Anyone who rents an apartment knows that the term “Normal wear and tear” varies greatly. In my complex I’m pretty sure that means don’t touch anything, dust the walls, don’t hang pictures, and if it’s a minor repair, don’t call maintenance. This means that I’ll be repainting the walls when I leave, but before I can repaint, I have to fill all the nail holes which amounts to about 20 holes of varying sizes.
I could just paint over the holes, filling them with paint, but that can leave discernible lumps and divots, and at a charge of 300 bucks a wall, I need perfection.
To complete this task, I’ll need some putty in the same color as my walls, a putty knife and sand paper.
Clean The Area
The first thing I’ll need to do is clean the area of the nail hole. I’ll do that by gently scraping away any raised areas resulting from the insertion and extraction of the nail. I want to make sure the hole is as smooth and open as possible before I fill it. The best way to do this is with a wire brush or a piece of course sandpaper.
Fill The Hole
The mount of putty needed will vary with the size of the hole. The general rule is to apply just enough putty to fill the hole even with the wall. Dip the putty knife into the putty and scrape out a small amount. Then wipe the putty onto the nail hole, pressing down hard enough to fill the hole. Then smooth the putty even with the wall until there are no discernible lumps, bumps or marks. The idea is to make the hole disappear as if they were never there.
Allow Putty To Dry
Drying times vary depending on the type of putty at the amount used. I plan to allow my putty to dry overnight.
Sand And Paint
Once the putty is dry, sand lightly to ensure the putty blends into the surrounding wall. Brush away any residue. Then paint. Unless you’re changing your wall color or your walls are in need of a massive repainting, simply using the same color of paint that is already on the walls and painting over the nail hole should finish blending it in with the wall.
This project should take me 18 hours not including the repainting of my living room walls.