Painting and normal wear and tear

[Lorelai Gilmore]

My tenants have been in the unit for 4 years and they're moving out soon. The walls were professionally freshly painted before they moved in and now they're thrashed. Every single inch (or it feels like that) of the walls have a mark, smudge, or indentation on it in the common areas. The furniture, especially dining room chairs have been propped up against the wall and scraped the wall behind it with indentations, drawing on walls with crayons that they've erased with cloth but now they have smudges, etc.

Are they responsible for any of this? 4 years seems like a long time on one hand, however I've lived in places that long and the walls looked nothing like that. Not even 1/10th of the dirt and indentations. This does not feel like normal wear and tear.

I was hoping to only do minor touch ups, but the way they are it needs complete paint job.

[Jim K.]

@Lorelai Gilmore

I feel bad for you. I know what it's like to pay for a item or service that you hope is going to last a very long time and seeing your investment vanish in a much shorter time period. Please be aware that if you try to deduct this from your tenant's security deposit and your tenant decides to fight you on this, there are very few judges that are going to unquestionably see things your way, at least in western Pennsylvania, where I live and operate.

You have to be aware that many professional painters are often far from professional and are generally more interested in profitability than in multiyear results. What they want is a job that looks reasonable good, happens reasonably quickly, and takes a reasonable amount of effort, especially when they're working for a landlord and not a retail buyer. I don't know what your professional painters wanted to do with your walls, I don't know what paint they used or how much they used. Even more importantly, I don't know what kind of primer they used.

It may be that you're looking in the right place and indeed, the tenants are to blame for the shape the walls are in. It be that you're not. Find out. Try washing down the walls and ceilings with a solution of TSP (trisodium phosphate) and see what comes off. You cover the floor, spray the solution on with a pump-up pressure sprayer, brush with a soft siding brush on a threaded handle, and wipe down multiple times with a sponge mop and a lot of water. See what stains and smudges come off. If it's not a lot and you really are stuck repainting instead of doing touch-up, resolve to make absolutely sure that this next base coat you lay on is very thick and can be repeatedly washed, scrubbed, and touched up successfully over a period of 20-something years.

To my mind with my purposely limited number of rentals and my handyman abilities to do the painting myself or supervise general laborers doing it, this is a smarter way to handle turning rentals between tenants than handing over repainting to a fresh batch of guys with mystery paint every few years.

For interior wall paint, I tend to use Behr Marquee and Behr Ultra. People whom I respect, @Matt M. among them, do not particularly like this kind of paint for a variety of reasons, and instead recommend high-quality Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore paint. You certainly can't go wrong with those brands. In order to improve adhesion of this wall paint when I renovate a new acquisition, I use multiple coats of Kilz2 water-based primer or Kilz Original oil-based primer under this paint. In my experience, there is no such thing as "primer+paint-in-one," this is the biggest lie in home improvement. A close second is "one-coat-coverage."

Please bear in mind that I am typically working in 60-90-year old properties that have already seen a lot of use and have questionable wall coverings over plaster to start with. I treat every renovation like I'm starting from scratch.

I start with at least two coats of primer and then two coats of paint, very often three. I want a very thick base layer of tough paint firmly adhered to the walls of my rentals, something that, again, can be scrubbed, touched up, recoated multiple times. I tend to prefer flat paint for normal walls and ceilings, satin paint in bathroom and kitchens, semi-gloss paint for trim. Most painters-for-hire will not go to these lengths on a job unless you specify it in a scope of work and are willing to pay a premium for it (or unless you're married to them).

Is my strategy perfect? No. But does seem to cut down on paint problems as the years pass. I don't let my tenants paint, I don't change colors, and future repaintings are kept down to cleaning + problem-area touchups followed by one coat if necessary, in-and-out, turn for the new tenant quickly. The base layer gets even thicker, more responsive to heavy scrubbing, and my hardened rental gets even more hardened.