I have to move at the end of the month from one rental to another. Without getting into too much detail, there is a slight indentation in the drywall in my hallway caused from a bit of a slip when moving furniture. While the wall isn’t broken, there is a noticeable 1/4" deep mark in the wall. What is the easiest way to fix this so I can get my security deposit back? My educated guess would be putty of some type.
I always say that duct tape and spackle are a home owner’s best friends. In your case, go get some spackle. For a tiny ding, some spackle will work fine.
If you’ve broken the drywall then you need to cut it out and make a patch. If you truly dented it then buy the smallest container of vinyl spackling compound and fill it in using a 5" drywall knife.
If the spot flexes when you push on it then it’s broken. You may still get away with filling the dent but if you need to replace that part of the wall then you would cut a rectangular hole. From there you get a piece of drywall that is bigger than the hole by 1 inch all the way around. you insert this into the hole (with a screw tied to string) so that you can pull it back as to form a backing to the hole. You then drive screws into the wall all around the hole so that the patch is firmly attached. Then you take the hole you cut and screw it into the patch. fill in the gaps with vinyl patch, sand, prime and paint.
From your description though, it sounds like a little vinyl patch and a quick sanding and paint.
You forgot to mention fiberglass tape. You tape the seams of the hole, and then spackle. Otherwise you are relying only on spackle and some screws anchored in drywall (not a very good anchoring material, in my experience) to hold the patch on.
But it sounds like the OP doesn’t need to do this anyhow, he has a small indentation, and he can fill it with some spackle, sand it, and paint it.
Out of curiosity, why would this be the case? Spackling alone has seemed to work fine for me with holes up to 1’’, although sometimes you need to spackle/sand/spackle/sand if the hole is big enough for the spackle to sag.
I’m not a pro, so I am just wondering if there’s something I’m missing.
(Edit: on second read, I think you are talking about fracturing the gypsum rather than puncturing/tearing the outer paper. Needing to patch makes sense in that case.)
Back when I was a renter, a tube of toothpaste (white, not red) was all I needed to patch walls sufficiently to get back my deposit. Of course, a week or two later the repairs would fail. The minty fresh smell lingered, though. 
Note that a lot of premixed joint compound can be smoothed out with a slightly damp smooth sponge (they sell these next to the joint compound). So fill, wait till it’s mostly dry, sponge it, apply 2nd coat, repeat until smooth. Sponging is a whole lot easier and less messy than sanding. I’ve used this when drywalling my entire basement and it came out nicely.
Right! The objective of the OP was to patch, move out, and get back his deposit. To cut out dry wall, etc. is overkill for a 1/4" dent in an unbroken wall. Spackle will do. The owner will likely repaint the place anyway before re-renting. I would even make a case that a 1/4" tiny dent that can be easily repaired is just normal wear and tear in a rental and shouldn’t result in any withholding of security money.
Thin coats of spackle, allowed to dry in between, will work much better than a big glob.
I think you figured it out on the second read, but I’ll fill in the details anyway.
If the gypsum is fractured, the wall will feel soft. Spackle will make it look good for a little while (long enough for the security deposit to clear the bank) but won’t last. As soon as any pressure is put on the wall, the sheetrock will flex and the spackle won’t; it will crack or fall off completely.
That was where I was going with that. Should have explained it better. If the drywall moves when pressed the problem is larger than you think. Had a plumbing company put a tub in my mom’s house and installed drywall against nothing. Didn’t find out until they were done and gone. At that point I just ripped it out and did it myself. Didn’t want them back in the house. How F!@#%ing hard was it to scab a 2x4 into another 2x4 so the drywall had something to attach to. Serenity now… serenity now…
The real problem is going to be to get the repair to match the texture, color and sheen of the rest of the wall. Sanding or sponging the repaired area will make the texture smooth, but it’s unlikely that the rest of the wall is smooth. You can come close to matching most textures by working the spackling, wall compound or toothpaste while it’s still wet. You’ll have to experiment, but usually if you place a mostly dry sponge against the repair and pull it straight off it will leave a texture that may match close enough. Sometimes I just use my hand - again, placing or tapping it against the repair and pulling straight off.
Once you get the texture right, then you’ve got to match the paint.
I don’t know what the laws are in your state, but this sounds to me like normal wear and tear which should not be taken out of your deposit. Even so they should not keep the entire deposit because of a single dent in the wall.
Maybe you should talk to your manager before taking this on.
Thanks for the advise all.
As for asking my apartment manager beforehand, that isn’t an option. I get the feeling this is the sort of thing that will lose my entire $400 deposit over. To summarize, in the past year I’ve had my landlord (or at least the mean old lady who works in the office) threaten to:
- call the fire marshall because I had a box sitting on the floor inside my apartment (tripping hazard don’t you know!)
- have me evicted due to the mold growing at the bottom of our sliding window (the one that leaks because maintenance won’t come over and caulk it)
- charge me $45 for a drawer that has been cracking since before I moved in. They wanted to charge me this six months into my year long lease instead of waiting until I moved out
- hassled me about knocking on my upstairs neighbor’s door at 3AM. I guess my neighbor didn’t mention the part where she and her boyfriend were yelling drunken obscenities at each other at the time and I just wanted to sleep.
- refuses to call an exterminator for the multitudes of house centipedes that inhabit the building, nor let me get my apartment sprayed on my own dime because ‘it might disturb other residents’
There’s reasons I’m moving, and I definitely don’t trust them to not charge me for even the slightest thing 
But off of that tangent, thanks for the drywall patching advise. I’ll have to get some of this spackle stuff.
Judging from your past experiences with this landlord it seems unlikely that you’ll get your deposit back without a fight no matter how pristine you leave the place. You might be better served by spending your time reading up on the landlord/tenant laws in your state.
I aqree with this statement. You are not going to get your deposit back no matter what with out a fight. I would take pictures of the whole apartment, then video tape the same. Put a ruler against the dent in the wall to indicate the size. Go through each room with several friends and make notes of the condition in each room. Have your friends sign and date each page. Ask for a move out inspection on the day you move out, making notes with what they say the condition of the apartment is. At the end read it back to them and ask them to sign it. If they refuse either make a note of it you can also ask them to sign a letter saying that they refused to sign your notes or do a move out inspection in your presents.
This may help but depending on your state you may be blown off.