We just purchased a house and I am in the process of taking the original wallpaper off. Here is the problem. I am taking the wallpaper off, but the wall underneath is also coming off. This is the only thing that has been on the walls, so I am assuming that it is part of the dry wall. It looks like the top covering of the dry wall is bubbling and when I take off the wallpaper, I also rip some of that off with it. I am going to repair it, but I don’t know what to do. I purchased some spackle, but my husband said that that will not work and it will crack and I would be at the same place. Do I need some kind of drywall compound? And if so, do I buy it at a place like Home Depot?

 

Wash the wallcovering adhesive off the walls thoroughly.
Then prime the wall with Zinsser's GARDZ. Smooth out rough areas with thin coats of joint compound. Use as many thin coats as it takes to make it smooth, usually 3. Then reprime patched areas, and then paint.

 

the best way to repair your walls is time consuming. remove all your wall paper and any little flaps of the sheet rock paper,let the wall drycompletely, then seal the wall using an alkyd undercoater. the next day using joint compound start repairing the damaged areas. it may take 2or3 coats of compound to make it smooth if you are going to hang new paper spot prime the repaired areas with the undercoater, if you are going to paint spot prime the repaired areas with a latex wall primer, then reprime the whole wall, this will avoid any" hot spots " in the finish. I have been in this type of work for 40 years and some of it can be a pain in the backside this is one of them, good luck