Do You Need Planning Permission to Paint Your House?

Which outside jobs need planning permission

Painting your house needs no planning permission, and the Planning Portal counts it among the repairs, maintenance and minor improvements that need no application, and its doors and windows guidance puts repainting window and door frames in the same group.

Here is what each common outside job needs, from those two Planning Portal pages and Nottingham City Council’s Article 4 guidance.

Outside job	What it needs
Painting the house	No planning permission
Repainting window and door frames	No planning permission
Cladding or rendering the walls in a conservation area, national park, area of outstanding natural beauty or the Broads	Planning permission before the work starts
Cladding or rendering the walls anywhere else	No application, if the materials look similar to those used in the house
Significant works on a listed building, inside or out	Listed building consent
Work on a property under one of Nottingham’s Article 4 Directions	Planning permission for the types of work the direction covers, so ask the council’s Minor Works Enquiry Service first

The last two rows apply on top of the first four, so a listed house or a property under an Article 4 Direction needs a check before any outside job.

Painting your house a different colour

A new colour needs no planning permission either, because changing the colour of your house is still painting it, one of the minor improvements the Planning Portal names. Two kinds of home need a check before the colour changes. A listed building needs listed building consent for any significant works, inside or out, the Planning Portal says. In the six Nottingham areas with Article 4 Directions, the council advises using its Minor Works Enquiry Service before doing work.

Painting your front door and window frames

Painting your front door is part of painting your house, and the Planning Portal’s doors and windows guidance names repainting window and door frames among the repairs, maintenance and minor improvements that need no planning permission. The same guidance says there may be additional restrictions in a conservation area, national park or area of outstanding natural beauty, and that you may need planning permission where your council has made an Article 4 Direction withdrawing permitted development rights.

Painting a listed building

If you live in a listed building, you need listed building consent for any significant works, whether internal or external, the Planning Portal says. Nottingham City Council says you need to apply for listed building consent for most building work to a listed building, internal and external. Before a listed home is repainted or changes colour, find out whether the job needs that consent, and apply before the work starts if it does.

Checkatrade’s exterior prices, such as £2,700 on average for painting the outside of a semi-detached house, are for modern, non-listed homes built from modern materials, so they are not a guide to the cost of repainting a listed home.

Painting a house in a conservation area

Whether painting a house in a conservation area needs permission comes down to two questions: is the job painting or cladding, and is the house under an Article 4 Direction?

If you live in a conservation area, a national park, an area of outstanding natural beauty or the Broads, you need planning permission before cladding the outside of your house with stone, artificial stone, pebble dash, render, timber, plastic or tiles, the Planning Portal says. Anywhere else, the same guidance says cladding can go ahead without an application if the materials look similar to those used in the house.

Repainting brick or render the house already has is painting, not cladding. The Article 4 question matters in Nottingham because the city’s directions are on specific properties, mostly within conservation areas, the council says.

Article 4 Directions in Nottingham

Nottingham City Council says Article 4 Directions remove the right to carry out certain types of permitted development, so planning permission is needed instead, and the city’s directions cover specific properties in six areas.

• Devonshire Promenade
• Foxhall Road
• Sneinton
• Strelley Village
• Waterloo Promenade
• Wellington Terrace

The directions restrict minor building work, such as small extensions, outbuildings and changes to windows and doors, and the council advises using its Minor Works Enquiry Service before doing work in those areas. If your home is in one of them, use the service before you change the outside of the house, from a new colour on the walls to spraying uPVC windows and doors.

Checks before painting the outside of a Nottingham home

The My Property map from Nottingham City Council, at geoserver.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/myproperty, shows whether a property is in a conservation area or is a listed building, so it is the first check to make.

Among the ten Nottingham decorators compared side by side, Leon Shaw Painting & Decorating in Mapperley Park lists Mapperley Hall, a Grade II listed building, among its commercial case studies and a Victorian exterior among its residential ones. Whites Decorators in Watnall changes the colour of render and uPVC windows and doors, and all ten give free quotes.