Water. It is in my basement, and I had no real way to deal with the fumes of oil-based primer. Only one very small egress window. I used Kilz 2.

Bummer, because oil is what you probably need to use. What is likely happening is the water in the drywall mud is loosening up the paper. A solid layer of oil based primer will prevent that. 4 out of 5 times the acrylic primers will do the job, but for stubborn stuff like that you gotta go oil.

as i posted before, you NEEDED to use OIL based primer. That is why it bubbled.

I'm glad over-head posted his stuff...confirmed what I would have done. Just mud it and be done with it.

Okay, well, any suggestions on how to use the oil primer in a non ventilated area without killing myself or my pets?

Key point. I carry spray kilz oil in a can for crap like this. Never occurred to me that he might use a water base primer because I've never really used one. My fault.

I'm not certain but I think a specialty paint store has an additive that will neutralize that. Either that or just use a respirator. You can buy a respirator pretty cheaply and it's not like those fumes forever.

I used the Gardz Problem Surface Sealer. It will seal under the torn paper and won't bubble up.

Not really, I've had plenty of success with Kilz2 in this sort of application. Once in a while I'll have to go back over some areas a few times, and once in a very great while it simply won't work and I have to break out the Original Kilz.

There's the rub. Lots of different techniques for various problems. Sometimes your tried and true works and sometimes it doesn't. Then you dig deeper into the bag of tricks. I the people who work with me a roadmap and point to the destination for our projects. If they are more efficient utilizing a different technique than I would use myself, that's fine with me. More than 9 ways to skin a cat... errr, I love mixing metaphors.