampstead Renovations Limited

The exterior page starts at the coating and the weather

Use the exterior page when the subject is the outside face: timber windows, render, stucco details and masonry that has already been painted. It is not reserved for Georgian houses. A later villa, a rendered bay or a terrace of another period can belong here if the question is the elevation. The page begins with the material under the existing coating. Historic England notes that historic layers can be significant, that stripping can cause loss, and that lime render and stucco may need permeable finishes. An unsuitable coating on older masonry can interfere with moisture movement. None of that is a product chosen from a list. It is a reason to identify the wall before specifying the film. Proximity to the river is a prompt to look carefully at exposed faces, sheltered corners and the lower wall. It is not a diagnosis of damp. If a stain is still changing, the repair has to be owned by someone before a decorative coat is asked to hide it. Council conservation guidance discourages new paint where bare brick or similar materials define the character, and it encourages repair of original windows and doors rather than an assumption that they will be replaced. A sash is specified as a moving assembly: inside faces, outside faces and the edges that show when it is open. Painting previously bare brick is a different proposal from renewing a coating that is already there, and it should be written as its own line.

Sources: Historic England: redecorating an older home; Historic England: investigating moisture in traditional buildings; Richmond Council: conservation areas and exterior alterations

Where one instruction ends and the next begins

The Georgian page ends once the elements, the colour relationships and any consent limits are clear. It does not, by itself, design a repair specification for hollow render, and it does not obtain a highway licence. The exterior page ends at the elevation. It does not set the palette of a reception room, and it does not decide how a household will move between bedrooms. If your house needs both, the enquiry should carry two lists rather than a merged wish. From the Georgian page, name the rooms and the joinery, and say which brick stays bare. From the exterior page, name the elevations, the substrates and how each opening will be reached. A terrace may suggest a coherent door colour. Coherence is context. It is not an instruction to copy the neighbour, whose substrate and consent position may differ. Article 4 directions are street- and property-specific. A direction somewhere in the borough is not a borough-wide rule, and the absence of a direction on one house does not speak for the house next door. Flats recorded on the Hill are not briefed from these two pages as though they were single dwellings. They belong with the flats and lettings group, with the exterior page added only if an elevation you are actually allowed to change is part of the instruction. Scaffolding, a hoarding or materials on an adopted highway need a council licence. That constraint sits on the exterior page because it changes the sequence. It should be raised before anyone promises a week of painting.

Sources: Richmond Council: Article 4 directions in conservation areas; Richmond Council: scaffold, hoarding and materials licences; Richmond Council: Richmond Hill conservation area appraisal

What to send for a townhouse or an elevation

For the Georgian page, send the address, photographs of the front and of one principal room, and any listing reference you already hold. Say whether preparation would rub down an existing coating or cut back to bare timber. Those are different proposals, and Historic England's caution about historic layers is the reason to choose before the work starts. Mark shutters, shutter boxes and fanlights if they are included. They are easy to forget once the entrance steps are clear. For the exterior page, send a photograph of each face, a closer view of the failure, and a note of leaks or repairs already investigated. Say whether equipment would stand on the public highway, and whether any sash fails to slide. Identify who will confirm that a surface is ready for decoration if a joiner or another trade has to go first. Where consent is required, keep the sister-company appointment distinct from the decorating instruction, and attach whatever that approval actually describes. You can write both notes in one message. Label them. A finishing date depends on consent, access, weather and the recoat interval of the system that is eventually specified. Ordinary practice is to take that interval from the manufacturer and from the conditions on the day, not from the number of elevations.

Sources: Historic England: redecorating an older home; Richmond Council: scaffold, hoarding and materials licences; Hampstead Renovations Limited

• Georgian note: rooms, named joinery, bare brick left out, any listing papers
• Exterior note: faces, substrates, moisture history and how the work will be reached
• A highway position, if scaffold or materials would stand off the property
• Consent papers kept separate from the decorating schedule