It’s fair to say that there are few parts of your home which are more important to its appearance, value, and thus its overall upkeep than your walls. These are some of the first things that people are bound to see when they enter your home. As such, they are your first chance at scoring a positive first impression. You want your walls to feature nothing less than a first-class paint job. Even so, far too many of us take our walls for granted, and either as a result of time, happenstance, or both, your walls can start to become quite degraded – and, with it, the value and perception of your home by others.

You never want that to happen, but figuring out how to stop or reverse that process is often viewed as a riddle wrapped within an enigma.

However, it doesn’t need to be so complicated – here are a few demystified factors as to what can cause your home’s walls to degrade in quality, and what you can do to reverse the process and restore them to their former glory.

Inexpensive Paint

The first thing to look out for here is Inexpensive paint. No matter how good the paint job might be, if the actual quality of the paint itself is poor, in a few months or years, at the most, you’ll start to notice problems. Bright colors fading, whites and beiges becoming discolored, the paint itself chipping and flaking – all of these are potential problems. As such, repainting your walls with better paint can be a vital way to address this issue.

Water Damage

If your home has been exposed to an excess of moisture recently, your walls might be bearing the brunt of the trouble. Moisture has a way of seeping into walls, which can then lead to everything from discoloration to mold infestations. In the latter case, you’ll naturally need to get your home decontaminated. In either case, a new coat of paint is in order, preferably with a type of paint that’s more water resistant.

Physical Damage

There are a wide range of different ways in which your walls might suffer significant physical damage. There is always the possibility of fires, earthquakes, or other natural disasters wreaking havoc on your home. Even beyond such extreme examples, however, little things can make a big difference here. For example, you might have been moving a piece of furniture in the past and accidentally caused a crack in your walls while moving it. Maybe you’ve hammered or drilled one too many holes into a given wall for your own DIY purposes, and the wear and tear is starting to show. Patching these holes, cracks, and other flaws is essential for maintaining the overall integrity of your walls. If the damage is too severe for that, you may need to consider knocking out and replacing the walls altogether.

Whatever the reason for your walls’ degraded appearance and whatever corrective course of action you choose to take, it is vital that you do indeed keep your walls in good shape.