We have removed wallpaper from our kitchen the only thing left is this rubbery glue that will not scrape off or wash off. We are on a time constraint and basically emotionally spent. It's not worth our sanity anymore. We have decided to paint over the glue. My question is: should we use an oil based or latex primer/sealer first. I want to have the least amount of chemical reaction possible.

 

Oil base primer is better but the glue will show unless removed.

 

I'm not one of the pros on this forum but I have taken off whole house fulls of wallpaper and painted succesfully.

After the paper was off, I took a sponge, soaked a 4x4 section of wall with tsp and hot water,

then used a 6 inch (wide) flexible metal putty knife to scrape the wall. You need to continuously wipe the glue off the knife. I usually push the knife rather than pull it.

Be careful to keep the knife flat as it will gouge the wall easily when it is wet but if it does, its an easy repair.

Then I rinse the wall with a sponge.

Then I lightly sand the whole wall to get off any clumps.

It takes very little time to do a room if you hustle a bit.

There's probably a more professional process but thats what I have done and it seems easy enough.

 

You really should remove the glue at any/all costs
If you don't/won't, I'd try Zinsser's Gardz
It says it'll go over wallpaper adhesive
I've never tried it but...
Well let's see what it says

"...a unique water-base sealer for porous and potential problem surfaces. It is formulated to deeply penetrate and dry to a hard, moisture resistant film that seals and binds down porous, chalky and crumbling surfaces, paints and texture finishes. GARDZ is recommended for: damaged drywall, new drywall, spackling and joint compound skim coats, plaster, calcimine, uncoated wallpaper, wallcovering adhesive residue, texture paint, popcorn ceilings and builder's flat paint."

Ah see, even that says "residue"

Do you have residue, or gobs of it?

 

I have thin coats of it that seem to be sealed against the wall. If I scrape and scrape at it, it loosens up in tiny spots. It seems smoother if I leave it alone. I have been attempting to wash over it with really hot water. It disolves better than it scrapes off. The rest of the walls are pretty choppy plaster. Maybe thats why they wallpapered it I need to find a product that disolves it rather than loostens it to scrape. If I was to paint over it, it may show, but would not be any worse then the rest of the walls. I am also going to try sand paper. It may be thin enough to sand off??

I will use the primer suggested thanks!!

 

Years ago I ran into that same problem. I don't know what kind of glue they used to hold the wallpaper down, but it looked like a million protuding worms all over the walls. Liquid nails? LOL Nothing would get it off. Plain paint showed every ounce of glue. Horrible! So, I did a faux paint and it completely disquised the "worms" - the house sold

I painted the walls with a dark tan first. Then I swirled white paint and a light tan into a large dinner plate. Dabbed my sea sponge into the swirl and dabbled it all over the dark tan base. Total disquise!!!!! NO MORE WORMS! Easy as pie too.

Don't give up - it worked for me. Give it a try. At this point you have nothing to lose, right? Good luck.