the walls are a mess

[tillynow]

Ok. I'm new at this , I've read alot but nothing has prepared me for this new mess. My new house was built in 1937. Not too sure what the walls are but I can say that the wallpaper came off hard. 3, 6 hour days to be exact for a 10x10 room. Lots of scraping and soaking. The problem is , not only did the paper eventually come off, but several layers of brown paper too. None of it is even-I tried to sand it -that just made a bigger mess. What can I do to even the walls out so I can procede forward.
Any suggestions would be great.-I have no idea what kind of paper it was--just old.:help:
cindy

[Cliff Hayes]

You'll need to seal the mess on the walls before you can proceed with skim-coating them. The Zinsser company makes a water-based drywall sealer called Guardz. It is watery and a little messy to apply with a roller, but it will lock down the torn paper, which you will need to do before spackling. Guardz can be purchased at a paint store, such as Sherwin-Williams. You probably won't find it at a hardware store since it's a specialty product.