Wall preparation question

[Espo]

So we just moved into a new house and we are trying to make some updates. We've removed all the wallpaper and the walls underneath look pretty good. The kitchen however shows evidence that there was once tile on the wall. There looks like like old grout still on the wall that seems like it was covered with joint compound and sanded before the wallpaper went up. We want to pain this room and my question is, what is the best way to remove this textured material to get the wall smoothed out and ready for paint?

Thanks for any help.

[HayZee518]

Whoa! No easy fix for this! The base material is sheetrock. tile was applied I assume with a glue - mastic. between the tile is grout which is cement based. Nopw you have textured sheetrock mud. other than tearing down the old sheetrock and putting up new, I'm afraid there isn't much you can do. the thickness of the original sheetrock is now at least a quarter of an inch thicker. You can try a "skimcoat" that is a thinned out mixture of sheetrock mud and water but you are just adding to the thickness. Your call.

[plasterguy]

As HayZee518 says, skimming is your best choice. Since it was skimmed once before, just apply another layer, just as thin as you can, to hide any remaining defects, then when dry give your new material a good coat of PVA primer. When that dries, you're ready to go for paint.