Bathroom paint peeled off walls! Please Help

Keatgsr07

My wife and I just moved into our first home and are super excited and wanted to get some painting done before we moved in. We taped the bathroom and began prepping to put a new color down. As we worked to get our tape straight, we began to notice some of the latex paint peel up. As the was happening I encouraged my wife to peel it away (figuring we'll need to get the bubbling paint out of the way before a coat of fresh paint). Well as you can see in the pictures, a lot of paint came up, with very little effort. For what its worth, we know that this bathroom was done recently (within five years), and as we peeled away the paint it was clear that the problem started in each instance where the previous owner/contractor didn't wipe the mud clean after sanding, leaving the wall dusty and nothing for the paint to adhere to.

So what do we do now? I have Zinnser 123 and am ready to coat the entire drywall space in the bathroom, peeled paint or not, but is that enough? Will we have a problem down the road with the paint, and worse mold or water problems created by painting over exposed drywall?

I appreciate any and all advice, this is my first post to the forum but have been a reader for a while now.

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CopperClad

Does the bathroom not have an exhaust fan??

Keatgsr07

Yes it does, theres a full window as well.

CopperClad

I can't tell what it is but that doesn't even look like sheetrock behind the paint.. Unless when you peeled the paint off the outer white paper of sheetrock pulled off with it. you most definitely can't just paint the wall as is..

Keatgsr07

Yes, that cardboard look is from some of the drywall paper also being peeled off.

My thought is that I sand the walls smooth, clean, paint with Zinnser 123 primer, allow to dry and paint?

Question being, will the primer and paint (2 coats) be enough over paperless drywall in a bathroom? What are my options?

CopperClad

Some of the paper? You got yourself one fine mess sir. The outer layer of the drywall is there for the primer/paint. You need a layer of joint compound there or it is going to look like crap and you are going to hate yourself.