Painting & Decorating in Hendon

Painting & Decorating in Hendon: what is different here

Summer turnarounds between student tenancies

Private renting made up 47.2% of Hendon ward households at the 2021 Census, and a good share of those lets are shared houses within reach of the Middlesex University campus. Many still change over together: tenancies have had no fixed end date since 1 May 2026, but student HMO landlords can use the new Ground 4A to seek possession over the summer, ready for the next academic year.

That leaves a few weeks to repair a year of wear. Typical work is scuffed hallways and stairwells, blu-tack and poster marks in bedrooms, grease above hobs and mould spots on bathroom ceilings. We use washable, wipeable finishes in halls and kitchens, a mould-resistant paint in bathrooms after the cause has been dealt with, and colours that can be touched up next year without repainting a whole wall.

Fire doors in Barnet HMOs: paint without losing the seals

Barnet's adopted HMO standards require kitchen doors in shared houses to be 30-minute fire resisting doorsets, self-closing, with a combined intumescent and cold smoke seal fitted to the head and both sides. Paint is the quickest way to ruin those seals. We mask or remove the strips before painting, keep paint off the brush pile of the smoke seal, and check the door still closes fully into its frame afterwards.

If a previous decorator has already painted over a seal, we say so and fit a replacement, because a council officer checking the licence will look for it.

The Burroughs: exterior painting may need consent

Barnet's appraisal of The Burroughs Conservation Area records a 1987 Article 4 direction covering 1 to 8 Burroughs Gardens and 63 to 77 The Burroughs, and among the things it restricts is the painting of external walls. Owners at those addresses should ask Barnet before repainting brickwork or render a new colour. Across the wider conservation area, the appraisal notes that most front doors are painted softwood in traditional dark colours, so a dark front door and white sash windows keeps a house in line with its neighbours.

Joinery repair before repainting is usually the better route for the timber sashes than replacement. Church End, around St Mary's, is a separate conservation area with its own appraisal, so ask Barnet before changing an exterior colour there too.

Converted flats and block rules

In a house split into flats, the hall and stairs usually belong to the freeholder, and the leaseholder's decorating stops at the flat's front door. In the newer West Hendon blocks, managing agents often set working hours, require dust sheets on common corridors and limit where materials can be stored.

Tell us the building and the agent when you book. Inside the flat, older conversions often have cracked lath and plaster ceilings and gaps where partitions meet original walls, so we fill and line before painting rather than over a moving crack.

Damp marks and what we can and cannot do

Hendon's older houses, with solid walls and bathrooms squeezed into converted rooms, often show black mould on cold external walls and ceilings. We clean it, treat it and repaint, but painting over mould does not cure it. We do not carry out damp investigations, so if staining keeps coming back in the same place we tell you and suggest a specialist look at the cause first. In a licensed HMO, recurring mould is also something a council officer will raise.

Colour and finish choices for Hendon lets

Flats off Brent Street and around Hendon Central change tenants often, so walls get touched up many times between full redecorations. We keep a written record of every paint used, with the brand, colour reference and sheen, room by room, and leave it with the invoice. When a student moves out of one bedroom in March, the agent can then have just that room patched in the matching colour rather than paying to repaint the whole landing.

Gloss on the woodwork of a shared house takes knocks from bikes and suitcases, so we use a hard-wearing satin on skirtings and doors that wipes clean.

Official sources

• Barnet HMO standards: 30-minute kitchen fire doorsets with seals
• The Burroughs appraisal: 1987 Article 4 direction including external painting
• Census 2021 private renting in Hendon and West Hendon
• West Hendon Waterside blocks
• Hendon Church End conservation area appraisal
• Fixed terms replaced by periodic tenancies from 1 May 2026, GOV.UK

Last reviewed October 2026 by EliteShires Property Services.