This is what I have to work with. It's the main bath in my house. It used to have wallpaper on the walls. That came off without a problem. But the adhesive stayed and, despite the use of four different kinds of stripper, it stays. Nothing works on it. A palm sander with fifty grit won't even touch it. So I've decided to try and smooth things out with spakle. Lots of spakle. My question is, how smooth does a wall have to be so it won't show through an eggshell paint? The medium shades in the picture is all of the adhesive that won't come off. My only other option is to try to scrape it off. But I tried doing that and it resulted in inly gouging the wall. I plan on puting on a coat or two of Kilz before I paint. Hopefully that will help.



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Whade' "The Duck Formerly Known As Wade" Duck
'87 GT Auto
'88 Ferrario
'84 Indy (8/26/06)

[This message has been edited by whadeduck (edited 11-05-2006).]

do yourself a favor and just use a stucco on the walls. you can try to sand it down and spackle but it won't come out well. unless you want to hang new dry wall (yuk) just stucco it. behr sells kits for it.

Thinking about the posibility of doing a knock-down texture to try and cover up what spakle cannot. The only problem with that is that my kitchen and the bathroom in the master bedroom also have wallpaper on them. This is not regular vinyl wallpaper. It's sanitis. Thick paper wallpaper, and the adhesive has been on the walls for twenty-one years.

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Whade' "The Duck Formerly Known As Wade" Duck
'87 GT Auto
'88 Ferrario
'84 Indy (8/26/06)

[This message has been edited by whadeduck (edited 11-05-2006).]

I bought some "Orangepeel Splatter" at Home Depot. It is a spray can of water based drywall texture which gives a texture to the walls prior to painting. It covers and fills in some of the defects in the wall surface or over wall patches. You may want to use a white primer (Klitz) first then use the eggshell paint as your finish.

Hello Whade. We use an enzyme-based glue remover when taking adhesive off the walls while restoring Prospect Place. Trouble is, our walls are plaster not drywall. Drywall tends not to hold up too well to getting wet

I would have to agree about a texturing compound for your problem. Apply an oil-based primer (Kilz) BEFORE the texturing compound though as when the old wallpaper adhesive finally gives up if there is nothing binding it the new compound will give up and fall off. It's like repainting a car, for best results use a primer/sealer between paint coats. I would probably replace the sheetrock if it were me, but I have loads of experience with drywall/blueboard. You might even get away with new 1/4 inch veneer drywall over the current drywall. 1/4 inch is pricy though.

Really it depends on the finish you want. If you skim the panels with joint compound after priming the glue out it can be done. You would need to use the "pink" adhesive for joint compound OVER the primer and/or screen. Then tons of sanding with a board unless you are able to layup plaster smooth. Lots of work no matter what.

As OldLar said, you would then also need to primer the new plaster before paint.

Good luck.

[This message has been edited by tutnkmn (edited 11-06-2006).]

Panel it. You can use a wood grain, tile, marble or whatever you want. Just cut it to fit, glue or use panel nails. Never have to bother with it again. I did a wall in my kitchen in oak panel and the other side in a white marble tile and it looks great. Whole job didnt take me but a few hours. Comes in 4' x 8' x 1/8" sheets, costs are from $3-20 a sheet.

I don't like the idea of knockdown texture... especially in a bathroom. Mold and other icky stuff having little places to get a foothold and hide when cleaning doesn't appeal to me.

Could run a fresh layer of sheetrock (greenboard wouldn't be a bad idea) over the old, or just run a layer of drywall mud over the whole wall. I've done that in on some walls that were heavily textured in my house that I wanted smooth.

I'm going to smooth it out as much as possible with the sheetrock mud but finish sand it by hand instead of a palm sander. Then I'll hit it with a coat or two of Kilz and see what it looks like. I've been puting skim coats of sheetrock mud on it to try and smooth things out. But even after two skim coats and a lot of sanding, some of the texture of the adhesive still can be felt when you run a finger over the surface. Kind of wondering if the Kilz might help fill some of that in. Just don't want to put one texture on part of the house and the rest of the house be another. If I didn't know better, it almost looks like they didn't use wallpaper adhesive on the walls. The color looks like the back of some of the floor tiles I'll pulling up. It would explain a lot if, for whatever retarded reason, someone used tile adhesive instead. The stuff is as hard as a rock.

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Whade' "The Duck Formerly Known As Wade" Duck
'87 GT Auto
'88 Ferrario
'84 Indy (8/26/06)

quote Originally posted by whadeduck: If I didn't know better, it almost looks like they didn't use wallpaper adhesive on the walls. The color looks like the back of some of the floor tiles I'll pulling up. It would explain a lot if, for whatever retarded reason, someone used tile adhesive instead. The stuff is as hard as a rock.

Arrrgghhhhh! You would NEVER get that stuff off sheetrock It would bring the paper of the rock with it. Hope that's not the stuff you have, but sounds like. They might have used it because some bathrooms will pick up an oily/soapy like residue and normal wallpaper adhesive would not stick (kitchens can be the same way).

"When lazy too much to clean walls right you are, use adhesive that is stronger" says Yoda

[This message has been edited by tutnkmn (edited 11-06-2006).]

If ever I find who built this house, a can of green whoopass open will I.

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Whade' "The Duck Formerly Known As Wade" Duck
'87 GT Auto
'88 Ferrario
'84 Indy (8/26/06)