To be upset regarding new home.

[2023NewStart1]

We’re in the process of moving into new home and I am shocked at the state of the walls. Not sure if we’ve been lucky before (3rd home move in 20 years) or if this is normal so posting here. The house looked beautiful and we thought it was ready to move in as it was exceptionally immaculate but now that the owners furniture and belongings have gone we realised how much it’s going to cost to paint. Every single room including the bathrooms has hundreds of nails dug into the walls! Even the decorator was shocked and said they seemed to have loved their pictures, we hung up a few pictures over the years and never nailed them in but used command picture strips. Only thing that was nailed in was a heavy mirror.

my mum was really shocked too, every single room needs to be painted and it’s going to cost a lot as we don’t know the names of paints used and trying to match up is going to be a nightmare. Mum very helpfully told me I should complain to the estate agent! I’m obviously not going to as the sale has happened and EA won’t really care.

any advice on what we can do or just anyone to sympathise? I haven’t told anyone in RL as it seems like a non problem but it’s really upsetting me as me we can’t move furniture in till decorating has been done. Every single room needs decorating now. It’s going to delay our move as all decorators are busy during this time

Also, the main picture in my flat is deliberately there to cover plaster damage.

I've only ever done my own painting and I am not going to attempt that bit of plaster. I would have thought people would guess. I did when I bought it and there was a big pic there. I've also used nails for the picture.

Yeah. It’s pretty standard to have to patch up/paint walls. I think (meant kindly) you need to get this into perspective, and move on with getting settled into your new home.

I think that's standard. The first house we bought the vendors had reaorted to no more nails to attach shelves working to the wall. When we tried to prise them off the plaster came away too....which explained the lack of nails because all the plaster was blown. They also left an epic trail of debt resulting in 2 yrs of debt collectors at the door. The second house was infested with fleas and the third with cluster flies.

It won't be outing as you haven't told anyone else in real life?

When you polyfiller the holes, remember to let it dry properly, sand then undercoat. If you are an idiot like me and just put the colour paint straight over the filler then you get a stain that looks like it's damp!!

Not RTFT so this may have already been said but isn’t there a clause in the fixtures and fittings questionnaire that says that they will put the walls back into original condition.

When I moved out I checked with my buyers that they were happy for me to leave picture hooks in the walls for this reason.

Surely when you come to remove command strips they will likely take off some of the paint too? They are stuck to the wall using adhesive after all?

Wow- totally baffled why you would think you can’t move in until the house is fully painted. We have always taken our time painting room by room. If that’s the case, lucky you and enjoy choosing the paint colours you love and putting your own stamp on it. Otherwise, if you wanted pristine walls, you should have gone for a new build.

Completely normal in every house I've bought
You're left with a blank canvas.
Purely cosmetic changes needed
You don't need to match the existing paint!
Redecorate in you're own time

I could have written this!!! Google ‘lining paper’. Thank me later.

@orangegato irs assumed you’re responding to the op, you don’t need to quote them, as you can see no one else is, if everyone did this it would be so long as to make it unreadable

I don't recall this at all. I didn't do any making good in the place I sold and would have been very clear on a form, if there was a section for that.

Yeah, anything bigger than A4 falls off, even with the supposedly right sized ones, luckily my bigger pictures were above a chair and sofa when I realised that.

When we sold ours, we had already removed nails and filled/sanded/painted holes ahead of leaving. It's really shit not to at least try and make good the walls underneath.

Just buy some filler, and a vat of trade white and paint all the rooms.

You can then jooj them up over time as funds allow.

I would take a pic but it’s going to be outing

How on earth would a photo of nails in a wall be "outing"?

Maybe she's moving into Buckingham palace? 🤷🏼‍♀️😆

Must admit, I'd love to see a photo. Is it because of the picture wall trend? Or did they have some shelves they've removed? What does it look like on Rightmove?

Even if you did find the colour of the paint it doesn’t mean it would match up. Sunshine on walls can affect paint over time and in some cases turns white paint to a yellowish tinge
One tip, don’t buy cheap paint, we did that this year for the first time in 40 years, we’ve always gone for either Dulux or Crown and never had a problem. Either of those goes on beautifully and dries evenly.
We made the mistake of buying paint on offer in B&M. Never again. I was really thin, didn’t coat evenly and needed three coats. It dried patchy, it was awful.
We bought a 5 litre tin of Dulux and painted over the lot, it only needed one coat and dried beautifully.

Quite. It was their house. You can put as many nails as you like in your own home.

I have considered how "jooj" is spelt.

i like it 😂

*i have never considered, that should say!

it’s going to cost a lot as we don’t know the names of paints used

Why do you have to match it? Just paint the rooms whatever colour you want.

Also, assuming you saw the house before you bought it, did you not notice they had lots of pictures? How did you think they were fixed to the wall?

We bought this house in May. It was only 4 years old so we didn’t think we’d have to do a lot to it. How wrong we were. We knew we’d have to paint some rooms because they were painted in very bright colours, but the other rooms were in such a state of disrepair that I don’t honestly know what they’d been doing. They’d done some very strategic furniture placement to hide it, at viewings though.

Buying decent paint doesn’t cost “very little”. The type of paint that wipes off the wall when you’re wiping a mark off does. You’ve got my sympathies @2023NewStart1 . We’ve only done half the house so far, but it really is worth it when it’s done.

@Logginglogger apologies, new here

Buying decent paint doesn’t cost “very little”. The type of paint that wipes off the wall when you’re wiping a mark off does.

Meh, even really good / expensive paint is peanuts compared to what the OP seems to be proposing - renting somewhere else for a few months and getting professional decorators in.. all because the wall needs some poly filler and two coats of paint.

There isn’t anything wrong in getting a decorator in rather than painting walls yourself but it’s certainly not necessary. Many of us end up painting one wall at a time after DC have gone to bed for a month or two.

I wanted decorators in to do the last room we needed to do.. I didn’t feel I’d do a good enough job. Couldn’t get any tradesman in for love nor money so I did it myself.. I did as good a job as I would have paid for … AND the sense of satisfaction from decorating your home yourself is immense.

OP is really making a fuss when there is none.