I deducting the deep cleaning of the carpet from his security deposit as I did not consider this to be normal wear and tear.

And this means tearing down walls and possibly a few supporting beams and rebuilding some parts of the plumbing system.  

I can now rewire most of a house I really enjoyed it,the work does  tear your hands up.The issue I have figured out it takes  the correct  tools so you end up with a garage  full of tools.I have seen how to set beams for a foundation and helped do it ,  not that hard really follow  some set rules, rent  a jack hammer the rest is just common tools .I could ramble on for me I get a real enjoyment out of working  on a house so I really make it a challenge to get it right .

In Calif at least wear and tear is not a valid deduction from the deposit.

Any time there are tenants in a house there's going to be wear and tear, if not outright damage.

I would say its less wear and tear as i have cleaning ladies coming every 3 days to clean. 

You may want to consider how much it would cost to tear it down and use the cost like you would deferred maintenance. 

However, we have been tearing down the defaulted and delinquent mortgages in the market for several years now and many private institutional investors have long been purchasing the whole loan only to later exit that loan by way of pooling the loans and selling them off.  

The longer they've been in the game the more they know because if they're still in the game after all that time they're successful, and it has taken blood, sweat and tears.

It's more work and more wear and tear but can get your property rented faster.