Nine Easy Ways to Repair Damage to Your Apartment (and Get Your Security Deposit Back)

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If you rent your home, you know there's one extra barrier that makes affording the place even harder: The security deposit. Typically based on the monthly rent amount, the average security deposit is $750, which is a lot of money for most folks. In theory, you get that money back-sometimes with interest-when you move out. But nearly 60% of renters don't expect to get the full amount of their security deposit back, and a big reason is damage to the home.

Every home experiences normal wear and tear" from being occupied. Things get worn, old, and used up, and that's nobody's fault. But if you've caused damage to the place that falls outside the wear and tear" concept, your landlord will be more than happy to deduct the cost of that repair from your deposit. But you can avoid that in a lot of cases by spending a small amount of money on a simple repair that just about anyone can do.

Wood repair

Scratched wood floors? Scuffed-up cabinets? If you're worried that your landlord might regard those scratches as damage that requires replacing or refurbishing the wood in the apartment, a set of wax sticks and wood markers is a cheap way to hide all that damage. With a little patience, you can fill in shallow gouges with a color-matched wax stick and draw over scratches with a color-matched marker to produce a repair that makes these imperfections almost invisible.

Drywall putty

Drywall is amazing stuff. It's cheap, but it does its job of being a wall perfectly well. But it's also pretty easy to damage. All it takes is losing your balance or misjudging distances and bam! You've put a hole in your wall. A hole your landlord will probably claim requires a team of workers to repair.

But you can fix it really quickly, and really cheaply. For smaller holes, this all-in-one patch from 3M is pretty magical: Just apply the spackle, use the back of the applicator to scrape it flush with the wall, let it dry, then use the supplied sanding cap to sand it smooth. Then paint (if necessary) and you're golden!

For larger holes, this drywall repair putty is incredibly easy to use. You just roll it over the hole to fill it in, wipe away excess, let it dry, then paint. You won't need to sand or do anything else to it.

Window screens

Did you poke through a window screen? Aside from letting all the bugs into your home, you're now faced with the possibility that your landlord will charge you for a replacement. Luckily, replacing a window screen is one of the easiest repair jobs you can do. Just buy a window screen repair kit (you can just get the screen material if you've already got some tools that can do the job). Replacing the screen is just a matter of pulling out the spline (the caulk-like rope that holds the screen in the grooves of the frame), removing the damaged screen, cutting a fresh piece to fit, and pushing it into the grooves with the spline to hold it in place. You can sometimes reuse the existing spline, but the kits will provide fresh spline for you to use.

Touch up paint

If you've scuffed and chipped the paint on the walls, cabinetry, or appliances in your apartment, you might get dinged in your security deposit if the damage is too obvious. But you don't need to re-paint the world to save your deposit, you just need a little touch-up paint. This will be most effective if your apartment is done in standard Landlord White, but you can find other shades of touch-up paint if you look. Just cover the chips where you find them and let it dry. If you've somehow damaged the fridge or dishwasher finish, you can buy appliance-specific touch up paint that can repair small bits of damage very effectively.

Carpet stain remover

If you smuggled your dog into the apartment, or tripped and dumped an entire glass of red wine onto the carpet and never bothered to deal with the stains and odors, your landlord will not be amused. While getting stains and odors out of carpet can be a challenge, a bottle of spot remover can work some real magic, even on greasy stains. This stuff doesn't require vacuuming or wiping down-just apply, agitate a little, and blot, and most stains will simply vanish.

Carpet patch

If you can't get that stain out of the carpet, or you've damaged a spot so badly that it can't be repaired or hidden, you might be able to patch the carpet-if you have any spare carpet to work with. Landlords will sometimes leave extra carpet in the apartment or in the storage area of the building, so start with a little investigation. If you strike gold and find a portion of carpet remnants that match, you can cut out the damage area, cut a patch to fit, and use some double-sided carpet tape to fix it into place. For a relatively small section, this repair will blend surprisingly well, and be surprisingly durable.

Laminate repairs

Did you crack or chip the laminate countertops or floors in your rental? Don't panic: For small bits of damage, you can use a product like SeamFil, which applies like a gel or cream and dries to a perfect bond with the existing laminate. With a little patience and care, you can wind up with a repair that's almost impossible to spot. Just make sure to color match as closely as you can, and keep in mind that the company recommends using its SeamFil Solvent to clean the area before applying the filler for best results, which can increase the overall cost of the repair.

Window repairs

I once cracked a window trying to hang holiday lights around it, and the crack taunted me for years before I finally got the windows replaced in the house. If you don't want to pay for a whole new window when you move out, you might be able to repair a small crack yourself by using a two-part epoxy like this to fill in and hide the crack. Epoxies like this get worked into the crack like putty, dry clear, and reinforce the glass. If the repair is small, you have a good chance of no one ever noticing.

Unclogging drains

A surprisingly common reason landlords hit up security deposits are clogged drains. Sure, clogs can lead to floods and water damage (and can eventually damage the plumbing itself), but they're super easy to deal with, usually. If you haven't thought about how slow the drains in your house have become over time, it's not too late: A set of plastic drain clearing tools is incredibly cheap, easy to use, and very effective at dragging a (probably disgusting) clump of hair and out of your drains, making them seem like new just in time for your landlord's inspection.