Assign one person to pull the welded wire mesh up to half the depth of the slab while the concrete advances. The slab can be screeded and troweled in the normal manner, but keep the blades of the power trowel away from the tubes where they stick up out of the slab. Most thin slabs add 12 to 18 pounds per square foot to the dead load of the floor. This may require larger floor joists or narrower joist spacing than a conventional floor. Most builders install wooden sleepers beneath the front and side edges of the cabinets, and block up toilet flanges with plywood shims.
Underlayments can be gypsum or portland-cement based.
If you can't find an applicator, you can substitute a portland cement-based concrete that's mixed with a superplasticizer. Depending on where you live you could pay only half as much for concrete as you would for gypsum, including labor. You'll need to give your redi-mix plant a recipe, which you can get from your tubing manufacturer. Siegenthaler says to make sure your crew can handle at least 4 cubic yards in no more than an hour. You'll also need to put some type of bond-breaker over the plywood deck and wherever the edges of the slab meet a wall or other fixed object.