Skim coat

Custom Drywall Svc.

the shellac dries in like....45 mins :P

rayjhd

Look We do this every day. We remove wall paper and skim and paint. The time tested and trust me the easiest way is this.
Remove all the wall paper, go to home depot or some other rental place and rent you a porter cable drywall sander. Sand the entire wall with 80 grit. Then seal the walls before anything else with good sealer. Then skim and sand till smooth. seal with cheap sealer. Then the secret to all good drywall Firstcoat. Usg ruco and any other drywall store will have it. It removes the shine from the skim and fills small imperfections. It can also be sanded if you want your walls smooth as a babys bottom. This has been my only job for the last three years so we learned to get good at it
hope it helps

Bill from Indy

you may check your local sherwin williams for a product called drywall conditioner...it works like gardz but may be cheaper in larger quantities.

if you don't have a lot of prep to do, spraying would be a lot faster. But if you have a lot of ceilings and doors to mask off, it may be just as fast to pay a grunt to roll in front of you and use a rubber knife.

.75/sf is fair if you don't have a lot of repair work to do first. If you have to prime whole area or do a lot of conditioning (gardz), I would go a buck personally