help needed!!

[mp3foci]

hi,
i need some help/advice please...
i stupidly agreed to give me mother a hand to strip the paper from the walls with the intention of giving the walls a quick sand then paint...
sounded ok in theory!!
done mine, turned out fantastic.
however, its taken me 3 days to strip the paper from the walls, with a proper steamer, it was nigh on impossible. (just an average lounge and dining room, ex council house)
anyways, on the plaster, there is this horrid yellow chalky type paint, what is it??
am i right in thinking its limewash?? if so, what the easiest method of removal please guys??
i had a go in a small area to sand it off but i will go through 100's of sheets of sand paper...is there an easier less time consuming way??
appreciate any help

 

[mp3foci]

dont know if this helps, but when wet it gets quite tacky like!!
the house was built around the 50's.

 

[dcdec]

Its distemper, it fits with the chalking and being a 50's built council place.

I'd give it a coat of shellac based zinsser bin and then apply whatever finish you're going for. The process of washing the paste off the walls will help a little as well, but you wont get anything to stick to it without a binder/sealer coat. Probably explains why the paper was so hard to get off as whoever did it probably stuck a ton of PVA in the paste.

 

[misterhelpful]

Sounds as if it is distemper. The stickiness could just be paste residue but may be that PVA was used to seal it prior to the papering.
You can clean the distemper and paste with warm soapy water and a lot of elbow grease. PVA is another matter!
The simplest solution is something like Dulux primer sealer or one of the Zinsser products, such as Gardz.
Not the nicest job, but it needs to be thoroughly cleaned and well sealed if you only intend to paint.

EDIT

sorry dcdec, you beat me to it!

 

[opps]

Follow TheDec's advice and do not be tempted to just emulsion over it- if you do you will find that as you roll, the new emulsion will crack and lift off.

It is worth noting that that BIN can be tinted, thus you can use it as a finish coat if you wish. It will give you a very durable low sheen finish, albeit one that will be damaged by alkali solutions such as ammonia.

 

[TheDec]

Opps,

It wasn't me it was dcdec.

Dec

 

[opps]

Mea Culpa

Sorry to both *****Decs

 

[TheDec]

Forgiven!

Dec

 

[Nige F]

low sheen finish, albeit one that will be damaged by alkali solutions such as ammonia.

don`t let the cat spray against it