I had a drywall guy come in and skim coat my textured ceiling in my living room. He did a terrible job, leaving thousands of pin holes and more waves than the Pacific ocean. I complained and now he refuses to come back.

I'm left two choices: hire someone else to come in and do another skim coat or two, or just put new drywall up and be done with it. I'm leaning towards the new drywall, and I'm thinking that 1/4" should be fine. Anyone done this?

Thanks

I think I would leave that to the person doing the work, with the specification, "The ceiling has to be flat".

The pin holes are easy to fix, just another light coat. You get pin holes when you hold you knife to flat. When you hold the knife to flat, air gets pressed into the mud and creates the pin holes. Knife needs to be at about a 45 degree angle when smoothing.

Did the original guy remove the textureing or just try to smooth over. If he just tried to smooth over it, and if it's very bad, it I would probably go with a new sheet of drywall.
I have use 1/4 drywall to cover old, uneven walls but never on a ceiling. If you are going to use it on a ceiling I would specify that lots of glue would be used between the joist. Especially if the ceiling joist are 24" on center. 1/4" drywall on a ceiling, screwed on 24" centers is almost certain to sag. Screwing the new drywall to the old won't work, has to be screwed to the joist. Lots of adhesive between the joist will glue the new to the old.