Walls and Ceilings - walls after removing wallpaper

I have been removing wallpaper and for the most part everything is coming off the walls. At times, the paper is taking the first layer (maybe sizing or primer) off the drywall. Should I just prime over that or do a need to spackle? The drywall is not gouged or anything.

Depending on how deep the primer/paint is around the area the wallpaper is removing the primer/paint you may want to do a skim coat to flush this area up with the already painted wall surface so the wall is nice and smooth again instead of blotches where the wallpaper had peeled away sections. It would boil down to a finished appearance look when your all down.

I have a similar problem. After removing all the wall paper, much of the grey paper is off and I'm left with a brown under paper. You suggest skim coating. With plaster or joint compound?
Thanks.

The paper left behind is stuff off the old wall paper? or voids where the wall paper pulled off pieces of the wall?

If it's stuff left from the wall paper I'd recommend some sort of wall paper remover/adhesive remover to scrap that off to get to the actual wall base. When we had to remove3 layers of old wall paper in our first house I used that handheld perforator and perforated all the walls in our kitchen then applied a gel type wallpaper remover with a brush, let it sit a few minutes and the stuff peeled off the walls very easily-surprised me actually, no real work what so ever.

If it's pulled off sections of your wall, I again really recommend the dry mixed quik set joint compound, just for it's strength and non shrinkage issues. Easy to mix up a small batch in a mud pan and a putty knife. Otherwise just normal pre-mixed lightwieght joint compound will work just fine also, little less labor intensive than mixing a batch by hand.

voids where the wall paper pulled off pieces of the wall? Yup it's that. So if I skim coat with joint compund I should be okay?
Thanks

The skim coat will make it right as rain :D You could probably even get away with some type of ultra light weight joint compound since the depth you probably need to fill is not very deep at all-hence the skim coat just to even out the voids left behind.

Do a light sanding of the area so it literally blends into the old wall and paint-you'll never know there was a bad spot once your done.

If there's any of the brown backing paper from the old wallpaper left on the walls it'll more than likely cause blisters or bubbles in the skim coat. Pick up some Gardz and primer the walls before you do any skimming & it'll stop this from happening. They have it in most wally world superstores, kind of pricey for primer, but sure beats dealing with bubbling mud. :thumbup:

Dear Awesome and IHI, it does not appear there is ANY brown backing paper (from the wallpaper) left on the walls. However, do you think I should also go to the trouble of first washing the walls with an glue softener (JIFF) and then prime & skim coat or will the primer coat be sufficient before the skim coat?

Joe

I guess to be politcally correct you should wash down the walls to remove any left behind adhesive/garbage so your new primer/paint will adhere as per manf. specs.

that brown paper you are reffering to.. is the layer of paper that is just below the Surface paper of the Drywall....

The way I usually handle this problem when I remove wall paper is to

get yourself a bucket of water and a Big Sponge then lightly wet the area Lightly" and then Cut or Peel of the Blistering areas....

Or

You can get yourself some 3M spray Contact and spray the Brown bubbling areas the quickly tame it down with a drywall knife. "Method works very well"

Then: Apply a light skim coat of Light Joint compound........

Lightly sand______Paint!!!!

Do Not use the Bagged Mudd Unless you really know how to Mix it and Properly apply it..... Otherwise you will have a BIGGER MESS on your hands..

Many thanks to all of you for your suggestions. I've decided to use the Gardz primer. In reading the can it is especially formulated for this type of problem.

By the way I tried bagged mud once and only once. Never tried it again. Light weight compound is great stuff.

I'll post the RESULTS of my project when I'm done and let you all know how I made out. Again thanks to all.

Joe