Do the walls need skimmed? If so,yes you have the steps right,2 finish coats,please and sand and clean before priming

Thanks for your advice, Christophern. The professionals want to spackle, skim where needed and then use primer. I'm still getting estimates.

I'm also getting quotes for having wallpaper removed and having the walls painted. The painter I met with today outlined this same process, but he said he uses Zinnser Cover-Stain rather than GARDZ. What is the difference between the two? Is one better than the other?

In case it's relevant to answering these questions, my project is to have one wall of wallpaper removed in my bedroom, then have all four walls painted a cream color. The three walls that are currently painted are now a brighter yellow. The wall with the wallpaper was sized and properly prepared before it was wallpapered. Prior to this wallpaper, it had been painted.

Thanks for any advice!

Cover Stain is oil based and Gardz is water based. Many painters use oil based primers to lock down residual wallpaper paste. It's probably because they don't know about Gardz or they don't believe that anything water based will work to lock down the paste. Before I found out about Gardz I was using oil based primers too. One is not better than the other I don't think...they both accomplish the same thing. But, oil based paints are smelly.

Thanks for your reply. He didn't seem too familiar with Gardz but he said he didn't think it was oil based, so maybe he was concerned that a water based primer wouldn't work. I appreciate your input about the two primers being the same, other than one smelling worse than the other. If that's the only difference, I know which one I want to use.