You spent the weekend pulling kid art off the walls and now there are forty-eight nail holes, three crayon murals, and a bedroom your spouse painted "Naval Academy navy" in 2024 that has to be back to off-white before the Lendlease walk-through Tuesday. The cleaners can scrub a lot of things. They cannot fix paint.
Wall touch-up and repainting is one of the most common PCS deposit losses at Fort Campbell, and one of the easiest to avoid if you book it early and price it right. Here is what it actually costs in 2026, what Lendlease and off-post landlords actually inspect, and how to schedule it so the paint is dry before your walk-through.
PCS Painting Prices at a Glance
| Scope | Typical Cost |
|---|---|
| Single-bedroom touch-up (scuffs + nail holes, matched paint) | $185 – $245 |
| Single-room full repaint (walls, one color) | $325 – $425 |
| Accent wall reverted to original (dark over light needs primer) | $145 – $225 |
| Two-bedroom repaint | $625 – $825 |
| Whole 3-BR touch-up + ceiling re-flat | $1,150 – $1,500 |
| Trim / door re-paint (per door or 8 lf trim) | $45 – $85 |
Prices apply to Fort Campbell on-post (Balfour Beatty / Lendlease), Clarksville off-post (Sango, Woodlawn, St. Bethlehem, Tiny Town, Hilldale), and Oak Grove / Hopkinsville KY. Active military: 10% off the total. Smoke-stained or pet-heavy walls priced after walkthrough.
What Lendlease + Off-Post Landlords Actually Charge For
The walk-through line items that hit deposits the hardest:
- Nail holes left unpatched. Hung pictures, command-strip tear-outs, and the toddler-height scuff trail in the hallway. Charged per wall on most leases.
- Accent walls in non-approved colors. The painted-over mural, the navy office, the rose-gold nursery. Required back to original in writing on most Clarksville leases and on every Lendlease unit.
- Crayon, marker, and grease. Scrubbing usually fades but does not erase. Paint covers it.
- Pet-rubbed lower walls. Dogs grease the bottom 18 inches of walls along their walking lanes. Soap and water will not lift it. Touch-up paint will.
- Tobacco / vape staining. Yellowing on the ceiling and upper walls. Needs a stain-blocking primer plus repaint, not a single-coat touch-up.
- Drywall patches that never got painted. Old hole repairs, doorknob bumpers, towel-bar pull-outs. Needs sand + prime + paint.
Touch-Up vs. Full Repaint — Which Do You Actually Need?
Most PCS exits do not need a full repaint. The right call usually:
- Touch-up if walls are mostly the original color, you have under ~30 nail holes per room, no crayon murals or large patches, and no accent walls. This is 85% of PCS exits. Costs $185 to $245 per room.
- Single-room repaint if a kid's room got crayoned, an office got an accent wall, or pet damage covers more than a wall. Walls only, one color. $325 to $425 per room.
- Full house repaint if you owned the home for 3+ years, walls are scuffed throughout, ceilings have softened to a yellow tint, and you want the cleanest possible deposit return. $1,150 to $1,500 for a 3-BR.
When in doubt, walk the home with us first — we will tell you which scope actually returns your deposit and which is overkill.
Where Painting Slots Into PCS Week
Sequence matters. Wet paint and a deep clean do not mix.
- Day -7 to -3: Touch-up while the home is partially packed. Easier to access walls before furniture leaves than wedge a roller behind a packed dresser.
- Day -3 to -1: HHG packout. If we did not finish painting before, we wait until the home is empty.
- Day -1 morning: Final repaint pass on any spots the movers scuffed during loadout (corners, doorways, baseboards). 2 to 4 hours of touch-up usually.
- Day -1 afternoon: Move-out clean rolls AFTER paint dries (at least 4 hours of dry time). The cleaner does the final pass.
- Move-out morning: Walk-through. Punch-list standby on call for same-day fixes.
Bundle Painting With the Rest of Your PCS Clearing
Paint sits naturally inside the full PCS clearing bundle. If you are already booking a move-out clean, junk haul, lawn cut, and carpet steam, adding a touch-up paint slot is cheaper than booking a separate painter on the same week — same dispatch, same team coordinator, one invoice. See Fort Campbell PCS Move-Out Bundle Cost for the full bundled price grid.
Cleaning prep and inspection scope details: PCS Move-Out Cleaning Cost. Carpet, the other big PCS deposit hitter, is here: Fort Campbell Carpet Cleaning Cost.
Save the Wall — and the Deposit
Quickest path: text or call (615) 813-4701 with your move-out date, home size, and a photo of the worst wall. We send a fixed-price paint quote inside an hour during business days, same-day during PCS season. Active duty gets 10% off automatically. Or jump straight to the painting page — Fort Campbell PCS Painting.
Service area: Fort Campbell on-post (all neighborhoods), Clarksville, Sango, Woodlawn, St. Bethlehem, Oak Grove KY, Hopkinsville. PCS-season slots fill 1 to 2 weeks ahead from mid-May through July — book early.