So, I moved into a rented house which is ok but quality of workmanship does not suggest a man who takes pride in his work.

After a few weeks there were some marks on the hallway wall from me scraping it with my workbag, trying to squeeze past my bikes.

Shouldn;t be a problem I thought, I can just wipe the wall down. Tried that with a damp cloth and found paint all over the cloth – not the best paint job in the world.

Found the tin of paint in the understairs cupboard and painted over the marked areas – should be fine. Except, as per the instructions on the tin, I didn’t water the paint down.

Turns out however, where I’ve painted, there’s loads more paint than the surrounding walls – you can see it clearly and it’s also much smoother when you run your hand over it.

I came to the conclusion the paint used by the landlord’s handyman had more than a little bit of water in and have proceeded to paint the offending patches with water to try and thin it out. But after about 10 applications it’s still showing – albeit with some improvement. Noticeably the water beads on the bits I’ve painted but doesn’t on the surrounding walls so I’m coming to the conclusion he must have gone something like 50/50…

So what’s the best solution for sorting this – just wiping the patches I painted with a damp cloth to try and spread the paint over a wider area?

We’re talking about 4 small patches here. trying to repaint the whole area means a long hallway + stairwall and landing…

Well you can start by repainting the wall and see if the change in angle at the corners masks the change in paint finish otherwise it’s time to break out the dust sheets and get on with the whole area.

or as the workmanship was substandard to begin with and you’ve done nothing worse than trying to keep the property in a clean and tidy state you could get on to the landlord and ask them to sort it out. Dry paint ain’t supposed to wipe off that easily.

you will always see a freshly patched paint job.

paint the whole wall.

ps are you using a brush ? your man doing it originally will have used a roller.

ps are you using a brush ? your man doing it originally will have used a roller.

I’m using a small (2 inch) brush. Will a roller spread the water more widely?

Google tells me this landlord has a reputation for trying to rip off his tenants. I wouldn’t be surprised if the cheap paint job is a deal he does with his maintenance man – do it badly, tenant living normally with standard wear and tear means landlord claims a portion of the deposit to ‘re-do’ the paint. Takes more off the deposit than he pays his maintenance man… who then does another half-arsed job

If I can sort it with a roller I will, if not, I’ll find a reputable decorator to repaint just before I move out, including a written statement of their assessment of the original paint job ie: whether it’s fit for purpose…

Paint it a couple of weeks before moving out and you’ll leave it looking spic and span and the landlord won’t even realise. Anyway why should he even be bothered?