First try the Mr Clean magic eraser to remove the crayon marks. Hopefully that will do the trick. Be sure to follow the directions exactly, especially regards rubbing gently to erase (remove) the marks.

Are there some crayon marks on every wall in the apartment? If not then you shouldn't need to paint every wall. My painter told me that unless a mark is small that you could gently dab the spot with a paint brush so that is not obvious one should paint the whole wall. If the magic eraser doesn't remove the marks completely then hopefully one coat of paint will be enough. Be sure to mix the paint thoroughly before starting because paint does settle resulting in uneven coverage. I mainly noticed coverage issues with the (semi) gloss paints. A flat paint should cover fine.

Quite frankly I wouldn't like to be a landlord with all the expenses they have, for little profit (and thanks).

also, as long as the COLOR is the same (or even mostly the same), even if a single coat is not enough, just paint the one wall it's on, all the way to the corners. No one will notice that it's a fresher coat (or a teeny bit different color)

And if you do have to paint (bcs the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser doesn't get them off), get a small can of SHELLAC-BASED PRIMER--such as Binn or Kilz--and paint over the spot with THAT, then do the wall (or part of the wall) with the landlord's paint.

Thank you for your responses. I had tried the Mr. Clean erasers but they were taking off the paint.

I went today and bought primer. Talley Sue, I hadn't even thought of needing primer so I'm glad you gave me that tip.
The man at the paint department explained to me to that the primer and then the paint should not be put on the wall neatly like a square over the mark. This is so the eye will not be drawn to the new paint.

"the wall will not be evenly painted"

Paint the WHOLE wall, do not try to just cover up the marks.

I assume they will paint the whole place after we leave when they have to rent it again.

They might, but they WILL charge you against your damage deposit for the crayon and pen marks.

It takes extra prep time.

Should I offer to pay the painters of the apartment to paint over the marks and where there are marks from water when I tried to wash the walls? That way maintenance will have fixed my problem. In an apartment a few years ago, we had maintenance repaint a room for us that we had painted bright yellow. It cost us about $60.00 if I remember correctly.

How much should I offer them to go over the spots? Or would it be worse to have them even see the marks?

If I were a worker, and you'd done the PRIMER work (the shellac-based primers will keep the crayon, etc., from bleeding through), I wouldn't say anything to management about them. All management cares about is that the wall looks nice. It doesn't matter what's under it.

(and I wouldn't charge you exra, as long as the primer was in and dry, bcs it wouldn't take anymore time; if you ask ME to prime it, I'll charge you, bcs I have to use two brushes, wait for it to dry, etc.)

Here's what you should do.

1) apply the primer to cover the area, and block the oils from bleeding through.

2) try painting the wall, feathering the edges as your were instructed. See if it works. If the newly painted area shows, proceed to step 3.

3) if necessary, paint the entire SINGLE wall (not the room), corner to corner. Or, if the wall is broken up by something like a doorway, paint the section w/ the marks, and feather the edges just above the door; the eye won't notice them.

Unless your CURRENT apt. management offers wall-painting services via its maintenance guys, I think you should take care of this before you move out.

If you move out, and offer the clean-up guys money to fix it, your landlord can STILL withhold deposit money for it, simply because they saw it.

I spoke to management today and said I was planning to touch up the water marks as well as some crayon and paint marks. They said that they have now changed to semi gloss paint because of the problems with cleaning the walls.

Also, they told me that I shouldn't bother painting anything because they will paint the place anyways.

If you were me, would you still paint before they painted?

If they said "don't bother, we're going to repaint", I wouldn't bother.

If I liked the management, I might just go over the crayon and ink stains w/ the Kilz primer, so they don't have to--just to b enice. It could easily bleed through even a decent semigloss,

Talley Sue, I had purchased a primer for flat paint. The man at the store recommended it. From what you had written before, should I return it and buy the Kilz primer?

you need a *shellac based* primer--one that is intended to seal in oils and stains. Several companies make them . Kilz is one; Binn is another; other companies make them, too. But you need to use one that's labeled in a way that makes it clear it will block stains from bleeding through.

As far as I know, the primer for flat and the primer for semigloss are the same. Primer doesn't affect the finish; the *paint* is what will be flat, semigloss, whatever.

Primer for *oil* and primer for *latex* might occasionally be different. I'm pretty sure a shellac-based primer will work for either.

There are basically three types of primers: oil based, water based and shellac based. As Talley Sue is saying if the primer you bought already states that it is "shellac based" then you can use it, otherwise you would need to exchange the oil or water based primer for a "shellac based" primer. The different manufacturers often make all three so you can't just buy any Kilz primer, only the shellac based primer.

I have found that semi-gloss doesn't give as good a coverage as flat. They may find it better to apply one or two coats of flat and have the semi-gloss simply as a top coat to facilitate cleaning in the future. Personally I don't like the look of semi-gloss either because it is too shiny.

Try using Mister CLean magic eraser. It doesn't literally work like a magic, but helped with some markings on my walls. They are not that expensive either. But watch out that they do leave visible marks if your wall colors are off white etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: Teanobi : The Art of Japanese Tea

Thank you all for your responses. I wanted to give you an update. Being so tired from working and moving, I decided not to do anything with the walls.

We hired the cleaning service and carpet cleaner company that management uses. Management was more than happy to give me their numbers. They were also much cheaper than other companies because I was given the same rates as management. The apartment looked clean and in move-in condition. Management did a really quick walk-thru and said we'd have no charges. I'm now glad that I didn't spend hours working on the walls.

WD-40 is great for getting crayon and even permanent marker off walls. If it is cheap paint, it may rub off a little as well so, some touch-up may be required.

I scribbled something on the wall with the Sketch Pen and now it's not going. The paint is fading off whenever i try to remove the marks. The paint on the wall is a normal distemper painting. Can someone advise me what to do for this ?