The house is 10m wide, so extra steel beams will be needed to take the span of the ceiling and the loft floor above.

These require 4 columns rising up in line with the passage way with columns above.

The columns need to attach to the 2 PFCs at right angles to the large U beam, and stand on top of 2 columns in the middle of the back wall.

The main problem for me at this stage is that I need to allow for this while laying down the floor boards over the purlins I am installing

At the same time - I do not want to install the columns yet - just have a level, uninterrupted expanse of flloorboard.

I was going to weld in a 300 mm stub for each column and then weld on extensions at a later stage

Ross suggested that instead I weld down 75mm high sockets in to which the columns can later be inserted and welded off

I like this idea - a very neat, tidy and strong solution.

I took some 75 mm x 6 mm flat plate around to Tony M and he built them for me

Two weeks later - Ross welded them in to position