Moving out end of month. I have 7 places where I have driven nails in the wall to hang pictures. I thought I would get a small can of spackle and spackle over. Do I need to? There are 8 place on the hardwood floor where a cig has been dropped and there is half inch black spot. I was going to get some sandpaper and try to buff it out. Do I need to?
Cigarette damage to a hardwood floor in eight places? I’d think you’ve probably lost your deposit, and justifiably so. What kind of finish is it? Surely just sanding it is only going to make the damage more prominent.
Most hardwood floors have some type of urethane finish. Sanding some spot will likely remove the finish. In my experience with restoring hardwood floors, the various remedies all ended the same way: sanding and refinishing the whole floor.
There are home remedies all over the internet for spot fixing cigarette burns on hardwood floors. It’s probably worth a try if that’s the only major issue you’re leaving behind.
I should have been more detailed. There is no cigarette damage to the floor. It didn’t burn throught to the wood, it’s 8 little black spots in a 2x4 area in an 800 SQ foot studio by my computer chair.
It’s remotely possible to sand the burns, re-stain, and dab on some floor polish or varnish, but you’d want to know what you’re doing, and it may still (probably) look awful.
Normal wear-and-tear cannot be held against you. Hanging pictures is in that category.
Cigarette burns…oh yeah…they will hold that against you and rightly so. You’ll be lucky if they only settle for your deposit. Definitely kiss that good-bye and count yourself lucky if that is all they get you for.
I don’t know about that, as others have said, without expertise it would be easy to make it much worse.
Right. Any competant person could fix this in an hour. A sander, some polish. I used to own a house, and in the last year I needed money and I got a roommate. He was a big man, and he sat on the couch and when he got excited watching football and he literally scooted the couch and left 1/4 inch grooves in the floor. In, again, about a 2x4 foot area
And when I sold my house, I was worried that I had to fix it. I tried the menthods you suggested, and yes, it didn’t look much better. But nobody decides to not buy a house because of a 2x4 foot area of a hardwood floor. That is all I have here, with no grooves.
They go by the cost of repair.
Well this is a dplicate post in some ways. Are you really telling me that cigarette burns in a 2x4 area will cause me to lose my entire deposit? Because if so, I will hire a professional to come in and fix it within an hour?
Bottom line, I am going to go to Task Rabbit, hire someone for $50 an hour, to fix this and spackle over those few places where I put nails in the wall, which I know goddamn well, by law, I cannot be charged for. But they will try to charge me for it anyway.
Yup. If the landlord sees the damage they will claim it against your deposit. Imagine if your buddy borrowed your car and returned it to you with damage. You’d be right to ask him to pay to fix it.
Same thing here.
Can you get someone to hide it for less than it will cost to fix it? Maybe. But then you may pay people to hided it and it is still found out and then you have to pay for real repair.
It’s a dice roll…you may get away with it…you might not…Kinda like a double-or-nothing roll. Pay twice as much or pay nothing…I think you will probably lose on this one. The landlord is likely to find the damage. They really do not want to return your deposit and are looking for any reason not to do so.
You can do the spackle yourself, can’t you?
When you’ve finished, take photos so the landlord can’t claim things are worse than they are.
And when you move into a new place, take photos of anything that isn’t perfect, in case they try to blame you when you leave.
You didn’t “know goddamn well, by law” when we started, curious.
CMC
For nail marks, yes. I know they can’t. I know they are required by law to repaint the apartment. And unless the tenant has put gauges in the wall, they cannot be charged. But the law is not always followed. But the fucking big corporation landlords will do so anyway. If a tenant moves out, the apartment people come in and inspect, and if they can charge you one last dime they will. They will fucking gauge you for every last fucking, literal, cent they can.
The day I signed my lease here, and as apartment complexes go, management is “relatively” decent, but as I was signing the agent was talking to a tenant who had just moved out and they were trying to take a lot of her security deposit, and I had a feeling that when the time to come for me to move out that they would try to do the same to me.
That is the whole point of this OP is to make sure they don’t charge me any more than they can. I don’t think they have a right to deduct anything from my $1800 deposit.
So, here is a picture of the “damage” I have done in 2 years, the reason for the OP
I hate to be the dick but honestly…if you damaged the property it is right that you should pay to fix it.
I get it may not be money you have but maybe you can arrange a payment schedule with the landlord.
Imagine if you bought your own place. Would you be casual about putting cigarettes out on your own floor or letting your friends do so?
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They have to give you an itemized list of damages and charges. Nail holes wouldn’t hold up on small claims court, so it’s unlikely they’d put it on there. If they did, you would tell them you’ll take them to small claims court, and they’ll probably drop it.
I’m pretty sure nail holes to hang pictures are not something landlords can get you on.
That said it probably differs place to place.