In article ,
John Rumm writes:
James Amor wrote:

I had thought about it, but I'd like to keep the amount of time the bathroom
is out of use to a minimum and I don't really want to have to wait for

The render need not be that thick, so will be dry enough to tile in a
couple of days.

IME, it will need longer than that. Tile adhesives usually specify
the background must be completely dry.

render to dry. Also, I'm not sure if I could manage to get it flat enough to
tile!

Do like I did and cheat ;-)

Stick a batten either side to set the depth, then all you need do is
slap the stuff up and rule it off against the battens. Once you are
happy that it is level enough (final tweaking can be done at adhesive
spreading time), let it go off a bit and pop the battens out, and fill
in the gaps.

Also, after the first stage cement setting is complete (~12 - 24 hours),
you can go over the surface with a wooden or plastic float to "sand" it
flat if you didn't manage to lay it down flat in the first place.
This won't give you a polished surface (actually, it will destroy any
polished surface you have), but it will be fine for tiling over.

--
Andrew Gabriel