wallpaper removal - looking for a sanity check

[mrFinpgh]

I spent the afternoon removing 3 layers of painted wallpaper from my old kitchen.  Surprisingly, all the layers came off without too much persuasion.  I had mentally resigned myself to spending the weekend stripping the walls, so this was a nice surprise.  Part of a drain vent pipe also came off  [eek]

Then I sprayed the walls and a couple stubborn spots with Safe and Simple wallpaper remover liquid and scrubbed the residual adhesive off the wall with an abrasive pad.

There's a lot of areas where that scrubbing the adhesive took up what seems like a poorly applied latex paint that was on top of the plaster.  In some areas, I could pull up sheets of this paint about a foot long.  I am assuming this isn't glue, but I want to just double check my assumption.  Are there wallpaper adhesives that look like latex paint?  I'm used to seeing wallpaper adhesive as a clearish goo that I need to scrub to remove.

Thanks,
Adam

 

[oldie]

Sounds as though might be PVA 'glue.' 
Rather than apply a traditional 'mist' coating first - if needed, some people would, incorrectly, apply a PVA coating before decorating. 
And yes, depending on your luck, can be a royal pain to remove.

Richard (UK)
Forgot to say: to save time, there are products that you can apply over PVA coatings, that will 'prep' the surface for decorating - check out Zinseer products for example. 
Which raises the question of how you intend to decorate; needless to say, thorough preparation is important - might need to research separately.

 

[Sparktrician]

My guess is that someone painted over unremoved wall covering sizing.  That makes it really a pain to get a wall smooth and looking right.  I'm dealing with that right now in a bathroom in my own house.  I may take the RO 125 to the wall to try to level it out enough to paint and look right. 

 

[mrFinpgh]

Forgot to say: to save time, there are products that you can apply over PVA coatings, that will 'prep' the surface for decorating - check out Zinseer products for example. 
Which raises the question of how you intend to decorate; needless to say, thorough preparation is important - might need to research separately.

I thought PVAs were generally clear or at least translucent?  Here's a couple photos of the walls in question:

View attachment 1
View attachment 2
View attachment 3

My plan is to patch all the holes in the wall, replace some plaster that had failed, and then skim everything to get back to a smooth surface. After that, I'll prime and paint.  I just want to make sure that in skimming the wall, the remaining 'latex' isn't a failure waiting to happen!

My guess is that someone painted over unremoved wall covering sizing.  That makes it really a pain to get a wall smooth and looking right.  I'm dealing with that right now in a bathroom in my own house.  I may take the RO 125 to the wall to try to level it out enough to paint and look right.

Maybe that's it.  Given that I'm going to skim everything, my main concern is adhesion - I'll level everything out but definitely want the plaster to stay on the walls.

-Adam