lumpy bumpy ceilings

[C]

Hi,

I'm a first time house-owner and being swamped by the amount of stuff that needs doing.

One thing is the bedroom ceiling...it obviously needed redecorating as it was made up of layers of accumulated paint 2-3mm thick, apart from patches here and there where the previous occupant had started to peel off the layers, given up and just painted a single layer over it all. His efforts were starting to peel and flake as he hadn't bothered to seal the dusty old grey plasterboard the ceiling is made from, and the edges between the thick old layers and new layer was really obvious.

I had to remove the paint which came off pretty easily, but in doing so I now find that there are thick patches of polyfiller everywhere - waaaay too much was used to cover the cracks so I can't sand it down - so all in all I have a really bumpy ceiling. I've tried chipping away at teh excess, but the plasterboard is quite old and I'm doing about as much harm as good.

How can I get a surface suitable for painting on? I'm not after perfectly flat, just something that won't obviously show up the lumps and bumps.

I can't afford a new ceiling, and even getting someone to skim it may be pushing it as I've just had to unexpectedly fork out for a new boiler. To make matters more difficult, it's a top floor flat so 1/4 of the ceiling is sloping so overboarding it all is tricky.

Will covering the ceiling with 1000 grade lining paper cover the worst of it?

[canny]

Hi.
Remove loose paint, then give ceiling a good coat of PVA. Then use something like jointing compond(adhesive) or something like 'smoothover', apply to the depressed areas first until they are level with the remainder of the ceiling. Then spread filler over ceiling using a caulking blade. (Large plastic filling knife ), Applying 2 to 3 coats, what ever is needed. Then sand if needed :D