Hello - my situation seems so ridiculous...I hope someone has some advice - thank you in advance!

We removed very old wallpaper about 2 weeks ago from 2 walls. Under the wallpaper was some sort of paper, which we sanded as much as we could and applied an oil-based primer. We then skim-coated each wall.

For the last few days I've been battling bubbling up of the old paper underneath...what a huge mess! I cut out the bubbles and re-applied the skim coat.

There are STILL bubbling up areas. I don't know if I should give up and sand away all of the skim coat to get down to the paper, or just keep skim-coating and cutting out bubbled up areas.

This is a nightmare - every day is longer than the one before ....

thank you for any help you may have!

 

As a painter, removing wallpaper is one of the most horrible elements of my job. I can empathize with your frustration.

Wallpaper is usually made up of two parts. The outer surface and the paper backing. The outer part usually comes off fairly easily depending on the type of wallpaper you are removing. You must remove all of the backing paper when removing wallpaper, as well as all of the glue that holds it on. What's likely happening here is the moisture from the drywall compound you are skim coating with is coming in contact with the paper and causing it to bubble.

If it was me, I'd remove all the mud and try and get as much of that paper backing and glue off as possible.

 

The paper backing is usually the easiest to remove - just get it wet and scrape. Unfortunately the job is now a lot harder. Also after you've cleaned up the mess, if there is any adhesive left or exposed gypsum [where the drywall paper was removed] you should coat the wall with an oil base primer or Zinnser's Gardz.

 

what an education ....thank you for your replies. there truly are no shortcuts!

 

Yeah, putting up wallpaper should be a sin because that stuff is tough to get down, especially if it is the really old stuff. We had an old house once and we couldn't get the paper off the walls for anything. I hope you finally got your walls how you need them.

 

The age of the wallpaper doesn't make a whole lot of difference in how easy/difficult it is to remove. It's all about the prep/condition of the wall under the wallpaper. Paper can be removed from a well sealed wall without too much difficulty. There are some cheap builders that will have wallpaper hung directly over unpainted drywall In those cases it's best to not even try to strip the paper ..... or use dynamite