cheers for the quick responces,
thanks everyone for the tip on backer board, seen the stuff before but never thought of it . cheers too David for the video link. really useful

do you always screw it as well as bed with adhesive, what notch do you use?
Where can I obtain it from and how much is it in comparrison to ply?
What sort of cost per square metre do tilers charge on average to fix ply or backer board.
thanks again,
Steve