It's very hard to get going any earlier due to the cold.

The first job was to carefully weld on all 14 cleats without distorting the beam.

As part of this work I also used the steel brush on the angle grinder to clean away any rust and flaking paint before treating with rust converter.

While giving the rust converter some time to act I cut and welded in supporting corner braces for the corner column and house corner.

Next I washed off any residual converter and applied zinc primer to one side.

I'm hoping to paint the other side in the next few days.

A bit of dinner and then home by 7.00 pm.

Sunday

I nipped out at 4.30 pm and painted the other side of the beam with zinc primer.

Monday

I cut six slices of some large diameter scrap pipe to form the centre turnbuckles of the bracing for the front columns.

Tuesday

I cleaned the rings and painted them with zinc primer.

Wednesday

I cut up four sections of PFC 180 to use as bolt down brackets for the bracing.

Later in the day I drilled 10mm holes to take the dynabolts and 12 mm holes to take the bracing rods.

Thursday

I sliced off one web on each PFC to effectively turn the pieces in to large angle brackets.

Then a good scrub down with sugar soap before zinc priming each piece.

Friday